What is TPACK?

Figure 2: teachers as 'educational artist' in the
metaphore about TPACK

As mentioned in my last blog post, I think teachers are ‘educational artists’ and do need a creative mind to (for instance) choose the most appropriate pedagogical approach to explain about certain content and to find ways to support their teaching with appropriate technologies.  Koehler and Mishra (2009) developed a conceptual framework that describes the knowledge teachers need to (valuable) integrate technologies into their own practice, based on the key elements highlighted in the previous sentence (Knowledge about Content, Pedagogy and Technology. TPCK for short), shown in figure 1. Considering this framework, the ‘educational artists’ (teachers) have a painting palette with some ‘basic colors’.  These ‘basics colors’ are, just as artists do in painting, mixable and should be mixed to make it fit to the rest of the painting. Figure 2 shows a representation of this metaphor. In this metaphor, the basic colors are content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and technological knowledge (elements of the TPCK model), and the ‘rest of the painting’ is the context teachers teach in. It emphasizes that out of the box thinking (and thus creativity) is crucial by stating that the colors should be mixed, instead of using them (thinking about them) separately. This post is about TPACK*. What is it? And how are teachers supposed to ‘paint’ with it? 

Figure 1: Visual representation of the TPACK model
(http://www.tpack.org/)

As already noted in the introduction of this post, the TPACK model consists of three knowledge domains; ‘technological knowledge’ (TK), ‘pedagogical knowledge’ (PK) en ‘content knowledge’ (CK), which together make four new domains;  ‘technological content knowledge’ (TCK), ‘technological pedagogical knowledge’ (TPK), ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ (PCK) en ‘technological pedagogical content knowledge’ (TPACK).

Content Knowledge is the knowledge about the subject matter that is to be teached (e.g. history), Pedagogical Knowledge is about educational processes, teaching strategies, teaching methods, etc. in which teaching and learning play a central role, and Technological Knowledge encompasses knowledge about what technologies are available, how they work and how technologies can be used to support learning. The four new domains are the result of integrating these three domains with each other.

Technological Pedagogical Knowledge is the knowledge teachers need to use technologies in a pedagogical way. Important here is the teachers’ understanding that teaching and learning can change through the use of these technologies and how technologies can support pedagogies.  Technological Content Knowledge reflects knowledge about the way technology and content are related. Understanding the influence of technology on the presentation of certain content is important here. This works in two ways; the way subject matter changes because of technology and the way technology can support subject matter. Teachers need to be able to choose (the most) appropriate technology for presenting certain content in order to make it transparent and understandable for students. This also works the other way around: not every content is appropriate for a certain technology (e.g. teaching about grammar might not  be as effective when using a calculator). Pedagogical Content Knowledge is the knowledge needed to make content understandable and meaningful for students with different interests and different intellectual levels.   

Integrating all these elements results in Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, shown in the middle of the model. This middle element is about the knowledge needed to integrate content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and technological knowledge in practice in a valuable way.  Teachers need to understand the way in which these knowledge domains are related and how to keep a balance between them (Koehler and Mishra, 2009). For example: students need to make a website about a history subject. To guide this activity, the teacher needs knowledge about the subject matter (CK), about the software the websites are constructed with (TK) and about pedagogies to help students carry out the activity (e.g. making a choice between working in groups or using traditional instruction).

Knowledge and skills needed to integrate technology in practice is more than understanding content, pedagogies and technologies. The same principles are not valid in every specific situation. This means the context should also be accounted for, so the teacher should understand how context characteristics influence technology integration (e.g. student population, ICT infrastructure of a school, etc.).

The artist’s taste

Using technology in a valuable way is not obvious for teachers, as is finding the right balance between the elements from the TPACK model.  This certainly is not an easy job. The TPACK framework is a great step in supporting teachers in integrating technology in their teaching.  Just as artists have their own taste about their work (style, favorite colors etc.), so do teachers. Teachers have for example different opinions and different preferences (Hermans et al., 2008). However, this is not accounted for in the TPACK model, which is purely about knowledge. In addition to the TPACK teachers have, beliefs, attitudes and former experiences that also play an important role. As So and Kim (2009) suggest: owning knowledge is not enough, owning knowledge does certainly not mean the teacher is actually going to use it. Other important factors are for example self efficacy and educational orientation. In the next post I am going to elaborate on the added value of TPACK.

*As you might have noticed, the A is not in the explanation. The change from TPCK to TPACK was done to emphasize the ‘total package teachers need. Next to that TPACK sounds better than TPCK.

References

Hermans, R., Tondeur, J., van Braak, J., & Valcke, M. (2008). The impact of primary school teachers’ educational beliefs on the classroom use of computers. Computers & Education, 51(4), 1499–1509. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2008.02.001

Koehler, M., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70.

So, H. J. & Kim, B. (2009). Learning about problem based learning: Student teachers integrating technology, pedagogy and content knowledge. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 25(1), 101-116.