Examining Primary Education Teachers’ Perceptions of TPACK and the Related Educational Context Factors

Abstract

The study presented in this paper was designed to examine Greek primary education teachers’ perceptions of their knowledge and skills with regards to the integration of ICT in their instructional practices. By adopting the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework, we developed an extended TPACK scale, including two sub-constructs, i.e., a) the Educational Context and b) teachers’ self-assessment of TPACK abilities. The analysis of the results showed that the participants appear to believe that they have a good level of knowledge with regards to the primary TPACK domains, i.e., content, pedagogy and technology. However, most teachers perceived them separately and were not able to integrate their TPACK knowledge in order to design and implement meaningful ICT-based interventions in their classroom practice. Statistically significant differences were recorded in relation to teachers’ factors, i.e., gender, teaching experience and training about ICT in education. Finally, the findings showed that teachers’ efforts to implement ICT-based interventions in their classrooms could be affected by factors related to the educational context in the Greek primary schools. (Keywords: TPACK, ICT in primary education; ICT integration skills; educational context)

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Notes on contributors

Dimitrios Roussinos

Dimitrios Roussinos is a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Educational Policy at the University of Peloponnese. He holds a bachelor degree in computer science and a master's degree in learning technologies. His research interests include teachers' professional development about ICT in education and Web 2.0 in education.

Athanassios Jimoyiannis

Athanassios Jimoyiannis is Professor of ICT in Education, leading the e-Learning Research Group (e-LeReG), in the Department of Social and Educational Policy at the University of Peloponnese. His current research interests include e-learning and ICT in education, social media, and Web 2.0 in education, digital literacy, teachers' professional development, and computer science education. Please address correspondence regarding this article to Prof. Athanassios Jimoyiannis, Department of Social and Educational Policy, University of Peloponnese, Damaskinou & Kolokotroni, 20100 Korinthos, Greece. E-mail: [email protected]