Moderated mediation of technostress, TPACK, and growth mindset on competency in interdisciplinary teaching among STEM lecturers

Abstract

As technology becomes deeply integrated into university STEM education, technostress is reshaping interdisciplinary teaching and challenging STEM lecturers’ competency in interdisciplinary teaching (CIT). This study surveyed 405 Chinese STEM lecturers and applied partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine a moderated mediation model. The results showed that technostress had a significant negative effect on CIT (β = -0.373, t = 12.347, p < 0.001) and on technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) (β = -0.271, t = 5.180, p < 0.001). TPACK positively predicted CIT (β = 0.290, t = 5.380, p < 0.001) and partially mediated the technostress-CIT link (β = -0.078, t = 3.540, p < 0.001). Growth mindset (GM) significantly moderated both the technostress-CIT relationship (β = 0.152, t = 6.560, p < 0.001) and the technostress-TPACK relationship (β = 0.223, t = 5.288, p < 0.001), with a stronger buffering effect on TPACK, suggesting that GM plays a greater role in preserving knowledge structures than in directly supporting CIT. These findings validate a novel moderated mediation framework integrating technostress, TPACK, and GM to explain CIT. The results also offer practical implications for designing targeted faculty development interventions in digital learning environments.