Professional Development for Elementary Teachers Using TPACK

Source: Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 11(2), 167-183. (2011).
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)

The purpose of the study was to determine how learning about the integrated use of technology, pedagogy, mathematics content, and cognitive complexity would affect elementary school teachers' knowledge structure base and help them in constructing instructional units.

Method
The participants were 30 elementary teachers from urban, high at-risk, K-5 schools who were enrolled in a graduate elementary number concepts course.

Teachers were asked after examining websites with high and low fidelity according to criteria to determine a website they could use in the development of their instructional unit that had pedagogical, mathematical, and cognitive fidelity and to justify their choices.

After completing this activity and determining a website that exemplified instruction suitable for conceptual learning in the classroom, the practicing teachers in groups developed an instruction unit.

The class was divided into eight groups, and each group prepared its own instructional unit. On completion groups formally presented their units, discussing their integrated use of mathematical content, pedagogy, and technology.

The instructional units produced by the teachers portray a clear picture of student involvement.
Most of the Web 2.0 tools were pedagogically sound and enabled more time to be spent on the mathematics, communicating and operating mathematical objects.

Websites carefully chosen for their cognitive complexity and mathematical content enhanced learning opportunities.

The uses of pedagogical, mathematical, and cognitive fidelity are viable and discernable components that in the true intent of TPACK embrace a unified framework for the instructional units.

The results of this study suggest that experienced teachers can see the importance of knowledge about pedagogical and mathematical content through their interactions with technology and that they also can find value in the creative and problem-solving capacity of technology.

However, teachers realized that the instructional choices they make are not easy, and inequities in technology exist in schools that may limit their ability to commit to TPACK.