TPACK

TPACK (in full, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) attempts to identify the nature of knowledge required by teachers/lecturers for technology integration in their teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted and situated nature of teacher/lecturer knowledge.

At the heart of the TPACK framework, is the complex interplay of three primary forms of knowledge:

• Content (CK)
• Pedagogy (PK)
• Technology (TK).

The TPACK framework builds on the idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge from Shulman.

The TPACK web site is at http://www.tpack.org/

Origin

Definitive descriptions of TPACK can be found in Mishra & Koehler (2006).

• Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A new framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record 108 (6), 1017-1054, http://punya.educ.msu.edu/publications/journal_articles/mishra-koehler-tcr2006.pdf

This states:

Research in the area of educational technology has often been critiqued for a lack of theoretical grounding. In this article we propose a conceptual framework for educational technology by building on Shulman’s formulation of ‘‘pedagogical content knowledge’’ and extend it to the phenomenon of teachers integrating technology into their pedagogy. This framework is the result of 5 years of work on a program of research focused on teacher professional development and faculty development in higher education. It attempts to capture some of the essential qualities of teacher knowledge required for technology integration in teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted, and situated nature of this knowledge. We argue, briefly, that thoughtful pedagogical uses of technology require the development of a complex, situated form of knowledge that we call Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK). In doing so, we posit the complex roles of, and interplay among, three main components of learning environments: content, pedagogy, and technology. We argue that this model has much to offer to discussions of technology integration at multiple levels: theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological. In this article, we describe the theory behind our framework, provide examples of our teaching approach based upon the framework, and illustrate the methodological contributions that have resulted from this work.

TPACK - integration

(sourced from http://www.tpack.org)

The TPACK approach goes beyond seeing these three knowledge bases in isolation. On the other hand, it emphasizes the new kinds of knowledge that lie at the intersections between them.

Considering P and C together we get Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), Shulman’s idea of knowledge of pedagogy that is applicable to the teaching of specific content.

Similarly, considering T and C taken together, we get Technological Content Knowledge (TCK), the knowledge of the relationship between technology and content.

At the intersection of T and P, is Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), which emphasizes the existence, components and capabilities of various technologies as they are used in the settings of teaching and learning.

Finally, at the intersection of all three elements is Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). True technology integration is understanding and negotiating the relationships between these three components of knowledge. A teacher capable of negotiating these relationships represents a form of expertise different from, and greater than, the knowledge of a disciplinary expert (say a mathematician or a historian), a technology expert (a computer scientist) and a pedagogical expert (an experienced educator). Effective technology integration for pedagogy around specific subject matter requires developing sensitivity to the dynamic, [transactional] relationship between all three components.

History of TPACK

TPACK is not a brand new idea. A range of other scholars have argued that that knowledge about technology cannot be treated as context-free, and that good teaching requires an understanding of how technology relates to the pedagogy and content. The TPACK framework is gaining popularity amongst researchers and scholars. This makes tracking the progress of TPACK difficult but there is a relatively comprehensive list of References to TPACK in the research literature (going back to 1998).

Those involved

The TPACK framework represented here is the result of an on-going design experiment being conducted by Matt Koehler & Punya Mishra and has involved many other people as well (co-conspirators include Kathryn Hershey, Lisa Peruski, Aman Yadav, Kurnia Yahya, and Yong Zhao).

Uses

TPACK is best considered not as a benchmarking system, rather as a framework (compare MIT90s) for constructing staff-related schemes for benchmarking e-learning.

References

These have been usefully collected in the Mendeley group http://www.mendeley.com/groups/522011/tpack/ - this is particularly convenient for VISCED since Mendeley holds many VISCED-related groups.

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