Lyublinskaya, I. (2015). Evolution of a course for special education teachers on integrating technology into math and science. In M. L. Niess & H. Gillow-Wiles (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education in the digital age (pp. 521-547). Information Science Reference. https://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-8403-4.ch020

Abstract:

“This chapter describes a two-year development of a graduate pedagogy course for pre-service special education teachers to integrate technology into teaching mathematics and science. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework was used for the course design. The chapter discusses the modifications made to the course from semester to semester based on the analysis of lesson plan TPACK scores and information drawn from pre-service teachers’ written feedback. The challenge was to determine an optimal balance between theory and practice and between guided and independent learning that leads to higher TPACK gains. Data analysis showed that in a semester when the instructor provided extensive instructional support coupled with a large amount of work required of the pre-service teachers, they achieved the highest TPACK level; however, this design resulted in unreasonable workload. Reducing the amount of work to a reasonable level produced lower TPACK; nevertheless, the gain in TPACK was still significant.”