Preservice teachers' professional knowledge for ICT integration in the classroom: Analysing its structure and its link to teacher education

Abstract

As digitalisation is becoming increasingly important in educational settings, teachers' key competencies – in particular, their professional knowledge regarding the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in the classroom – warrant targeted development. Aside from their general pedagogical knowledge (GPK), teachers’ technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) and technological knowledge (TK) are becoming increasingly necessary for mastering professional teaching-related tasks (as outlined in the well-known technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) model). To date, however, the question of whether these knowledge facets are discrete or interrelated – at least, on the basis of standardised assessments – has remained largely unanswered. In the present study, therefore, a sample of 619 preservice teachers (320 bachelor’s and 299 master’s students in their second semesters) were considered via an online survey with three different knowledge tests. In this article, we investigate hypotheses concerning the structures of those knowledge facets and further hypothesise that initial teacher education learning opportunities relate to preservice teachers’ GPK, TPK, and TK. Our findings reveal that the three knowledge facets can be empirically separated. Master’s students outperform bachelor’s students in all three tests, however, with effects varying from strong (GPK) to medium (TPK, TK). As expected, pedagogical learning opportunities – surveyed through students’ self-reports – directly correlate with GPK. By contrast, technological pedagogical and technological learning opportunities are not correlated with TPK and TK, respectively. We discuss the findings’ implications for future initial teacher education design – in particular, the evident need to update the curriculum to meet the needs of the current era of digitalisation.