The Development of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Science Learning with a Three-Dimensional Interactive Computer Simulation

Much research in educational technology has focused mainly on how the technology supports student learning. Research on what teachers need to know in order to appropriately incorporate technology into their teaching has been limited because of the lack of theoretical grounding for understanding teachers' cognitive process of technology integration into teaching and learning. With the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) framework, components that influence teachers' decisions about using technology to support student learning can be explicitly examined. The purpose of this study is to investigate how to prepare teachers to take into account the pedagogical uses of technology as well as the knowledge of students to inform the designing of tasks for science learning. Both the learning-by-design (LBD) and the experiencing-model-based-inquiry (EMBI) approaches support the cognitive processing necessary for planning to use technology to teach conceptual content in science. The study examined whether the LBD approach, which challenges teachers to discover and construct their own instructional practices with minimal guidance on the principles of supporting student learning in a particular principle, is less effective than the EMBI approach for developing TPCK. The EMBI approach, in contrast, challenges teachers to reflect on the model-based-inquiry that they experience to advance their understandings of the pedagogical uses of technology and ways to support students to learn the subject matter. This study used a multi-method case study design to investigate the effectiveness of these two approaches. Data were collected from eight experienced secondary science teachers developing their TPCK either in the LBD or the EMBI approach for science learning with a three-dimensional (3D) interactive computer simulation. The results captured the complexities and interactions of how these two approaches influence teachers' ways of leveraging the knowledge components embodied in TPCK to inform their technology integration. Findings indicated that the EMBI approach was more effective than the LBD approach in preparing teachers to develop the components of TPCK. Teachers who experienced how students learn science with the technology and reflected on this experience designed tasks that were more specific for supporting students' learning procedures and for achieving the goals of understanding science.