Technological Pedagogical

What is TPCK?

 

TPCK is academic acronymia for "Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge."  It can be thought of as the Teaching Professional's Combined Knowledges. TPCK involves three knowledge bases: Subject Matter Content, Pedagogy, and Technology.

It was once generally assumed that to be effective in the classroom, an instructor simply needed to know the subject matter content of the course to be taught.

Then it became clear that mere mastery of content wasn't enough. An effective instructor also required an understanding of pedagogy -- which is the study of how content is taught and learned. Together, the two knowledge bases are called,  Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) *.

 Now, with the dawn of the Information Age, it is increasingly understood that to maximize learning outcomes, teachers need to remain technologically relevant. That is to say, effective educators must understand the use of educational tools to teach content and subject matter in a way that the technology places concepts in a form that is understandable to learners.

What is Urban TPCK?

An Urban Techno-Pedagogy centers on the combined concepts underpinning TPCK -- as they relate to teaching in the culturally and linguistically diverse urban classroom.

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In, Those Who Understand: Knowledge Growth in Teaching, Lee S. Shulman contends that effective teachers need to rely on an integrated knowledge base -- one that is an integration of multiple domains of knowledge (knowledge about subject matter, learners, pedagogy, curriculum, and schools) -- if they are to be prepared to translate the content in ways that students are able to grasp. Shulman referred to the knowledge that teachers need as Pedagogical Content Knowledge, or PCK.