Teachers' planning process : TPACK, professional development, and the purposeful integration of technology

Abstract

Technology is becoming quite pervasive in society at large. Its integration into secondary schools and its use with curriculum requires a unique knowledge of its purposeful articulation as it relates to curriculum goals and student outcomes. Therefore, this study will focus on how an educator's decision-making process determines how technology will be integrated within the planning process of secondary educators, and how these decisions may be affected by an educators technological pedagogical content knowledge, otherwise known as TPACK. Qualitative analysis was then used to evaluate a Technology Integration Rationale (TIR) that was produced by members of a rural professional development cohort. Qualitative analysis was also conducted on transcribed face-to-face semistructured interviews. The TIR and the interviews involved a cohort representing a rural school district who attended a professional development course that was facilitated by a University in the Rocky Mountain West. The TIR was then scored using a valid rubric to measure an educator's TPACK score. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were transcribed by hand to gain a sense of an educator's understanding of the TPACK framework as it relates to the purposeful use of technology in lesson decision-making. The study found that ones growing familiarity with the use of a specific technology could affect an educator's self-assessed TPACK score. Once an educator understood how to use a specific technology its familiarity made it transparent or simply just another piece of the curriculum. The study also found that barriers can have a significant effect on an educators' decision making when deciding to use technology, and as a result affects an educator's self-assessed TPACK score. Recommendations for further study include examining how the familiarity or transparent nature of technology can affect curricular decision-making, future professional development regarding the TPACK framework, and educator beliefs or efficacy as it relates to integrating technology.