Linking Instructors’ TPACK to Motivation and Technostress in Online Teaching

Online teaching in emergency situations can be challenging, potentially undermining instructors’ motivation and increasing their stress. In such contexts, instructors’ teaching knowledge may buffer these negative experiences. Guided by the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, this study examined the roles of different technology-related knowledge – technological knowledge (TK), technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK), and technological content knowledge (TCK) – in instructors’ motivation (perceived task effort cost and emotional cost) and technostress (stress from using technology) during COVID-19 emergency online teaching. Results showed that TK was associated only with emotional cost and technostress, while TPK and TCK were related to all teaching outcomes. Further, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that TCK uniquely predicted all outcomes beyond TK and TPK, highlighting the importance of integrating technology into discipline-specific teaching practices. These findings emphasize the need to unpack TPACK’s components and suggest that professional development should move beyond generic tech training toward content- and pedagogy-integrated approaches.