Working with TPACK
As stated in the previous post, we have been designing a lesson based on the TPACK framework starting from the Content.
The figure above, shows the three circles which establish TPCK in the middle. The context is not added in this figure, the context in normally presented as a big circle around the three circles (see other posts). I will come to that later on in this post.
Before starting this project, I expected that it would be easier to start from the content knowledge than starting from pedagogical knowledge or technological knowledge. I have to say that I found out rather soon that it was not as easy as thought it would be.
The TPACK-framework exists out of circles, there is not one best order to work from. When writing a report about designing a lesson based on TPACK you have to decide in which order you are going to write, you can not “write in circles”. Me and my teammates had the assignment to start at the content, so we did. We build up our report to finally reach TPCK, the following way:
1. Defining Content knowledge
2. Defining Pedagogical Content knowledge
3. Defining Technological Pedagogical Content knowledge
We soon found out that to reach step 3 (TPCK) we could not approach Content Knowledge, Pedagogical Knowledge and Technological knowledge separately, the circles are all connected to each other, we noticed this while thinking about our strategy. Since we started from the content we decided to use an instructional planning strategy (the activity-based strategy) as described in the article of Harris and Hoffer (2009). In the context we described that the school already used ICT in their educational program, but they wanted to integrate more ICT to enrich the learning and teaching processes within their educational program. The pedagogical approach had to be suitable to teach the content, and the technology had to fit into the defined pedagogical approach to teach the defined content. With ever step we took, the lesson changed and got more developed.
As mentioned in the previous post the content of the designed lesson is about “Electric circuits”. Based on the content, the stated learning goals and the vision of the school, we decided that “inquiry learning” could be a suitable pedagogical approach to teach this content (PCK). I noticed that it is almost not possible to think in the steps as 1,2,3. As said the framework exists out of circles, therefore it is a constant process of going back and forward. I noticed that when I thought about the content and a suitable pedagogical approach I was already thinking about possibilities for a suitable technology. I don’t think it is possible to not-think about it yet at this point. But realize now that this does not matter, since the whole lesson gets adapted with every step towards TPACK. Therefore it would have been possible that the content knowledge would have changed because of the pedagogical content knowledge and that the pedagogical content knowledge would have completely changed because of the use of a certain technology. Our lesson did change with every step. For instance, based on the knowledge about inquiry learning we noticed that it should be better if some parts of the content changed; Within the inquiry learning approach the learners had to explore their own houses for electrical devices which contain electrical circuits. This meant that the content had to be extend with information about the link from theory (about what an electrical circuits is and how it works) to practice (daily use of electrical circuits).
At the next step (from Pedagogical Content Knowledge to Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) the lesson reformed and changed at some points again, since we have used ICT to adopt new approaches to instruction, instead of keeping the same lesson but only make it quicker and faster. This is the reason why teacher will need support when it is getting implemented. Not only technological support in using the technology, but also pedagogical support for the combination of using the pedagogical approach within the technology. The content of the lesson is still based on inquiry learning, but the technology did add some new approaches to the lesson. We have chosen to use a WebQuest. A WebQuest is suitable with the inquiry learning approach. It offers the learners resources where they can find information during their quest. In the process part of the WebQuest the activities are stated, one of the differences with PCK is that the learners can use resources on the internet to look for answers on their predictions, by using simulations they can find out themselves how a electric circuit works, investigate their stated predictions and perform self-evaluation on the WebQuest.
When thinking about the structure we could use, I noticed that it is difficult to not change the starting point form a more pedagogical view. This became clear when we tried to define a context. When defining a vision or strategy of a school, the pedagogical approach of the school is one of the main aspects of the characteristics of the school. Therefore it turned out to be difficult to not get seduced to chose a pedagogical approach first. In this case we had to situate our own context, this was only hypothetically, in real practice the context would already be declared. I can imagine that when you have to design a lesson for a school with a strong vision on a certain pedagogical approach it is hard to start at the Content, instead of the Pedagogy. But on the other hand, TPACK is a framework which remains out of circles, the circles have to be combined. That is why I think in practice the starting point will probably be more intertwined. Our starting point in the assignment was really clear: start from the Content Knowledge, but in practice as an educational designer as well as a teacher you are more restricted to certain precondition, in our case we could define our own preconditions and adjust them to our ideas. Therefore we decided to chose a context with broad possibilities for using a pedagogical approach and in which technology would be accepted.
References:
Harris, J. & Hofer, M. (2009). Instructional planning activity types as vehicles for curriculum-based TPACK development. In: C.D. Maddux, (Ed.) Research highlights in technology and teacher education 2009 (pp. 99-108). Chesapeake, VA: Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education (SITE).
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