Toward Sustainable Integration of Digital Technology in Physical Education: A Teacher-Centered TAM–TPACK Framework for Instructional Design

This study proposes an integrated TAM–TPACK framework that explicates how teachers’ technology acceptance progresses to lesson design and enactment in elementary physical education, using augmented reality (AR) climbing as the focal case. A qualitative case study was conducted with three elementary teachers. Data comprised semi-structured interviews, classroom videos, lesson plans, and satisfaction surveys, and were interpreted through directed content analysis. The findings indicate that perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) systematically informed goal setting, feasibility judgments, and content–curriculum alignment, whereas behavioral intention (BI) shaped pedagogical intent and design decisions. Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) and Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) functioned as core mechanisms that structurally aligned AR functionalities with curricular aims and instructional procedures. Clear correspondences—PU↔TCK, PEU↔TPK, and BI↔TPACK—were identified, conceptually mapping a pathway from technology acceptance to lesson design and classroom enactment. The study advances a concise, empirically grounded, teacher-centered model for digital physical education and underscores the need for standardized adoption criteria, structured professional development, implementation incentives, and equitable access to local infrastructure to support sustained practice as part of a sustainability-oriented digital transformation of physical education systems.