Research On Preservice Teachers’Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Mishra and Koehler (2005), by extending the Pedagogical Content Knowledge proposed by Shulman (1986), proposed the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) as the framework of teacher knowledge, which has becomes a hot research in the field of teacher education. Along with information technology is used widely in the classroom teaching, teachers must have more abundant TPACK, in order to teaching effectively in the teaching environment integrated technology.The objective of this study is to build the reliable and validated questionnaire of TPACK for preservice teachers to understand the characteristics and levels of their TPACK, and to probe the TPACK in educational technology preservice teachers’ practice, which is used to proposing the developing strategy of the TPACK in preservice teachers.This study adopts the combination of quantitative and qualitative research. The dimensions of TPACK include technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, technological content knowledge, technological pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, technological pedagogical and content knowledge. It formed a new questionnaire survey for preservice teachers’TPACK on basis of foreign revising questionnaires survey, and to compare the TPACK level before and after the educational practice with taking preservice teachers in educational technology major from a university in Wuhan. Meantime, this study selects preservice teachers in Central China Normal University as the object of study, to analyse the level and characteristics of preservice teachers’technological pedagogical content knowledge at the end time of the educational practice. While TPACK owing the characteristic of context and practice, this study adopts the qualitative case studies, so as to overcoming one-sided and defect of self-reporting survey. The qualitative case studies, gained the data from classroom observations, interviews, and analysed their teaching videos, probed the characteristics of the TPACK in preservice teachers’ practice. This study shows:1. Preservice teachers’ TPACK scale is designed good, the reliability and validity is confirmed;2. Educational practice can help to improve the level of preservice teachers’ TPACK, as the result, a higher average score in the all seven dimensions of TPACK and significant rising at all four composite element;3. The result of analysis to educational practice videos and the data about interview to preservice teachers shows, preservice teachers do well in integrating content, pedagogical and technological knowledge during the teaching process.4. Preservice teachers possess the basis of TPACK, but they have to improve in some knowledge.