Teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Learning Activity Types: Curriculum-based Technology Integration Reframed

Source: Journal of Research of Technology in Education, Volume 41 Number 4, (Summer 2009).

In this article, the authors critically analyze extant approaches to technology integration in teaching. The authors argue that many current methods are technocentric, often omitting sufficient consideration of the dynamic and complex relationships among content, technology, pedagogy, and context.

They recommend using the technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework as a way to think about effective technology integration, recognizing technology, pedagogy, content and context as interdependent aspects of teachers’ knowledge necessary to teach content-based curricula effectively with educational technologies.

The authors offer TPACK-based “activity types”, rooted in previous research about content-specific activity structures, as an alternative to existing professional development approaches. They also explain how this new way of thinking may authentically and successfully assist teachers’ and teacher educators’ technology integration efforts.