Developing Preservice Teachers’ Sensitivity to the Interplay Between Subject Matter, Pedagogy, and ICTs

Abstract

Mishra and his colleagues’ notion of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK, renamed as TPACK in Thompson AD, Mishra P, Breaking news: TPCK becomes TPACK! [Editorial]. J Comput Teach Educ 24(2):38 & 64, 2007–2008) theorizes that the required knowledge for teachers to teach with information and communication technology (ICT) involves comprehensive understanding of the transactional interplay between the subject matter being taught, the pedagogy being used, and the ICT tools being adopted in teaching practice. Aligning with the conceptualization of TPACK, developing preservice teachers’ sensitivity to the interplay between subject matter, pedagogy, and ICT is a key objective for teacher preparation programs. Based on the theoretical framework of cognitive apprenticeship, we propose a 4-phase cyclic MAGDAIRE model (abbreviated from modeled analysis, guided development, articulated implementation, and reflected evaluation) to develop preservice teachers’ sensitivity to the interplay between subject matter, pedagogy, and ICT. MAGDAIRE is subsequently employed to enhance the science teacher education courses of National Taiwan Normal University. The TPACK conceptual framework is adapted as an analytic tool to examine the growth in preservice science teachers’ knowledge about technology integration in teaching. The results of the studies and courses indicate that, within MAGDAIRE, these preservice science teachers’ reasoning on the use of ICT transited toward a more connected model in which ICT is jointly considered with subject matter and/or pedagogy. Moreover, these preservice teachers’ development of TPACK stimulated them to modify their practice. In this chapter, the details of MAGDAIRE and a synthesis of the studies into MAGDAIRE are reported.