The TPACK Model

The TPACK model:

Teaching is a complex practice which requires integration of different kinds of expert knowledge. The TPACK model endeavors to capture some of main qualities of knowledge for the teachers in order to let them integrate the technology to their teaching as well as taking in hand the complex, many-sided, and situated nature of teacher knowledge. This framework is based on the PCK model of Lee Shulman (1986) (as cited in Koehler & Mishra, 2009), Pedagogical Content Knowledge. As can be seen in Figure 1, at the core of TPACK model, there are three complex primary forms of knowledge and their relations between and among them:

Content (CK), Pedagogy (PK), and Technology (TK).

Figure1- TPACK Model (source: http://tpack.org/)

Content Knowledge (CK) is defined as the knowledge a teacher has about the subject matter s/he teaches.

Pedagogical Knowledge (PK) is defined as the knowledge a teacher has about the ways of how to teach his or her students, how to manage his or her class and how to plan the lessons.

Technological Knowledge (TK) is defined as the knowledge a teacher has about the inclusion of technology in the lessons s/he teach in a useful way. The teacher has also the knowledge of adaptation of new technologies to the courses s/he teaches and therefore being updated with the new technologies.

In the joint of these three main components, there are new types of knowledge that a teacher requires to make the lessons s/he gives much flexible.

Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK): is defined as the change in pedagogy a teacher has with the technology applications in his or her course.

Technological Content Knowledge (TCK): is defined as the change in the subject matter as teacher teaches with the application of technology in his or her course

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is defined as the knowledge of pedagogy for a teacher to know how to organize, adapt and represent for his or her instruction.

And finally TPACK includes all the teacher knowledge with the integration of Content, Pedagogy and Technology.

To sum up, Koehler and Mishra (2009) state that there is no only one best way to integrate the technology into curriculum. It is a difficult job to combine all the knowledge together, and to reach TPACK all the time. For example, the teacher can start with a specific content with a suitable pedagogical approach for the subject matter, but then s/he may not be able to find the appropriate technology to support his or her lecture. However, if a teacher is able to combine these types of knowledge together, s/he can be professional in his or her course.

References:

Koehler, M., J. & Mishra, P. (2009) What is Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Eduaction, 9(1), pp. 60-70.