Examining preservice teachers' perceived knowledge of TPACK and cyberwellness through structural equation modeling

Abstract

This study examined outcomes from an information and communication technology (ICT) course designed on the basis of the meaningful learning framework and general cyberwellness issues. It also examined the relationships among Singaporean preservice teachers' perceptions of the constructs pertaining to technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), and their perceived ability to integrate cyberwellness knowledge when designing web-related learning. Two questionnaires were administered to 668 and 628 preservice teachers before and after the ICT course to elicit the relationships. Five TPACK knowledge constructs (PK, CK, Web 2.0-related TK, TPK, TPACK) and the teachers' cyberwellness knowledge were identified from factor analysis results. The pre-post course surveys indicate that the preservice teachers perceived strong gain in 5 out 6 constructs measured. Additionally, the structural equation model analysis revealed that cyberwellness knowledge contributes significantly to TPK and TPACK, based on the preservice teachers' perception. As such, the study argues that the preservice teachers' confidence to integrate their cyberwellness knowledge into their teaching may play an important role in influencing how they plan and design web-based learning. Cyberwellness knowledge may be an important knowledge component to foster when considering the future development of teachers' TPACK for web-based learning. IntroductionWith the explosion of new advances in information technology and digital devices, the impact of technology changes the way that teaching and learning takes place. As technology becomes more pervasive, the challenge for teachers to integrate technology into instruction is no longer based on the viability of technology-based learning but is shifted to a decision about when to use the technology and how to use it for more effective educational experiences (Neal & Miller, 2006). Recently, innovative webbased technologies and social networking tools (also called Web 2.0 tools) are applied to different teaching contexts by building student-teacher learning communities, sharing educational resources, and enhancing mutual communications that promote constructivist-based collaborative learning approaches (Bull, Hammond & Ferster, 2008;Purdy, 2010). With such approaches, students act as active learners to seek relevant resources, build cognitive artifacts, exchange information and feedback, and complete the assigned tasks collaboratively. The adoption of web-based technologies in academic learning creates an innovative learning environment and establishes Chai, Koh, Ho and Tsai 1001 connection to students' life. Consequently, teacher preparation and development program should investigate how to design effective courses to assist teachers in acquiring knowledge to capitalise upon these affordances in their teaching practices (Ajjan & Hartshorne, 2008).While the web-based technologies provide more efficient access for collaborative pedagogy and have extended tremendous opportunities for learners to enrich the...

Validating and modelling technological pedagogical content knowledge framework among Asian preservice teachers

“…Explicit scaffolds in lesson design could also facilitate the preservice teachers in making the connections between the different forms of knowledge. One such example is provided by Chai, Koh, Ho, & Tsai (2012) where explicit consideration of all factors of TPCK knowledge is integrated into a lesson design guide. Creativity, flexibility and fluency in connecting the knowledge factors as represented by the TPCK framework would require that the preservice teachers have rich repertoire of the knowledge, and they are able to synthesize them for a specific group of learners with specific learning needs.…”

Relationships between Pre-service Teachers’ Social Media Usage in Informal Settings and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

“…This provided evidence that the course helped teachers develop their knowledge in their respective domains. In another study by Chai, Koh, Ho, and Tsai (2012), pre-service teachers reported significant increases in Web 2.0-related TK, PK, CK, and TPACK after completing an ICT course designed to integrate Web 2.0 tools into lessons. Longitudinally, Hofer and Grandgenett (2012) also found significant development of pre-service teacher TPK and TPACK when studying a master's degree programme that contained an educational technology course and teaching method courses that addressed technology use to varying degrees.…”

Exploring the TPACK of Taiwanese secondary school science teachers using a new contextualized TPACK model

“…A number of TPACK surveys have been developed with different groups of participants including pre-service Chai, Koh, Tsai, & Tan, 2011;Koehler & Mishra, 2005;Koh et al, 2010;Sahin, 2011;Schmidt et al, 2009) and in-service teachers (Archambault & Barnett, 2010;Jang & Tsai, 2012). A different number of TPACK sub-components have been found, expanding upon the initial seven TPACK sub-components of the TPACK Chai, Koh, Ho, & Tsai, 2012;Jang & Tsai, 2012). Other researchers have added different domains such as assistive technology and instructional technology (Marino, Sameshima, & Beecher, 2009), as well as design, exertion, ethics, and proficiency (Yurdakul et al, 2012) in the TPACK model, to explore the indepth TPACK of pre-service teachers in contextualized learning environments.…”