Laurie Brantley-Dias

Goldilocks and TPACK: Is the Construct "Just Right?".

Abstract In the education community, the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework has become a popular construct for examining the types of teacher knowledge needed to achieve technology integration. In accordance with Katz and Raths’s ’Goldilocks Principlen’ (cited in Kagan, 1990), TPACK, with its seven knowledge domains, may be too large (vague or ambiguous) of a construct to enable reasonable application. In this article, we provide a critical review of the TPACK construct and address the development, verification, usefulness, application, and appropriateness of TPACK as a way to explain the teacher cognition needed for effective technology integration. We make suggestions for returning to a simpler conceptualization to refocus our efforts on what teachers need to achieve meaningful technology-enabled learning.

Using Video Editing to Cultivate Novice Teachers’ Practice

Abstract This article reports research concerning the effective use of video editing to help cultivate novice teachers’ reflective practice. The study reported here is part of a larger body of research on video-enhanced teacher reflection. For this study, we used a qualitative research design to examine two guided reflection activities for two groups of novice teachers. The first group debriefed with a teacher educator immediately after teaching their lesson. They later wrote about critical incidents that occurred during their teaching. The second group had no debriefing, but the participants were asked to capture their lessons on digital video, edit their video for two critical incidents, and reflect on the incidents in written form using the same rubric as the first group. Given that both groups used the same reflection guide, we found that students who developed video vignettes produced longer and more multifaceted reflections. We found implications of these results to be an important step towards facilitating novice teachers’ development.

Using Digital Video for Professional Development in Urban Schools: A Preservice Teacher's Experience with Reflection

Abstract This study used a variety of qualitative methods within the context of an exploratory single case study to examine the use of digital video as a means for a preservice teacher to capture personal teaching episodes and reflect on them as an integral part of her professional development. Results demonstrate how an urban preservice teacher’s work with digital video of her teaching promoted reflection and the development of teacher identity. Results also demonstrated how a teacher educator was able to use the digital video as a tool to help the beginning teacher identify effective practices.

Developing Pedagogical Technology Integration Content Knowledge in Preservice Teachers: A Case Study Approach

Abstract This research examined the effects of case-based instructional strategies on the development of Pedagogical Technology Integration Content Knowledge (PTICK) in alternative teacher preparation students. The study was part of the Crossroads Project funded by the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers for Using Technology (PT3) grant from the United States Department of Education. Thirty-three students completed a six-week course in technology integration in teaching methods at a large Southeastern university. Content analysis was used to examine student data: case responses, case reflections, and course reflections. Although there were mixed responses to the case analysis process, findings indicated that as the semester progressed the preservice teachers began to display an understanding of integrated concepts of PTICK and valued learning from the group case discussions.

An Electronic System to Support Novice Teachers' Reflective Lesson Design

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose an electronic support tool that can be used by teacher educators and novice teachers to foster habits of reflective, systematic instructional planning.Design/methodology/approach – The authors provide a rationale for their work, present a theoretical framework, propose a unique instructional design model, and illustrate one approach to implementing the model – as an electronic support system.Findings – The paper discusses a feasible and novel approach to promoting habits of systematic lesson design combined with guided reflection. Although the authors describe a particular electronic system as context for this paper, the theoretical model is flexible in nature and can be applied in many modern teaching contexts.Practical implications – It is hoped that the approach can be refined and implemented as part of a systemic effort to address like issues in teacher education. The paper will be of particular value to teacher, educators and educational researchers f...

Teaching Youth Again: Reflecting on Renewal

Most of the professors contributing to this book had spent several years away from teaching children and adolescents, and they yearned to return to K-12 teaching to prove to themselves that they could (still) be effective teachers of youth. They could not move forward as credible people of reform and reform-based practices without putting into practice with K-12 students what they espoused as science educators. The preservice and in-service teachers with whom they worked needed to know, for example, that inquiry learning could be supported in the context of their schools and with their students (Lunenberg et al. 2007). By teaching again, they also aspired to updating and strengthening knowledge and skills in practice, practical knowledge for leading productive learning environments for science (Van Driel et al. 2001). Most of the contributing authors sought to regain credibility with fresh experiences teaching youth of diverse backgrounds and in schools with twenty-first-century technology and high-stakes testing. More boldly, a few ventured into teaching science for the first time, working with learners in grades below their prior teaching experience.