Abstract:

During the last decade, digital technologies have been more and more integrated into teachers´ classroom practice. Perceptions of knowledge and the teacher´s role might change when digital resources are introduced in the classroom - regardless of the subject. As a consequence, teachers might reconsider the concept of learning in educational contexts. Despite a vast number of studies from a Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) perspective, there is still a need for studies that focus on how TPACK develops among teachers. Thus, the aim of this case study is to explore how three teachers´ Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is expressed during a second language English project in secondary school. The research question is: How are teachers´ components of TPACK expressed and integrated within their reflections on their teaching in a second language English project with a digital learning platform? The theoretical framework is based on Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) and more specifically on technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), which is essential to this study. The empirical data consists of video recorded stimulated recall group interviews and the analysis is inspired by the structures of content analysis. The research context was a compulsory school situated near a larger town. The school had a special license with a digital learning company that provided a digital learning management system called Digital learning platform (DLP), that offered opportunities to arrange teaching projects digitally. The results show that several combined components of TPACK are present in teachers´ reflections on their teaching; Technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK), Technological content knowledge (TCK), and Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The way in which these components appear seems to depend on the phase in the project. Thus, when planning the project, expressions of TPACK are characterised by suggestions of how to use the Digital Learning Platform (DPL), whereas reflections after teaching were characterised by analysing the use of the DPL related to advantages or disadvantages for students´ learning processes. Overall, the teachers´ reflections on their teaching developed, where components of TPACK related to functions in the DPL after the project were referred to in a more deepened and differentiated way. In summary, discussions and reflections with regard to the possibilities and limitations for learning with the use of DPL in school and important questions concerning teachers´ digital competence were elucidated. As such, the result of this study might create a discussion of and recommendations for how teachers choose, combine, implement, and evaluate digital technologies for different teaching and learning situations.

Keywords:

Teaching, technological pedagogical content knowledge.