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Technological Pedagogical Content

Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher

Knowledge

PUNYA MISHRA

MATTHEW J. KOEHLER1

Michigan State University

Research in the area of educational technology has often been critiqued for a lack

of theoretical grounding. In this article we propose a conceptual framework for

educational technology by building on Shulman’s formulation of ‘‘pedagogical content knowledge’’ and extend it to the phenomenon of teachers integrating technology

into their pedagogy. This framework is the result of 5 years of work on a program of

research focused on teacher professional development and faculty development in

higher education. It attempts to capture some of the essential qualities of teacher

knowledge required for technology integration in teaching, while addressing the

complex, multifaceted, and situated nature of this knowledge. We argue, briefly, that

thoughtful pedagogical uses of technology require the development of a complex,

situated form of knowledge that we call Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK). In doing so, we posit the complex roles of, and interplay among, three

main components of learning environments: content, pedagogy, and technology. We

argue that this model has much to offer to discussions of technology integration at

multiple levels: theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological. In this article, we describe the theory behind our framework, provide examples of our teaching approach

based upon the framework, and illustrate the methodological contributions that have

resulted from this work.

The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to

discover new ways of thinking about them.

—Sir William Henry Bragg

The advent of digital technology has dramatically changed routines and

practices in most arenas of human work. Advocates of technology in education often envisage similar dramatic changes in the process of teachingand learning. It has become clear, however, that in education the reality has

lagged far behind the vision. Why?

Part of the problem, we argue, has been a tendency to only look at the

technology and not how it is used. Merely introducing technology to the

educational process is not enough. The question ofwhatteachers need to

know in order to appropriately incorporate technology into their teaching

has received a great deal of attention recently (International Society for

Technology in Education, 2000; National Council for Accreditation of

Teacher Education, 1997; U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment,

1995; U.S. Department of Education, 2000; Zhao, 2003). It has become

clear, however, that our primary focus should be on studyinghowthe technology is used (Carr, Jonassen, Litzinger, & Marra, 1998; Mishra & Koehler,

2003).

Some of this oversight can be attributed to the lack of theoretical

grounding for developing or understanding this process of integration

(American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1999, 2001; Issroff

& Scanlon, 2002; Selfe, 1990). Most educational technology research consists of case studies, examples of best practices, or implementations of new

pedagogical tools. Of course, good case studies, detailed examples of best

practices, and the design of new tools for learning are important for building understanding. But they are just the first steps toward the development

of unified theoretical and conceptual frameworks that would allow us to

develop and identify themes and constructs that would apply across diverse

cases and examples of practice. As Selfe argued,

[An] atheoretical perspective . . . not only constrains our current educational uses of computers, but also seriously limits our vision of what

might

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