The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Framework

The increasingly ubiquitous availability of digital and networked tools has the potential to fundamentally transform the teaching and learning process. Research on the instructional uses of technology, however, has revealed that teachers often lack the knowledge to successfully integrate technology in their teaching and their attempts tend to be limited in scope, variety, and depth. Thus, technology is used more as “ef fi ciency aids and extension devices” (McCormick & Scrimshaw, 2001 , p. 31) rather than as tools that can “transform the nature of a subject at the most fundamental level” (p. 47). One way in which researchers have tried to better understand how teachers may better use technology in their classrooms has focused on the kinds of knowledge that teachers require Abstract In this chapter, we introduce a framework, called technological pedagogical content knowledge (or TPACK for short), that describes the kinds of knowledge needed by a teacher for effective technology integration. The TPACK framework emphasizes how the connections among teachers’ understanding of content, pedagogy, and technology interact with one another to produce effective teaching. Even as a relatively new framework, the TPACK framework has signi fi cantly in fl uenced theory, research, and practice in teacher education and teacher professional development. In this chapter, we describe the theoretical underpinnings of the framework, and explain the relationship between TPACK and related constructs in the educational technology literature. We outline the various approaches teacher educators have used to develop TPACK in preand in-service teachers, and the theoretical and practical issues that these professional development efforts have illuminated. We then review the widely varying approaches to measuring TPACK, with an emphasis on the interaction between form and function of the assessment, and resulting reliability and validity outcomes for the various approaches. We conclude with a summary of the key theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological issues related to TPACK, and suggest future directions for researchers, practitioners, and teacher educators.