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Constance Adams
Ontario Tech University
Abstract
Technological literacy has become an important focus within the modern classroom. The integration of technology into a traditional learning environment helps develop meaningful learning experiences and cultivates positive perspectives and relationships with technology. Although technology has become a staple within most classrooms and incorporated into curriculum standards, the integration of technology and technology frameworks or models compete with barriers and limitations based on preconceived perceptions of technology, school culture, and access to technology. This chapter is an introduction to the Technology Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model proposed by Mishra and Koehler. The purpose of this chapter is to briefly summarize the TPACK model and provide examples of how the framework can be integrated into classrooms to ensure the successful incorporation of education-based technologies and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s) and further propose solutions to common barriers and limitations.
Keywords: barriers, education, pedagogy, technology integration model, TPACK
TPACK Model of Integration
The TPACK model is an acronym for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. The Technology Integration model was proposed by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler in 2006 via their text Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge. Their findings build on the Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) framework first proposed by Lee Shulman’s 1986 work, Those Who Understand: Knowledge Growth in Teaching. Shulman’s initial conception of the PCK model focused on the pedagogical context and the content context. The PCK model focuses on how the way educators teach and what they teach need to be equally represented in order to present an optimal learning experience. The PCK model is depicted in Figure 1.
Mishra and Koehler (2006) expanded upon this foundational text by adding the technological impact associated with a more modern learning environment and pedagogical approach (Ling, Chai, & Tay, 2014). The TPACK model highlights areas of overlap between the three core components of technological implementation and integration into a learning environment. The idealized state is where all three of these contexts meet in the combined TPACK competency where technology is successfully incorporated into a learning environment as it meets both the pedagogical and content-based knowledge in a meaningful and useful way for both learners and teachers. Figure 2 illustrates this overlap and the ideal state for technological integration.
Background Information
The TPACK model is expressed through an overlapping Venn diagram where the various knowledges cumulate in the optimal experience where pedogeological, content, and technological knowledges are balanced in the TPACK structure. Each knowledge component has a very important role in the successful integration of technolog