Design Principle - Awareness and understanding of relationship complexities

Awareness and understanding of relationship complexities

Summary

Developing awareness and understanding of the complexities of relationships between content, pedagogical and technological knowledge is essential for good CPD learning design.

Authors

Anna Page

Description

The need to develop awareness and understanding of the complexities of the relationships between content, pedagogical and technological knowledge is essential when designing the staff CPD activities which involve digital storytelling.

Content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and technological knowledge are connected and inseparable in teaching (Robin, 2008), so learning designers creating staff CPD need to balance these when weighing up how to identify and apply appropriate technologies pedagogically to expand learner content knowledge.

Reference frameworks

This principle embodies the TPACK theoretical framework which is proposed by Mishra and Koehler (2006) and Robin (2008) for flexible application in education settings.

Tips (Challenges, Limitations, Tradeoffs, Pitfalls)

Each learning designer involved in creating staff CPD will have differing experience of content, pedagogical and technological knowledge and how these can influence and conflict with each other. TPACK provides a starting point framework which could elicit discussion and reflection on the intersections between these different perspectives as learning designers seek to integrate technological content knowledge (TCK) and technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) into CPD resources to make them more engaging and effective. The TPACK framework treats content, pedagogy and technology as equally important and helps expose potential conflicts and affordances between these different elements of knowledge.

TPACK is a framework which could be applied flexibly but at the same time the framework provides challenges for those less comfortable with uncertainty in learning design as the knowledge area boundaries have been criticised as hard to define (Archambault and Crippen, 2009). Therefore, an appreciation of the presence of uncertainty needs to be acknowledged and accommodated by the learning designers as they implement the framework in their learning design context. Indeed, this very blurring of boundaries could trigger rich discussion about the consideration of complexities in learning design and how learners might respond to the resulting CPD resources and activities.

References and Bibliography

Archambault L, Crippen K. (2009) Examining TPACK among K-12 online distance educators in the United States. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 71–88, Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255629738_Examining_TPACK_among_K-12_online_distance_educators_in_the_United_States (accessed 4 June 2021)

Byrne, C.S. (2016) eLearning integrators' narratives expressing professional identity and explaining patterns of practice with ICT. [Thesis (PhD/Research)]. Available at https://eprints.usq.edu.au/32823/ (accessed 4 June 2021)

Kurt, S. (2018) "TPACK: Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Framework," in Educational Technology, May 12, 2018 (last updated 16 September 2019). Retrieved from https://educationaltechnology.net/technological-pedagogical-content-knowledge-tpack-framework/ (accessed 2 June 2021)

Mishra P, Koehler MJ. (2006) Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017–1054. Available at https://www.punyamishra.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/mishra-koehler-tcr2006.pdf (accessed 4 June 2021)

Pierson, M. E. (2001). Technology integration practice as a function of pedagogical expertise. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 33, 413–430. Available at https://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/gvehrt/TN_cdi_proquest_journals_274685076 (accessed 4 June 2021)

Robin, Bernard R. (2008) Digital Storytelling: A Powerful Technology Tool for the 21st Century Classroom, Theory Into Practice, 47:3, 220-228, DOI: 10.1080/00405840802153916 Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840802153916 (accessed 2 June 2021)

Shulman, Lee S. (1986) “Those Who Understand: Knowledge Growth in Teaching.” Educational Researcher, vol. 15, no. 2, 1986, pp. 4–14. JSTOR, Available at www.jstor.org/stable/1175860 (accessed 3 June 2021)

Wikipedia (2021) Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_pedagogical_content_knowledge