Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) attempts to identify the nature of knowledge required by teachers for technology integration in their teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted and situated nature of teacher knowledge. At the heart of the TPACK framework, is the complex interplay of three primary forms of knowledge: Content (CK), Pedagogy (PK), and Technology (TK)(Mishra & Koehler,2006). The TPACK framework was designed by building on Shulman’s idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (1994) .
Reproduced by permission of the publisher, © 2012 by tpack.org
Shulman reveals an underlying issue in education that seems to resonate particularly in the field of STEM education. He describes the missing paradigm of content knowledge in today’s education system.
What are the sources of teacher knowledge? What does a teacher know and when did he or she come to know it? How is new knowledge acquired, old knowledge retrieved, and both combined to form a new knowledge base?
We assume that most teachers begin with some expertise in the content they teach. (this may be an unfounded assumption, and the consequences of varying degrees of subject matter competence and incompetence have become a serious topic of our research as well.) (Shulman, 1994)
When we extend this issue to the TPACK model it reveals a great deal of insight toward the issue I framed in
STEM Teachers are Falling Behind by Not Staying Up to Date With the Level of Technology in the World Today.
Effective technology integration for pedagogy around specific subject matter requires developing sensitivity to the dynamic, transactional relationship between these components of knowledge situated in unique contexts. Individual teachers, grade-level, school-specific factors, demographics, culture, and other factors ensure that every situation is unique, and no single combination of content, technology, and pedagogy will apply for every teacher, every course, or every view of teaching (Mishra & Koehler,2006).
References:
Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. The Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054.
Shulman, L. S. (1994). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Teaching and learning in the secondary school, 125-133.