According to Koehler and Mishra (2009), TPACK is a framework that teachers can use to help them identify knowledge they might need to focus on to be able to teach effectively with technology. It builds upon the work of Shulman's idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). According to Cochran (1997) PCK is a knowledge specific of the teaching field and it is based on the way theachers relate what they know about what they are teaching and what they know about teaching.
TPACK goes beyond the three primary knowledge described by Mishra and Koehler (2009) and refers to the itegration of them:
Pedagogical knowledge (PK): how to teach effectively certain content.
Content knowledge (CK): to be acquainted with the content being taught.
Technological knowledge (TK): to be updated with the latest technologies and how to use them.
This image explains how the components involved in TPACK are related:
Here is a video with a clear explanation of the TPACK framework:
In our case, we have dealt with the First Conditional with students of a fifth year in a State school in Santa Fe. As a final project we will ask students to work with Movie Maker. Here they have to display a series of photographs that show a possible situation and its consequence. Also, they have record themselves saying the corresponding sentence using the First Conditional. While watching the pictures, the class will listen to the recording.
For example:
In our opinion, the TPACK framework is very useful because it implements the use of technology in the classroom and this also allows teachers to be constantly aware of the students' contexts/backgrounds and interests. Regarding our experience using TPACK, it can be said that it was challenging and difficult since we tend to find a resource and then decide what we can do with it. With this framework first teachers have to think about the content they want to teach, then they have to think about how to teach that content and finally find a technological resource that allows the teaching of that content. We can finally say that this framework is very helpful and teachers should really try to implement it.
References:
- Kochran, K. (1997). Pedagogical Content Knowledge: Teachers' Integration of Subject Matter, Pedagogy, Students, and Learning Environments. University of Northern Colorado. Retrieved from https://www.narst.org/publications/research/pck.cfm
