TECHNOLOGICAL PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE AND PROBLEM BASED LEARNING ENHANCE TEACHER PREPARATION FOR ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

Since students entering schools today differ from those of the past in terms of their technological literacy and educational experiences, educators must discover relevant curriculum that enables “real world”, technology rich, authentic pedagogy and assessment that address national content standards to impact the learning of all students. It is imperative that colleges of education committed to elementary teacher preparation design comprehensive programs including the kind of technological pedagogical content knowledge that accommodates diverse skills and abilities, cultivates multiple intelligences, draws upon students’ individual learning skills, and utilizes digital tools. The intersection of the guiding principles of Universal Design for Learning and Multiple Intelligence literature provide well-founded reasoning for using TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) to prepare pre-service teachers in the craft of differentiating instruction for all learners. Furthermore, the TPACK framework leverages a groundswell of opportunity for instantiating culturally relevant pedagogy in a problem based learning environment. Nevertheless, evidence indicates that teachers’ integration of digital tools into instruction remains sporadic and less than optimal. Implementing a new definition of effective teaching requires teacher knowledge change, teacher beliefs change, and teacher culture change. What is more, teachers need to “own” this new definition. Involving teachers in the visioning process, either through teacher participatory efforts or through teacher education and professional development efforts, is essential. Finally, the cultures in which teachers learn and work must embrace and nurture this new definition. Once this new definition has been established, teachers need to see examples of what this kind of teaching looks like in practice.

This paper demonstrates how TPACK and problem based learning evidences (1) a successful teacher preparation course project designed to engage pre-service teachers in a semester long interdisciplinary team teaching and learning whole class collaboration to resolve “real world” problems and (2) an authentic opportunity for elementary teacher candidates to create and witness examples of what this kind of teaching looks like in practice. Results of this study indicate that effective teaching was birthed from psts (Pre-service teachers) “owning” this new definition. Final projects implemented in the subsequent five-week field experience immediately following the ten-week integrative content courses proved to be successful and rewarding for the psts and the students in their respective classrooms. Psts formal final presentations indicate that their projects enable the learning process to become more relevant and meaningful by contextualizing integrated content for young chidren. The projects also involve dynamic group learning and opportunities for independent investigations. Students achieve their learning goals and develop their knowledge and social skills in the process of meeting the problem situation in the projects, solving the problem using creative and critical thinking, and sharing their authentic products as a culmination of their learning. Additionally, the psts reported an increase in self-efficacy concerning their preparation for 21st century classrooms. Psts also indicate that their respective collaborating teachers are impressed with their technological pedagogical content knowledge preparation and view them as potential teacher leaders.