Kontkanen, S. (2018). Starting points of pre-service teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK): Introducing a proto-TPACK model (Doctoral dissertation, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland). Retrieved from http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_978-952-61-2808-5/index_en.html  

Abstract:

“This dissertation focuses on pre-service teachers and upper secondary school students as users of Information and communication technologies (ICT) in education from the point of view of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. While the surrounding world and changing school environment requires teachers in training to use ICT meaningfully in their teaching, there is a need to discover how pre-service teachers develop their abilities and knowledge about integrating technology into their studies. The TPACK framework is a widely used theoretical perspective for investigating teachers’ professional knowledge about ICT use in educational settings. TPACK is an important area of research, because until now there has not been a straightforward way to develop teachers’ TPACK in practice. Hence, the aim of this dissertation is to provide insights into the starting points of pre-service teachers’ TPACK, its development and factors influencing its development. 

The empirical research in this dissertation consists of three studies undertaken between the years 2010 and 2016, and published in international research journals. The first two surveys concentrates especially on prior experiences, skills and knowledge of ICT use in education, i.e. the foundation for building up TPACK. In Study I, pre-service teachers (n= 146) were asked to reveal their perceptions of ICT use in education through open-ended questions. Study II explored third-year, upper secondary school students’ (n= 84) perceptions of how they see the use of iPads for teaching and learning based on their three years of experience. The target group, third-year upper secondary school students, was chosen in order to find out what kind of skills and readiness we can expect from pre-service teachers entering teacher training, while it has been reported that school experiences strongly affect pre-service teachers’ beliefs and assumptions about teaching and learning. This was done by collecting empathy-based stories from students and analysing reflective group discussions. The third study discusses experiences of ICT use in teacher education, i.e. the foundation for the development of TPACK in teacher education. Study III, concentrated on pre-service teachers’ (n= 20) experiences of a Second Life experiment during their sex education course as part of their teacher education. The data consist of pre-service teachers’ empathy-based stories and reflective group discussions. All the data in these studies were analysed using qualitative methods. In Studies I and III, the data was analysed using qualitative theory-guided content analysis where the TPACK framework was the guiding theory. In Study I, also some quantitative methods with descriptive statistics were used. In Study II, qualitative thematic analysis was used. 

Results in this dissertation reveal an unsure foundation on which pre-service teachers start to build their TPACK. This implies they have limited scope to realise different technological possibilities and especially a lack of innovative views of technology use in education. There is a general preference for teacher-centred pedagogy, and few ideas about connecting technology, pedagogy and especially content. There is also variation among pre-service teachers’ knowledge in different TPACK constructs. Whereas the results reveal challenges in developing TPACK, they also show that students have a readiness to use ICT in education, and some ideas which can be turned into useful skills. Students’ learning experiences, and modelling of pedagogically justified ICT use, are important means to this end. 

To help pre-service teachers in becoming proficient in connecting technology, pedagogy and content in their teaching, there is a need for a consistent and coordinated model in teacher education. Therefore, results in this dissertation encourage the suggestion that pre-service teachers should be evaluated through a ‘proto-TPACK framework’, which takes earlier experiences of technology, pedagogy and content into consideration, as the basis for professional development towards a more mature TPACK. This dissertation presents ideas for developing teacher education using the proto-TPACK framework based on results from earlier studies as well as results from the three studies in the dissertation.”