Designing a professional development program based on TPACK

This week I finished the final assignment for the course ‘Pedagogies for Flexible learning’. This final assignment was about designing a professional development program for teacher or a course based on TPACK. In this post I will reflect on the process of designing that I walked through for this assignment. I also will tell something about my experiences with working with TPACK.

With the group that I worked with we choose to design a professional development program for teachers. I was very happy with this decision. Not because I don’t like to design a course, I also liked that assignment a lot, but the important reason was that I really like to do something new. In the bachelor Educational Science that I followed on the University of Twente I worked a lot on assignment about lessons and specific information for students and class based programs. This final assignment gave me the opportunity to work on a new level of designing and a new way of looking towards important design decisions. I also liked the fact that you really have to think about stimulating the teachers in this program and in other design assignments, I’ve got the feeling that the teacher wasn’t in it a lot.

So, I started with lots of excitement on this assignment. In the beginning I had some difficulties. This was because I didn’t had a group very soon. When I finally joint a group, they already had an idea to work out and parts of the report were already divided under the other group members. For me it was a little bit difficult to really own the assignment in the beginning. Because I missed the first meetings and decision points, I had trouble to work myself really in the design. But after a while and also be reading the parts of the other group members I was able to own the assignment and start to like it a lot.

Working towards the end result I didn’t have any trouble to think about possibilities that can be used to learn TPACK to teachers. I also like it to think about the set up of the program. By doing it together there was the possibility to learn from each other and also work with each others background. In our group we had two persons that came from the bachelor, 1 member was a foreign student and the last one did pre teacher education before she came to the master track. So a divers group with lots of ideas. I really liked it to work with them and learn a lot about advantages and disadvantages of a professional development program for teachers. And because we had to explain some point to our foreign student, there was the possibility for us to really explain it well and by explaining I learned about the subject as well.

But of course there were also some big challenges to work on. One of them was for me that you really need a good balance in the program. Sometime I thought that parts in our program were too much or that it could be a lot shorter then we made it. Especially when I talked with members of other groups I thought sometimes that we did too much. But when I look back I think that we did enough. Our program is year based, but I think that you need it in a school to work with TPACK for a longer while then only two weeks, to really get used to the way of working.

When I look back to our design process I think that we worked pretty well on the assignment with the whole group. We divided the different parts of the report, but we had enough meetings together with the whole group to make sure that everybody knows what was going on and agreed with the things that we worked on. In the design process we also designed one activity in detail of the whole program that we designed. In that way the reader can imagine how the sessions could look like. Designing this part was a challenge, because you really have to think about all the things that need to be done in that session. For me it was very good to work on it in that way, because you see problem areas quicker, then when you only design a program with guidelines.

In the process that we went through I think that we looked at a lot and I think that we build on a good framework, but maybe we could have done it less extended. At the other I really do think that we thought through every point in our program and everything can be linked to the conceptual framework that we used.

In the design process we also focused a lot on TPACK. Not a big surprise, because the professional development program that we designed has to be based on TPACK. But for me it was sometimes difficult to think about TPACK. You are busy with the design and the writing of the different parts of the report, but I didn’t thought of TPACK a lot. One moment in the process we stopped with everything and started to mention the T, P and C in our program. We did this to make sure that they can be named and that they were in it. But when I look back at the whole process that I walked through I didn’t looked directly towards all the parts of TPACK. But still everything was in the program at the end, so in that case we thought about it through the time. I guess that in someway you just think about it, because you know that you want to make a balance with technology in your program. But really thinking about every part is too much I guess. In the way of designing this it was very nice to just do what you like and at some points look back to TPACK and say, this is in and this has to come there, to make it complete.

Did I like working with TPACK? Yes, I really did. I think it is very good to work with a framework or model that your program needs in the end version. For me, I found it very nice that you can measure in that case if you have all the components. But it isn’t necessary for me to walk through every step of TPACK, for me it was kind of obvious that it has to be in that way. But I think that that way of thinking depends on your background. I know what it is to design and designing this program was a really challenge for me, not because it was really difficult, but because you have to think of new points. And working with TPACK was a new thing, but more a measuring scale to focus on at the end, if every point was in it. Not to work from in the beginning.

The only thing that I really found difficult in the design process was the implementation and evaluation part. The evaluation was something that we knew quite soon, because of the articles that we viewed in the course. But the implementation part is something that is difficult. You know that you want it and that it is very helpful for the teachers when they know more about TPACK, but you also know that there isn’t a lot of time in the schools. We made a school context in which teachers are motivated, but what when you have a context without motivation. These are points that you really have to think about and I think that in the process that I walked through, that thinking about implementation wasn’t enough. I could have thought more about it and now it was too much away from me. This was the only part that I didn’t really own in the project. And that is too bad and not good, but I can work on that in the future.

