TPACK Stories : Schools and School Districts Repurposing a Theoretical Construct for Technology-Related Professional Development

TPACK (Koelhler & Mishra, 2008), a theoretical construct that describes the knowledge that teachers use to teach with digital tools and resources, has flourished in university-­‐based teacher education and research. Increasingly, K-­‐12 schools and districts have also appropriated TPACK in their professional development efforts. This study of seven schools and districts explored how the TPACK construct was understood and used in these K-­12 organizations. Study results revealed the importance of context and professional culture in appropriating the construct; the use of TPACK as a way to connect disparate professional development initiatives; TPACK conceptualized as applied knowledge; and how educational leaders’ beliefs about professional development shape how TPACK is understood and enacted

The Construct is in the Eye of the Beholder: School Districts’ Appropriations and Reconceptualizations of TPACK

Despite debates about the specific parameters of its eight subcomponents, TPACK is generally understood within university-based teacher education communities as the knowledge needed to incorporate technologies—especially digital tools and resources—effectively in teaching and learning. How do professional development providers working within primary and secondary schools and districts conceptualize and operationalize TPACK? Our study of educational technology-related professional development in seven North American schools and districts in seven states/provinces found that educational leaders’ discussion and operationalization of the TPACK construct differs from that of university-based researchers in intriguing and important ways. In these organizations, TPACK was both appropriated to reconnect curriculum and pedagogy with educational technology use after prior technocentric professional development was found to be lacking, and reconceptualized to focus more upon practice than knowledge.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/bookchapters/1004/thumbnail.jp

Instructional Planning Activity Types as Vehicles for Curriculum-Based TPACK Development

Teachers’ knowledge is situated, event-structured, and episodic. Technology, pedagogy and content knowledge (TPACK) – one form of highly practical professional educational knowledge – is comprised of teachers’ concurrent and interdependent curriculum content, general pedagogy, and technological understanding. Teachers’ planning – which expresses teachers’ knowledge-in-action in pragmatic ways -- is situated, contextually sensitive, routinized, and activity-based. To assist with the development of teachers’ TPACK, therefore, we suggest using what is understood from research about teachers’ knowledge and instructional planning to form an approach to curriculum-based technology integration that is predicated upon the combining of technologically supported learning activity types within and across content-keyed activity type taxonomies. In this chapter, we describe such a TPACK development method.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/bookchapters/1005/thumbnail.jp

Planning For Deep Learning Using TPACK-Learning Activity Types

Teaching for students’ deep learning, while rooted in venerable 20th-century educational research and theory contributed by Vygotsky, Dewey, and others, is taking on a new urgency as heretofore theoretical depictions of 21st-century learning are being operationalized in K-12 classrooms. What is the nature of deep learning? What are the pedagogical roles and practices that encourage it? How can we help teachers to plan learning experiences for and with their students that encourage and support deep learning, incorporating the use of digital tools and resources in maximally effective ways? This chapter uses extant literature on deep learning, teaching for deep learning, and recent calls for teachers’ enhanced “pedagogical capacities” (Fullan & Langworthy, 2014) to argue for a reconceptualized use of TPACK-based learning activity types in educational planning for students’ deep learning

Open Educational Resources (OERs) for TPACK Development

We have developed customizable, modularized, TPACK-based online short courses that are designed to help elementary and secondary preservice teachers learn to plan technologically enhanced, curriculum-based lessons, projects, and units. We offer these multimedia materials to teacher educators internationally as open educational resources (OERs) via an attribution/sharealike Creative Commons license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) at http://activitytypes.wm.edu/shortcourse/. In our SITE 2016 presentation and in this paper, we introduce, explain, demonstrate, and discuss these TPACK-based OERs, and our aims in developing, using, and making them available to others. We hope that our efforts will catalyze more widespread sharing and adaptation of TPACK learning materials among teacher educators

TPACK Research with Inservice Teachers: Where’s the TCK?

Researchers are increasingly exploring the development and expression of experienced teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). While the majority of extant studies focus on evidence and growth of TPACK holistically, some have begun to distinguish teacher knowledge in TPACK’s subdomains, including technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) and technological content knowledge (TCK). In reviewing this literature, one pattern has become apparent: teachers’ TPK is documented considerably more often than their TCK across studies that have disaggregated results according to these subdomains. This paper reviews the studies that together illustrate this trend, offering potential explanations and suggestions for further investigation.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/bookchapters/1009/thumbnail.jp

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) in Action: A Descriptive Study of Secondary Teachers\u27 Curriculum-Based, Technology-Related Instructional Planning

How does teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) inform their instructional planning? How can this knowledge be enhanced? In an interpretivist study of experienced secondary social studies teachers’ planning, we sought to discover clues to the nature and development of these teachers’ TPACK-in-action as it was expressed in their planning processes. Comparisons of interview data and planning products before and after engaging in professional development that addressed content-focused, TPACK-based learning activity types (Harris & Hofer, 2009) revealed three primary findings, each supported by participating teachers’ oral and written reflections upon their learning. The participating teachers’(a) selection and use of learning activities and technologies became more conscious, strategic, and varied; (b) instructional planning became more student-centered, focusing primarily upon students’ intellectual, rather than affective, engagement; and (c) quality standards for technology integration were raised, resulting in deliberate decisions for more judicious educational technology use

Differentiating TPACK-Based Learning Materials for Preservice and Inservice Teachers

Teacher educators have long noted differences between preservice and inservice teachers’ knowledge, practice, and professional learning. A small number of studies have compared novice and experienced teachers’ technology integration knowledge, attitudes, and intentions, with mixed results. Most TPACK research has examined preservice and inservice teachers separately. How should TPACK development be differentiated for preservice and inservice teachers? We sought experienced teachers’ perceptions and recommendations about how an online short course that was developed for novice teachers should be changed so that it can facilitate experienced teachers’ professional learning. Data generated and analyzed were focus group interviews, demographics, and written suggestions for changes to the short course’s modules. The participating teachers’ animated and detailed recommendations highlighted the need for differentiated content, sequencing, illustrations of practice, and engagement techniques