Contextualizing TPACK within systems and culture

by | Wednesday, January 06, 2021

Melissa Warr and I were recently asked to write a afterword to a special issue of the journal Computers in Human Behavior. The focus of the special issue was on the kinds of knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) teachers need to successfully integrate technology in their teaching. In our piece, we argued for a expanding the kinds of knowledge teachers have to include broader systemic and cultural knowledge. Our argument is framed within The 5 spaces for design in education framework. This framework provides a tool to think with—emphasizing a systems perspective on what teachers design. Consider, for instance:

… a teacher seeking to try out a new technology to teach and assess scientific understanding. This lesson (and assessment) do not exist in isolation, merely shaped by the teacher’s TPACK. They exist within broader systemic and cultural contexts and discourses, which may include (but surely are not limited to) teacher performance evaluation systems, school rankings, current budgetary constraints, state-level policies and standards, and more. A teacher who understands how these systemic factors work can utilize them intelligently to set herself and her students for success. We do not mean that teachers need to become expert administrators or policy makers. Rather, if teachers are cognizant of these issues, sensitive to constraints, and open to possibilities, they can leverage apparent constraints into recipes for success.

More detail on the 5 spaces is given in the table below.

The five spaces framework allows us to also understand processes, systems and culture that may work against the best intentions of educators. It helps us recognize that sometimes the barriers may be outside of the classroom context, and successfully navigating these barriers may require knowledge of systems and culture that are often not discussed in teacher education or professional development programs. An under- standing of the broader systems and culture within which classrooms operate would allow teachers to acquire aspects of KSA that help them integrate technology in ways that are truly valuable for learners.

Mishra, P., Warr, M. (2021). Contextualizing TPACK within systems and culture. Computers in Human Behavior. 117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106673

A few randomly selected blog posts…

Stuff Indian’s Like

After the success of Stuff white people like, can Stuff Indians like be far behind. Check it out... it has the occasional nugget that nails Indians and their behavior.

Psychology and Coercive Interrogation, the history

In the context of my previous posting, here is an article that provides "a brief historical summary of the research into forms of coercive persuasion, primarily sensory deprivation, conducted 35 to 50 years ago, in which psychologists, psychoanalysts, and...

Systems level change in education

Systems level change in education

How do you design for change in complex systems—like education? Implementing large-scale changes within educational systems can be a challenging task. Doing so requires many actors, working at different organizational levels (and perhaps across organizations), to not...

How cool is that!

I just read on CNN that Obama's likely nominee for energy secretary is physicist and Nobel Laureate Dr. Steven Chu. What a contrast to the previous administration's science policy. (Actually it is still the current administration!) Has a novel prize winner ever served...

It Takes Two: A scientific romp using AI

It Takes Two: A scientific romp using AI

Dark 'n' Light is an e-zine that "explores science, nature, social justice and culture, through the arts and humanities." It is a labor of love by a small, dedicated team led by Susan Matthews, former legal and policy wonk, turned editor and podcaster. I came to know...

Of garbage cans and psychological media

This has been a day of sad news from Stanford University. I blogged about the passing away of Dr. Nalini Ambady (see blog post here). I will digress a bit before I describe the second piece of news because the connection to me (and my work) is much more salient. Back...

GeoGreeting!

I often do an assignment with my students where they go looking for letterforms in nature. Leigh Wolf just sent me this link to GeoGreeting.com which takes the same idea - but conceptualizes it on a global scale. Check out this example.

Ambi-poetry: A mathematician reinterprets ambigrams

My friend Gaurav Bhatnagar (I had blogged about his new book, Get Smart: Math Concepts here), for some reason, known only to him, has decided to create a poetry-blog based around my ambigrams. Each posting consists of one ambigram (taken from my large collection of...

1 Comment

  1. Najma

    Great thanks for you dear professor. I am so glad that I had this great opportunity for me to download your great works. I used a number of your great articles for writing my thesis. And by chance on Research gate I found one your great articles about TPACK and I checked your profile and started following you and realized that all works are permitted to be downloaded from the website. It made day to be frank. In my country I did not get the chance to learn how to conduct research that is why it’s so consuming and exhausting. I am doing my best to cope with the current needs for being successful teacher of English.
    Thanks over and over again for providing us with the chance of getting benefits of your knowledge.
    My sincere thanks
    Najma

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *