New Media Literacy and Experience as Predictors of Iranian EFL Teachers’ Perceived Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge[Latin Thesis]

Nafiseh Mohammad Soltani

In this media-saturated world of 21st century, media have brought huge impacts in educational systems and more specifically teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Competence in this area, that is, Media Literacy, is now deemed as a necessary skill for English teachers. Additionally, integrating technology effectively in education requires knowledgeable teachers. Likewise, Technological, Pedagogical, Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework provides insights for the teachers to optimize their knowledge in this respect. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which EFL teachers’ Media Literacy and years of teaching experience, as a demographic variable, can predict their TPACK in the Iranian ELT context. This mixed-methods study adopted two sets of questionnaires, including a Media Literacy (Koc & Barut, 2016) survey and a TPACK-EFL (Baser et al., 2015) one as well as a researcher-made semi-structured interview for data collection. To begin with, a pilot administration was run and the reliability was calculated using Cronbach alpha. Then, the questionnaires were distributed among accessible Iranian EFL teachers based on convenience sampling. Finally, 191 participants filled out and submitted the questionnaire. Primarily, the findings showed a significant positive correlation between Iranian EFL teachers’ Media Literacy and their TPACK and their subscales except for Functional Consuming and Content Knowledge (CK). By running a regression analysis, Media Literacy was proved as a predictor for the teachers’ TPACK. Regarding teachers’ experience and TPACK, no significant relationship was found. In addition, 15 EFL teachers’ attitudes participating in the semi-structured interview indicated that the majority of them did not have a clear image of Media Literacy status although they had a very positive attitude towards using media and developing Media Literacy in order to benefit both teachers and students. Implications of these findings for teachers, teacher trainers, and administrators are discussed.