Science Teachers’ Proficiency Levels and Patterns of TPACK in a Practical Context

Abstract

Technological pedagogical content knowledge-practical (TPACK-P) refers to a unified body of knowledge that teachers develop from and for actual teaching practices with information communication technologies (ICT). This study attempted to unveil the longitudinal and multidimensional development of knowledge that teachers possess by interviewing 40 teachers with various backgrounds in subject content, years of teaching experience, and related award-winning records. An automated cluster analysis was used on the codes given to teachers’ responses based on their proficiency levels in different knowledge areas. Three different types of teachers with distinctive features were identified: technology-infusive (TI), technology transitional (TR), and planning and design (PD). TI teachers were more student-centered as compared to TR teachers who were more teacher-centered when asked about possible technology uses. PD teachers were fluent in planning and designing but lacked the balanced development demonstrated by the TI and TR teachers. These science teachers’ TPACK were found stayed at the level of “simple adoption.” These findings suggest that teachers’ TPACK-P needs to be developed with an accumulation of contextualized and dynamic experiences during ICT implementation in actual teaching. Explicit demonstrations regarding how ICTs can be used meaningfully to assist science instruction would be needed in teacher education.