What is TPACK ?
As a math coach and member of my school’s leadership team I was in a group that conducted classroom walk-throughs. My role in the group was not that of an evaluator but a teacher supporter and math content advisor to those in the group who were not math oriented. I begin with this because as I was reading through the TPACK articles I could relate much of what what being discussed as necessary for good teaching with the TPACK framework to the classroom visits and feedback discussions with the teachers that occurred after the classroom visit. What I connected to was that among our staff of high achieving teachers we do have some that demonstrate better content knowledge but could improve their pedagogy while others deliver the lesson in a way the students can understand but whose lessons would be enhanced if they knew the content deeper .I hope this makes sense and I don’t mean to generalize but I observed a stronger content in the middle school grades (6-8) and better pedagogy in the elementary grades. That might seem to make sense seeing that the lower grades are teaching many subject areas throughout the day and the upper grades are teaching the same content area multiple times a day.
As a math coach and member of my school’s leadership team I was in a group that conducted classroom walk-throughs. My role in the group was not that of an evaluator but a teacher supporter and math content advisor to those in the group who were not math oriented. I begin with this because as I was reading through the TPACK articles I could relate much of what what being discussed as necessary for good teaching with the TPACK framework to the classroom visits and feedback discussions with the teachers that occurred after the classroom visit. What I connected to was that among our staff of high achieving teachers we do have some that demonstrate better content knowledge but could improve their pedagogy while others deliver the lesson in a way the students can understand but whose lessons would be enhanced if they knew the content deeper .I hope this makes sense and I don’t mean to generalize but I observed a stronger content in the middle school grades (6-8) and better pedagogy in the elementary grades. That might seem to make sense seeing that the lower grades are teaching many subject areas throughout the day and the upper grades are teaching the same content area multiple times a day.
Seeing that my school is moving towards the theme of S.T.E.M we could all benefit from more Professional Development in the area of technology especially while making connections with content and pedagogy. So, I feel this situation and this audience of teachers would serve as a perfect forum in discussing what Mishra & Koehler (2006) detail as the TPACK framework.
Initially I would start with a simple explanation of TPACK (Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge) using the diagram posted below.
We would then watch the 3 minute video on the “TPACK in 3 minutes” video by Royce Kimmons. Discussion would continue with why it is necessary to connect the items in TPACK, how it helps our students and how it relates to best practices in order to improve instruction and student performance. In addition I would refer teachers to the article Mishra & Koehler (2008) for a more detailed explanation of TPACK. Future discussions and sharing of how we are incorporating this framework into our teaching would continue. I think this would be really beneficial to our staff and plan on proposing the idea of working off of the TPACK framework to my school's leadership team in September.
Great overview Beth. I also appreciate your thinking about pedagogy and differences between grades. I think it is an important consideration to keep in mind. How do we bring this learning to students...and what are the best teaching/learning practices to do so.
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