What is TPACK?

TPACK, an acronym for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, is first introduced by Mishra and Koehler. They revised Shulman’s formulation of “pedagogical content knowledge” by adding technology as the third basic elements.

The goal of TAPCK is to capture some of the essential qualities of teacher knowledge required for technology integration in teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted, and situated nature of this knowledge. (Mishra and Koehler, 2006) Based on the goal, its target subjects are teachers rather than students.

As regards my understanding of the TPACK model, let’s take the group discussion in class for example. The topic of our group is classification of insects taught in biology in the primary school. We started the TPACK model with the three primary forms of Knowledge: Content Knowledge (CK), Pedagogy Knowledge (PK), and Technology Knowledge (TK).

In our discussion, the Content Knowledge (CK) was not clear at first. It was difficult for us to decide the scope of the content knowledge because we got confused at the subject of the knowledge. After we grasped the idea that TPACK focuses on TEACHERs rather than learner, the content knowledge, defined as knowledge of central facts, concepts, theories and procedures, is all the relevant and broader knowledge centered on the theme. Teachers should posses more content knowledge than what is taught to the learners.

As for Pedagogy Knowledge (PK), it is defined as the knowledge that teachers have about the analysis of students learning, classroom management skills, lesson plan development and implementation, and learning assessment. In order to supplement the theme, we expected teachers to have the knowledge of implement at least two pedagogies, inquiry learning and collaborative learning.

The third primary form of knowledge is Technology Knowledge (TK), which requires teachers to have not only the skills necessary to operate particular technologies but also the ability to learn and adapt to new technologies. In this perspective, we expected teachers to have the ability to operate the interactive whiteboard.

According to the model, having these three primary forms of knowledge is not enough to achieve the goal of building up teacher’s knowledge base. Each two of the three primary forms of knowledge interplay with each other, resulting in three combined knowledge: Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), Technological Content Knowledge (TCK), and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK).

Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) means how pedagogies change because of ICT. In the example, we considered inquiry learning to be implemented with the assistance of online surfing, which means teachers are required not only have the knowledge of online surfing but how to integrate it with inquiry learning.

Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) is about how subject matter changes because of ICT. Due to the feasibility of WWW, teachers should also broaden and update their content knowledge by looking for relevant information online. In addition, the presented information can be multiple dimensional by using different technologies such as graphics or animation.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) refers to how particular aspects of subject matter are organized, adapted and represented for instruction. Here in the example, using the inquiry learning and collaborative learning, the content knowledge can then be divided into several study topics for collaborative group working.

At the heart of the model, TPACK emerges from all the three “core” components. It is the complex interplay of content, pedagogy, and technology. This knowledge means teacher is able to teach a specific subject matter by using appropriate pedagogies and technologies. In our example, TPACK means the teacher can consider well how to integrate the three components within the scope of his ability concerning the theme and bring them into the best function.