An explanation of the TPACK-model

With the uprising use of technology in our society and world, the use of technology in education can not remain. This raises a lot of questions, one of which is how teachers can use technology in their education and what should they take into account by using this? Using technology into lessons, requires knowledge and skills about technology, in addition to all the other skills and knowledge that teachers already have to posses. Koehler and Mishra (2005) state that teachers who want to use technology in an effective way, need to be skilled in three domains: technology, pedagogy and content and theachers have to integrate these three domains. Their model is called TPACK, which stands for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. In this blog I will try to explain this model in my own words.

TPACK- model of Koehler and Mishra, source www.tpack.org

The model consist of three domains, Technological Knowledge (TK) stands for the knowledge about the techology and include how the technology can be used, which possibilities it offers and what it might mean for education. Content Knowledge (CK) stands for the knowlegde about the content. The teacher needs to possess knowledge and skills about the subject, like facts, concepts, backgrounds and theories. Pedagogical Knowledge (PK) includes the pedagogical knowledge about how students learn, which approach can be used to teach, how a lesson can be organised, prepared, be done and evaluated.

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Like the models shown, if just two of the domains will be integrated, we get also overlapping areas in the cirle. Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is about how particular aspects of subject matter can be teached and how to make students understand this.  Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) is about how technology can change pedagogies or how the pedagogy can be supported by it and Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) is about how a tecnology can be used to learn students the subject matter of how content can be changed by the technology.  

Like the name of the model already mentions and like the picture of the model already shows, the center of the model is the most important. It combines all three subdomains and this is where the TPACK arises. To teach with technology, the teacher always needs to have knowledge about those three domains, but most importly, the teacher has to integrate those domains, and has to know how they work together, because they are not distinguishable in a lesson but are interlinked.

Last should be added that all of this, should be seen within the the context. Every school and every teacher is different and every lesson is depending on the composition and level of the students, the schoolculture and organisation and the environment etc. This is why teachers not only need take just the three domains into their account, but also the the context.

I did my best to write an clear, objective explanation of this model. In my next blog I will go on about my ideas about TPACK and the possible added value of it.