So, when I look back on the design process and working with TPACK, then I can say that I really like the assignment. I learned a lot in ways of thinking as a teacher and knowing what is possible and what is not. But I think that I also missed some points, mostly about the implementation phase. I think that I could be more part of this and now it wasn’t in the main point for me. But I really liked to work with TPACK and especially design with TPACK. I know that I can design programs and lessons, but thinking about and designing with TPACK was a challenge and I liked it a lot. I think that it isn’t easy to make something really TPACK, but I think that we did a pretty good job and I'm very happy with our end result.

The added value of TPACK: looking back to the different topics of the course

After four lectures about flexibility, pedagogical approaches, technology and of course the TPACK model it is time to reflect on the things that I have learned. I would like to look back to my previous posts and lectures and also would like to come to a conclusion about the added value of TPACK in the different topics.

In the first lecture we talked about flexibility in education. This lecture opened a new world for me. I really have to say that flexibility was all about distance to me. But you can have different kinds of flexibility. I’ve described them in an earlier post on my blog. All these different kinds of flexibility can be used in classes to make education flexible.

But making a course more flexible is a real challenge for a teacher. Not only because it is another way of teaching than the teacher is used to, but most of it because the teacher will lose a piece of control. I think that it is very difficult for a teacher to give the control out of his hands and that is a struggle. But last week we talked about TPACK and I think that TPACK can help the teacher to reach more flexibility in the class.

To reach TPACK a teacher has to work hard, because it is difficult (see my previous blog), but the integration of technology, content and pedagogy will make it easier to come to a flexible lesson. Not because TPACK takes difficult choices away, but because TPACK gives a teacher the chance to combine the three elements of knowledge together in a logic way. It gives you a form of support to combine all your knowledge together to make your learning environment flexible.

I also wrote something about different pedagogical approaches. Especially I looked to the combination of a specific approach with the use of CMS (Course Management System) and then several approaches next too each other. From this lecture and the assignment I really learned in what way we can combine technology with a specific approach, but also how difficult it can be. Teachers have to take a lot of different elements in mind when they design a lesson and technology is often forgotten in the organization of the lesson. In my blog about pedagogical approaches I was wondering how we can convince a teacher to use a new approach that differs a lot from the approach that he always used. And I have to say that a step in the right direction is the introduction of TPACK. I think that TPACK can have a real value in this part. The TPACK model gives a teacher a real opportunity first to look separately towards the different kinds of knowledge that is needed and after that to start with the integration of these three parts of knowledge to make it one. When a teacher can use TPACK I think that it will be easier to integrate technology into the approach that a teacher uses.

Before we talked about TPACK we also looked at technology and the way it can be used in the classroom. For me it was a really important learning point that we always say that technology is a negative thing for teachers and fun for students. But we forget that it also can be fun for teachers. So for me that is very important to think of when I’m talking about technology in classrooms again. I think that sometimes it isn’t the problem that teachers don’t like technology, but that they don’t know how they have to work with it. And to make that easier and help them to use it in a normal way the TPACK model can help. As I said before I think that the TPACK model can make teachers aware of the way they use different kinds of approaches and technology. By making them aware of the possibilities and the ways they can integrate it, I think that will make teachers more capable of using technology in their lessons. Of course there are costs, time and the guidance that are issues that can’t be forgotten. But I think that with using TPACK in the organization of a lesson it will be easier to combine all the things together.

Looking back to the lectures I realize that the lectures were the preparation for the TPACK model. And it has helped me to understand the goal of TPACK and the way it can be used. I also see now, after writing this reflection, that TPACK can help teachers in several ways. I also can say that I really know more about the different topics we discussed and the way they can be used in a lesson and in what way they influence the way our teachers teach. At first I thought that the three different topics were kind of separate from each other. I found it very hard to combine all three together. The introduction of TPACK made it easier for me and I can see the connections now. And I really see that TPACK can make a difference in all three topics. It really can support the integration of the three core types of knowledge that the teacher need to organize a lesson.

I can link TPACK towards the three different topics we discussed and then I really think that it can help the teacher. But I also see some difficulties mostly in the way that I can work with the model. I understand the model and know what every piece means and how you van integrate it. But after the lecture of last week I conclude that it is very difficult to make the combination and design a lesson based on this model. And I’m really wondering how you can convince teachers to use it. You can learn it to them in training programs, but is that enough? I really wonder in what way you can stimulate the use of TPACK in the classroom and not only in the programs for professional development. Because I can imaging that it takes a lot more time to understand and use the model in the right way then a workshop or training program will take.

So, I’ve really learned a lot about the topics and I like TPACK very much and also think that it can be used in a good way in education, but I really wonder in what way you implement this model in education with as result that it will be used by the teachers for a longer time. Hopefully the next lecture will also talk about the implementation of TPACK in education and the different things that we have to think about. Maybe you have a good idea about how we can implement the model in education, how we can make our teachers aware of the three elements and the integration of those elements? And how we make sure that the model will be used more then once? Maybe we can come together to a good answer on my questions