What is the TPAC model?

 Hello everyone !

Welcome to my blogspot again. Today we are going to try to understand the TPAC model precisely. Before I start writing, I want to show you the elements of TPAC model by showing a picture.

TPAC is a teaching model that emphasizes the learning process by including some elements like content, pedagogical and technological knowledge.

Content Knowledge(CK)

It is the piece of information that the teacher knows about the subject itself. It includes theories, concepts, approaches and so on. The way that these elements' are taught may change according to the grades. So basically, we can say that content knowledge is the simple set of knowledge that the teacher knows about the particular subject.

Pedagogical Knowlege(PK)

It is the teacher's general knowledge of how to apply approaches, methods, activities and processes to teaching and learning environment. We can say it is the general knowledge of the teacher about how the class can be shifted to an active environment.

Technological Knowledge(TK)   

It covers the technological knowledge of the teacher in the way of preventing the lecture from being given in a monotonous way. It can include the application of some technological games to the learning environment( Examples will be given in TechnologicalContent Knowledge).   

Combination of the knowledge elements

PedagogicalContent Knowledge(PCK)

The combination of pedagogical and content knowledge covers the teacher's knowledge of which approaches or methods may be the best for students to understand the particular subject so that the students of the class can get the most effective outcome.

TechnologicalContent Knowledge(TCK)

This element emphasizes the application of technology to the current content. The purpose of the teacher in this manner should be to know how the technology can affect the student's way of understanding the content. I can give a specific example to make this title to be understood well. In order to make the lesson visual-oriented and active, I used the website whose name is mysimpleshow. It is a website that helps you to teach the particular subject by enriching it with images that appear while a robot sound reads the text. I created a short video about the industrial revolution by using that website.

The video:

We can give the second example which is Voki. It is a website that you can choose a character from a variety of options or create your own character. It can be used to teach a particular topic to our student. For example, to explain the discovery of America, we can choose Christopher Columbus and prepare a text about the topic. I chose him and wrote a short text about the subject. 

Here is the link and the character:

As a result, we can clearly say that we can turn the class into an interactive one with our knowledge of technological content knowledge. If we explained the topic by just writing, I am sure that it would be a monotonous and a boring lesson and the students would easily be distracted by the long texts.

TechnologicalPedagogical Knowledge(TPK)

TPK includes the knowledge of approaches, affordance and constrains of technological tools in the way of using them while teaching. So, the teacher should take the capabilities, approaches, constrains and affordance of the technological tool that is used in the way of explaining the lesson in a creative way.

Finally, TPACK is the combination of those three elements that are content, pedagogy and technology. The teacher has a piece of information about the subject and reviews that information that will be used in the class in terms of approach, purpose and process, and finally uses his/her technological knowledge to make the lesson more effective.

I hope to see you on the next post. Take care !