Reflection on the design process 02: Opportunities/Challenges of Flexibility and Implications for Instructors

2. The opportunities/challenges of Flexibility

Even though the lesson is complete according to the TPACK model, it still does not help me figure out the problem: Why I felt restricted by the TPACK model while designing? It did offer us the flexibility as we expected.
When I was designing lesson plans in the elementary schools, I used to take the learner’s learning needs and his or her ability as the starting point. In this way, I could take the three knowledge bases into consideration at the same time and integrate them into the TPACK core. Designing lesson plans in this way not only takes less time but also results in effective products which match educational objectives.

Compared with starting from one point of the TPACK model, I think the problem may lie in that the TPACK model focus on what teachers can do. It offers an ideal framework for teachers to enrich each of their three knowledge bases to enlarge the variety of the effective TPACK knowledge integration. However, it is not an instructional designing model which starts from considering learner’s learning needs. Though one may say both pedagogy knowledge and context involve the learner. The model still does not center on the learner. For a more ideal model including the three elements and the consideration of learner’s need, the model could be modified as the following figure.



When setting the context, I also noticed some limitation. Within the context like the Netherlands, there is no fixed curriculum due to the policy of decentralization. Therefore, applying TPACK model to design new lesson plans is feasible for teachers. On the contrary, in some countries like Ethiopia and Turkey, the educational curriculum is set by the government. What is taught is all designed well, which means TPACK model may be used more on the teachers’ professional development so that teachers can apply the designed curriculum better.

The flexibility of this lesson plan mainly comes from the characteristics of online game and the implementation part. With the online game, learners can have more flexibility of time and location. They can practice the content by playing the online game after school. They can play it both in the PC room of school and at home.

During the first phase of implementation, teachers can adjust the designed lesson plan to their needs. They could change the teaching procedure to match the relevant support. They could also increase or decrease the time of online game depending on learners’ learning progress.

3. The implications for instructors
Reflecting on ourselves, the designers, we do not have enough TPACK knowledge bases in order to design a more complete lesson plans. The data in each of our knowledge bases are limited. The situation could be similar to the initiating teacher in our designed implementation phase. Therefore, it is important to have discussion meeting after the tryout and the pilot. Everyone has different professions and experiences, when cooperating together, the three knowledge bases increase their ranges relatively, leading to a larger overlapped core. Considering the enormous effects, educational institute should set a TPACK team, containing professional teachers from each knowledge base to work together for better design. In this way, no matter who has an initiating idea (a starting point), they can discuss and work collaboratively within the TPACK expertise.