Using TPACK, what a challenge! (3)

The process of designing a course as an educational designer

The last few weeks I felt what it is like to design a lesson from the role of an educational designer. In the previous years of my study I took this role several times before, but this was the first time I based it on the TPACK framework. TPACK is not a design-model, it is a framework. A framework that is useful to integrate ICT to adopt new approaches to instruction. When me and my teammates started our project the role of the TPACK framework did cause some confusion. We had to design a lesson, but were provided with a framework instead of a designing model. I believe using a framework such as TPACK is a really nice way of designing, but I felt I had to get used to how to approach it at first. I noticed I found it rather difficult to determine the exact role as an educational designer. We struggled with questions such as; how much we should go into detail in the design of the lesson, Should we take it to a instructional level, or more stay into the curriculum-level of the lesson? Although it is only one lesson, it is still possible to look at it from a curriculum view for instance on the micro-level (and meso). And what about further implementation? Should it “just” stay with this one lesson, or should we provide a plan for implementing more than just this one lesson? This lesson could for instance be seen as an example of how teachers can teach certain content with a pedagogical approach supported with technology. This way ICT can maybe even get more integrated to adopt new approaches to instruction within the school...

The process
We had to design a lesson for a physics or science course in primary education. We chose to design a lesson that would fit within Key Learning Goal 42 (defined by the Dutch Ministery of Eduation & Culture in 2006).

Key learning goal 42: Learners learn how to investigate materials and physical phenomena, like light, sound, electricity, power, magnetism and temperature.

We decided we wanted to design a lesson to learn about the subject "Electricity". Based on the sub-goals that are stated for primary education on the subject electricity we chose one sub-goal to achieve in our lesson. When defining the context we had stated that the lesson should be suitable for grade 5/6 in the Dutch primary education. Within the subject Electricity in primary education, the sub-goal defined for grade 5/6 was appointing to the fact that electricity has a flow in a closed circuit. Our lesson would be about “Electric circuits”.

We formulated learning goals for our lesson to achieve the stated sub-goal, which became the main learning goal of our lesson.
Based on the content-based activity type approach, using the instructional planning startegy (Harris & Hoffer, 2009), we searched for a suitable pedagogical approach after defining the content knowledge needed for the lesson. We decided that inquiry learning could fit with the defined content. Although we had to adjust the content while defining the Pedagogical Content Knowledge (this will be more specified in the next post). Within the TPACK framework the circles are all connected and should be combined, therefore the lesson will be adjusted with every step towards reaching TPACK.

The TPACK-framework exists out of circles, therefore there is not one starting point. I noticed that because of this, it was hard to think in steps (as would be practical with a design-model). Once again it became clear to us, that we should really see it as an Framework and not as a design model.
We tried to choose a technology that was suitable within the Pedagogical Content Knowledge. From there we changed certain activities in the lesson. We decided to use a WebQuest, which suited inquiry learning and it is a clear way of providing the content.
Although at first the TPACK framework caused some confusion, it eventually became more clear how we could approach it. Specially when we started using the instructional planning strategy, we noticed that the “ puzzle-peaces” got on the right places. We had been considering to define the Pedagogical Content Knowledge after defining the Content Knowledge, but we were unable to give a good explanation of this choice. As an educational designer it is really important to explain decisions about the design, so we wanted and needed to have good arguments for our choice to go from CK to PCK. Using the instructional planning strategy gave us insight in using this order according to reach TPACK.