TPACK in action: A study of a teacher educator’s thoughts when planning to use ICT

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss how a university lecturer (pseudonym: James) drew on his technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) when planning to integrate technology in teaching. The main purpose of the study was to use real-life planning observations to understand James’s TPACK. The data were obtained through think-aloud sessions in which James planned a course that is offered to undergraduate initial teacher education (ITE) students in a research-intensive Australian university. Chi’s (1997) verbal analysis method was used to analyse verbal qualitative data. The results indicate that a different set of knowledge domains underpinned James’s decisions in each different episode of his planning sessions giving his TPACK a dynamic and context-sensitive nature. We suggest observations of teachers when making actual planning decisions as one of the preferred methods to understand the nature of their TPACK. The study introduces a new approach in understanding how this teacher’s TPACK looks when he drew on various domains of knowledge, by visually presenting the combinations made among knowledge domains.