Modeling pre-service teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) perceptions

The influence of demographic factors and TPACK constructs

Abstract

The TPACK framework comprises seven constructs that describe teachers' technology integration expertise. These TPACK constructs address a theoretical void in the area of educational technology and have been widely adopted by colleges of education for the planning of teacher technology integration courses. This study first describes Singapore pre-service teachers' TPACK perceptions with respect to these seven constructs. Using a stepwise regression model, this study then analyzes the relative impact of age, gender, and TPACK constructs on the TPACK perceptions of pre-service teachers. It was found that TPACK constructs had significant impact on pre-service teachers' TPACK perceptions whereas the demographic variables of age and gender were not signficant. Among the TPACK constructs, only technological pedagogical knowledge and technological content knowledge were found to be significant predictors of TPACK. The implications of these findings on the design of pre-service teacher ICT courses are discussed.