The current status of science teachers’ TPACK in Taiwan from interview data

Teachers’ knowledge about technology-infused instruction has recently attracted much research attention. This chapter focuses on science teachers’ technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) in the practical context of teaching, namely, TPACK-Practical (TPACK-P). The proposed framework of TPACK-P includes three major domains—assessments, planning and designing, and teaching practice—that are theoretically transformed from the perspectives of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). To explore science teachers’ TPACK-P, 40 in-service teachers were interviewed, and a coding scheme was developed to analyze the interview responses. The findings indicated that the science teachers generally know how to adopt technologies in teaching within each domain of TPACK-P. A cluster analysis based on the participants’ level of TPACK-P categorized their patterns of knowledge. Three groups of science teachers emerged from these analysis categories: infusive application, transition, and plan and design emphasis. The infusive application group represents science teachers with sophisticated levels of TPACK-P across the three domains; the transition group includes science teachers whose knowledge achieved average levels across the three dimensions. However, the plan and design emphasis group refers to the science teachers who were more knowledgeable about planning and designing technology-infused teaching than about the assessment and teaching practice domains. The overall results indicate that the knowledge of planning and designing may be a more independent part in TPACK-P that supports science teachers’ implementation of technology-infused teaching. The revealed patterns of this science teachers’ TPACK-P may provide the groundwork for developing instruments to evaluate science teachers’ competence in teaching with technologies.