Fostering pre-service teachers’ situation-specific technological pedagogical knowledge – Does learning by mapping and learning from worked examples help?

Abstract

In order to exploit the potentials of digital technology in classrooms, it is necessary to enhance future teachers' situation-specific Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) as manifested in their professional vision (i.e., their noticing and knowledge-based reasoning of technology-enhanced classroom situations). To this end, we differentiate between formal quality (whether pre-service teachers display reasoning steps related to professional vision) and content quality (whether pre-service teachers make adequate use of scientific knowledge) of pre-service teachers' reasoning about technology-enhanced teaching. Based on empirical findings, we hypothesized that learning by mapping would facilitate the content quality and learning from worked examples would enhance both formal and content quality of pre-service teachers’ TPK-related professional vision. We tested these hypotheses with a sample of 252 pre-service teachers who first either read or mapped scientific texts and then either analyzed authentic technology-enhanced classroom cases or received worked examples on how to do so. Results from structural equation modeling demonstrated a positive association of learning with worked examples and content quality, but no relation to formal quality. Learning by mapping even showed rather negative associations with content quality. However, the quality of maps partly functioned as a significant predictor. Possible reasons and consequences are discussed.