Teacher clusters and their perceptions of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) development through ICT lesson design

Abstract

While the TPACK framework has been employed in many studies associated with use of technology in the classrooms, reports on the teachers' development of TPACK are inadequate to provide comprehensive description. This study employs cluster analysis to categorize teachers into groups based on their self-reported TPACK before they were engaged in lesson design activities as part of their professional development. Based on the pre-course survey, the cluster analyses revealed two categories of pre-service and in-service teachers respectively. Pre-service teachers deepened the connections among Technological Pedagogical Knowledge, Technological Content Knowledge and TPACK after ICT lesson design but the effects were more pronounced for those who were more confident in their pre-course TPACK. In-service teachers who were more confident in their pre-course TPACK deepened the connections between Content Knowledge and TPACK after ICT lesson design whereas those who were less confident perceived deeper connections between Pedagogical Content Knowledge and TPACK. The initial TPACK differences observed in teachers thus produced differentiated effects on their perceptions of TPACK development at the end of ICT lesson design. Further support required to facilitate teachers' TPACK development when designing ICT-based lessons are discussed.