Secondary pre-service teachers’ perceptions of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK): What do they really think?

Abstract

Meaningful integration of digital technology into learning and teaching is ill-structured, complex, and messy. Inherent in the complexity is the interaction between the different domains of teacher knowledge. The multifaceted problem is further compounded by the diversity of learners and technology in today's dynamic classroom contexts. Pre-service teachers often feel ill-prepared to plan for effective technology integration in their classrooms. Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) has provided educators with a theoretical framework to unpack the complexity of technology integration. It sits at the heart of three interrelated components: content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and technological knowledge. These knowledge areas interact, support, and constrain each other. This study investigated secondary pre-service teachers' perceptions of TPACK. Data were collected through an online survey and interviews. Following a brief introduction to TPACK, this article explores secondary pre-service teachers' perceptions of TPACK and its components, along with their professional learning needs for TPACK development. Implications for teacher education programs are also provided.

Course design features influencing preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in their ability to support students’ use of ICT

“…It is probable that the PSTs reported this higher confidence level in the more generally-used ICTs due to previous exposure to them in their schooling or previous work experience. This finding mirrors the results of a study conducted by Redmond and Lock (2019) that reports "even those [PSTs] with very high levels of comfort provided examples that were limited to generic software…" (p. 49).…”

“…The course content and use of action plans in the assessment tasks created structured opportunities for PSTs to engage in learning that focused on these technologies (see Table 6). In particular, the course structure explored how these technologies are used in the Research (Redmond & Lock, 2019;Tondeur et al, 2017;Albion, 2014;Tondeur et al, 2012) suggests that there is a gap between what PSTs are taught in their initial teacher education program and how practicing teachers are expected to use technologies in their classrooms. It is therefore imperative that Education lecturers who teach education technology courses contribute to meaningful change by effectively developing PSTs' TPACK and integrating experiential learning in hands-on activities using ICDRT into teaching programs.…”

“…As a result, a 'wicked problem' (Mishra & Koehler, 2007) has emerged as research continues to reveal that effective teaching has become even more challenging with the introduction of digital and robotics technologies. The research problem identified in this paper is that PSTs feel ill-prepared to effectively plan for and use information, communication, digital and robotics technologies (ICDRT) in their classrooms (Redmond & Lock, 2019;Tondeur, Scherer, Siddiq et al 2017;Tondeur, van Braak, Sang et al, 2012).…”

Investigating the impact of TPACK development course on pre-service science teachers’ performances

“…After examining studies conducted on TPACK during the early years, it is seen that researchers focused on defining the concepts of TPACK (Cherner and Smith 2017;Mishra and Koehler 2006;Niess 2005;Swallow and Olofson 2017) and determining the relationships between the concepts (Ay et al 2015;Lin et al 2013;Tondeur et al 2017). Later, researchers moved on to determining the perceptions and competencies of PSTs regarding TPACK using existing measurement tools and developing new ones (Akyuz 2018;Hechter 2012;Jen et al 2016;Lee and Tsai 2010;Lin et al 2013;Redmond and Lock 2019;Schmidt et al 2009;Tokmak 2013;Yeh et al 2015Yeh et al , 2017. In recent years, researchers have focused on the development of TPACK in PSTs using various strategies, such as lesson plans, training courses, lesson presentations, peer coaching, and real-class experience (Cheah et al 2019;Dalal et al 2017; Jang 2010; Jang and Chen 2010; Koh and Divaharan 2011; Lee and Kim 2014; Lu and Lei 2012;Özgün-Koca et al 2011;Tseng et al 2019;Valtonen et al 2015).…”

Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions of Their Abilities to Teach Students with Special Needs by Integrating Technology in Their Classrooms

“…This suggests that teacher educators and the college administrators have to support pre-service teachers in their learning to integrate technology, including modelling technology integration, providing both formal and informal learning opportunities to develop technological knowledge and skills, and helping pre-service teachers understand the link between technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge. Researchers have therefore recommended that preservice teachers can better understand technology integration through the development of TPACK (Redmond & Lock, 2019) which should be an important element of teacher-training programmes (Batane & Ngwako, 2017).…”