The development of teachers’ professional learning and knowledge

Teacher educators have endeavored to understand what comprises teachers’ instructional knowledge because only when we know how that knowledge is developed can we adequately plan and implement teacher education programs that are appropriate for the twenty-first century. Many teacher educators have referred to this complex knowledge construct as pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), following up with different strands of teacher knowledge constructs and teacher education programs. Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is a strand of PCK that focuses more on teachers’ knowledge of teaching with technology. This chapter reviews what TPACK inherits from PCK and how its integrative and transformative frameworks are conceptualized. Though TPACK can be viewed as an interdisciplinary knowledge construct that today’s teachers are advised to develop, TPACK is also discipline-based in nature and trans-disciplinary in terms of the knowledge and competence students require. The more mature the TPACK the teacher develops, the more appropriate the in-class uses of technology will be.