Supporting teachers' development of technology integration knowledge and skills.
1. Supporting teachers’ collaboration in design teams to develop
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: the case of science
teachers in Tanzania
Ayoub Kafyulilo,
Dar es salaam University College of Education,
Petra Fisser and Joke Voogt
University of Twente.
2. Introduction
This study develops from two successive studies
conducted in 2010 and 2011 with pre-service and in-
service teachers respectively.
The two studies adopted a combination of
a workshop,
collaborative lesson design,
microteaching (pre-service)/classroom teaching (in-service)
reflection
The pre-post intervention results for the two studies
showed a significant improvement in the perceived and
observed technology integration knowledge and skills.
3. Introduction….
The two previous studies encountered some
technological,
pedagogical and
collaboration challenges
To overcome these challenges, four support options
were proposed in this study
The expert
Collaboration guidelines
Online learning materials (pictures, animations and videos)
Exemplary lessons
4. The support
The expert: To provide some technological and pedagogical
support during the lesson design and implementation
Online materials: Teachers are not technicians and have limited
time for designing high-tech learning materials,
Some free online animations and videos are proposed
Exemplary lessons: Novice teachers find it difficult to start the
design of technology integrated lessons.
Exemplary lessons can serve as model for teachers to create
their own lessons
Collaboration guidelines: Design teams are challenging to
teachers in terms of agreement and time planning (Bakah, 2012).
Guideline can offer directions for teachers’ collaboration
5. The intervention
The study was designed along four intervention activities
The workshop
The design of technology enhanced lessons in design
teams
The lesson implementation in the classroom
Reflection with peers
A second cycle continued with the re-design of the
technology integrated lesson based on the reflection
6. Research questions
What support option is effective for teachers’
development of technology integration knowledge
and skills for science teaching?
What technology integration knowledge and skills do
teachers develop when they collaborate in design
teams?
7. Participants
The study was conducted in two secondary schools in
Tanzania
From each school 10 science (physics, chemistry and
biology) teachers participated in the study
Three design teams were formed in each school.
8. Instrument
Five data collection instruments were used:
TPACK survey
Support survey
Observation checklist
Interview
Focus group discussion
9. Results: Support for collaboration
All support options were reported effective (M > 4.0)
Each had impact in a specific area of the intervention
The expert: lesson design, lesson implementation and
reflection.
Online materials: lesson design and implementation
Exemplary lessons: lesson design
Collaboration guidelines: lesson design
12. TPACK development
Results showed a significant difference between pre-
and post-intervention teachers’ TPACK (p ≤ 0.001)
Before intervention; teachers perceived their TPACK to
be average (M ≤ 3.4, SD ≈ 0.9).
After intervention, they perceived it high (M ≥ 4, SD <
0.5).
Observation data showed improvement between the first
lesson implementation and the second
The availability of various support options was
acknowledged for the teachers’ development of TPACK
13. TPACK Development
From interview and focus group discussion it was
revealed that;
Teachers who did not know how to perform some basic
computer operations, after intervention were able to;
Prepare PowerPoint slides
Search online materials and link them to PowerPoint
Use animations to demonstrate complex science
concepts.
14. Conclusions
Collaboration, lesson implementation, and support were
key to the development of TPACK
In teams teachers were able to learn from each other
Lesson implementation offered an in-field experience
In addition to the workshop, design teams, lesson
implementation and reflection, which were the main
intervention activities,
The support options were of great importance to
teachers’ development of technology integration
knowledge and skills.
The support were relevant to the learning needs of the
teachers and context-fit to Tanzania.