Mind Over Tech: The Interplay of Teacher Immunity and Metacognition in Shaping EFL Teachers' TPACK for Online Education

The rapid shift to online education has made Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) a crucial competency for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. However, existing research has primarily focused on technical and institutional factors, leaving a significant gap in understanding the role of teachers’ internal psychological and cognitive attributes. As such, the current study examined how EFL teachers’ immunity and metacognition impact their TPACK in online education. Using a quantitative, correlational survey design, we collected data from ۱۱۲ Iranian EFL teachers through validated questionnaires measuring immunity, metacognition, and TPACK. To analyze the data, we employed partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypothesized relationships. The results confirmed that both immunity and metacognition significantly predicted TPACK. These findings highlight the importance of teacher immunity and metacognitive strategies in online environments. This suggests that teacher training programs should incorporate the development of these psychological and cognitive skills to enhance TPACK competencies, particularly in online and hybrid learning settings.

Keywords:

Teacher immunity , Metacognition , TPACK , Online Education , Teacher psychology