Teacher design team as a professional develoment arrangement to develop TPACK among science teachers in Tanzania
1. Teacher Design Team as a Professional Development Arrangement for Developing
TPACK among Science Teachers in Tanzania
Ayoub Kafyulilo Petra Fisser Joke Voogt
a.kafyulilo@utwente.nl p.h.g.fisser@utwente.nl j.m.voogt@utwente.nl
Abstract Introduction
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not, Teacher design team refer to a group of at least two teachers, from the same or
teacher design team is a promising professional development related subjects, working together on a regular basis, with the goal to (re)design and
arrangement for developing Technological Pedagogical enact (a part of) their common curriculum” (Handelzalts, 2009).
Content Knowledge (TPACK) among science teachers in In Tanzania teachers are not yet working in design teams, instead there is a broad-
Tanzania. 12 science teachers participated in a workshop based collaboration designed to facilitate what are in the nature of tea-time meetings
about TPACK and joined in design teams for biology, chemistry where teachers would discuss the emerging issues at schools (Kafyulilo, 2012)
and physics lessons. A pre and post intervention assessment of The individualism approach has been hindering teachers from the opportunity to
teachers’ TPACK was done by using a TPACK survey, learn from each other and enhancemnet of students’ learning outcomes in science
teachers’ interview, an observation checklist and focus group subjects.
discussion. Results showed a significant change in teachers Thus, this study adopt teachers design team as a professional development
perceived and observed TPACK between pre and post arrangement to develop teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
intervention. (TPACK) for effective teaching with technology.
Research questions
The main research question in this study was; what is the impact of teachers’ collaboration in design team on their development of knowledge and skills of
integrating technology in science teaching? This main research question is answered by dividing it into four sub questions:
1. What is the in-service teachers’ perceived TPACK before and after the professional development arrangement?
2. What are the observed in-service teachers’ practices with technology-enhanced science teaching before and after the professional development arrangement?
3. What TPACK competencies do science teachers develop during collaborative lesson design in teacher design teams?
4. What are the teachers’ perceptions towards collaboration in teacher design teams as a professional development arrangement?
CK
PCK
TCK
TPCK
PK
TK TPK
Methodology Results: Qn 1 & 2
In this study we adopted the pre and post Table 1: Perceived teachers’ TPACK before and after the Intervention
intervention assessment of teachers’ perceived Pre intervention Post intervention
and observed knowledge and skills of integrating TPACK components M (SD) M (SD) Sig. Effect size
technology in science teaching. A total of 12 Technological Knowledge 3.13 (0.43) 4.18 (0.42) 0.002 2.47
teachers participated in the workshop about Pedagogical Knowledge 3.98 (0.69) 4.63 (0.39) 0.003 1.16
TPACK and joined in design teams for biology, Content Knowledge 4.00 (0.56) 4.40 (0.61) 0.035 0.68
Pedagogical Content Knowledge 3.82 (0.66) 4.40 (0.61) 0.020 0.91
chemistry and physics lessons. There were four Technological Pedagogical Knowledge 3.14 (0.59) 4.23 (0.58) 0.002 1.86
teachers in each team. Technological Content Knowledge 2.85 (0.67) 4.30 (0.56) 0.002 2.35
Data were collected by using a teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
2.97 (0.83) 4.27 (0.55) 0.002 1.85
questionnaire, teachers’ interview, teachers’
observation checklist and teachers’ focus group Table 2: Observed teachers’ TPACK before and after the Intervention
Pre Post
discussion. TPACK components intervention intervention Z Sig. Effect size
Data analysis was done by computing means M (SD) M (SD)
and standard deviations, and the difference Technology Knowledge 1.17 (0.17) 2.60 (0.23) ‐2.201 0.028 7.07
between pre and post intervention assessment Pedagogical Knowledge 2.19 (0.08) 2.79 (0.35) ‐2.226 0.026 2.36
Pedagogical Content Knowledge 2.43 (0.08) 2.83 (0.34) ‐2.032 0.042 1.62
was determined through a Wilcoxon signed
Technological Content Knoweldge 1.20 (0.15) 2.83 (0.40) ‐2.214 0.027 5.40
ranks test for two related samples Technological Pedagogical Knowledge 1.20 (0.15) 2.63 (0.31) ‐2.214 0.027 5.87
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge 1.40 (0.11) 2.70 (0.25) ‐2.214 0.027 6.73
Results: Qn 3 & 4 Conclusions
Teachers indicated from the interview and focus group discussion to have learned all the (1) Teacher design team offers an opportunity for enhancement of teachers’
TPACK components except Content Knowledge. However, majority indicated to have perceived and practiced technology integration knowledge and skills
learned more on how to use Power Point. In addition, more teachers reported to have (2) In a design team, teachers can develop not only the technology related
spent a lot of thier time in the design of animation by using a PowerPoint. components of TPACK but also CK, PK and PCK
All teachers indicated positive attitude towards collaboration in design teams for their (3) Teachers spend too much time in the design team meetings than it could
own learning and students’ learning outcomes. However, majority of teachers complains have been expected. For teachers to use their time more efficiently the y
about the time they were spending on the process of design in a lesson. Thus they need to get a support. The support could be collaboration guidelines, an
thought teacher design team was time inefficient for them expert , exemplary lessons, or ready made animation materials .