The Many Faces of TPACK/Preface

Some of the great examples of other wikibooks initiated by educational technology scholars provided an inspiration for this wikibook created as part of a course assignment for the Research and Technology in Teacher Education Course. These inspirations came from Dr. Ana Paula Correia's course wikibook project “Breaking the Mold: An Educational Perspective on Diffusion of Innovation”, Dr. Niki Davis's "Change with Digital Technologies in Education", and Dr. Curt Bonk's "The Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies". These provided great examples of such collaborative work that came out of graduate courses.

The nature of the TPACK framework that we investigated throughout the semester was another source of inspiration. TPACK is a multifaceted construct. To conduct an in-depth exploration of this frame, we needed to look at it from different lenses such as from the lens of a discipline, a research method, a social context etc. This wikibook is the product of such "bon voyage" taken by the course participants. Wikibook helped us present our work in an online platform that is open to the whole world. Knowing this and the whole idea of writing a chapter for a book was first challenging, but exciting. Not only students followed a guided writing process but also decided many elements of the book together, such as the design of the cover and the selection of the title. The product is not an end but a beginning of the further work that will come out of our efforts in understanding TPACK within different contexts.

Following chapters present different topics in “The Many Faces of TPACK: Perspectives and Approaches”. First section focuses on the investigation of TPACK research and implications in different disciplines. Cetinkaya examines TPACK in Science Teacher Education. First exploring at the reasons for integration of technology in teacher education, she provides analysis of the research conducted on TPACK within the context of science teacher education. Gamze’s chapter offers suggestions for implications of TPACK research in science education.

Celik investigates TPACK in English Language Teacher Education. He starts with a presentation of the definition of knowledge and its transformation and English as lingua Franca. Celik later provides examples of research that integrated TPACK into the ELT context. Chapter finishes with future implications. Another context that was investigated is Math education. Reviewing the trends on TPACK and math teacher education, Kol presents recent literature and continues with the future recommendations for Math teacher educators.

Another important but under-researched field in TPACK is the special education teacher education. Altan completes the quest of TPACK in special education by first defining special education, then presenting the research on the integration of technology into special education, and finally, laying out limited studies conducted on TPACK and special education teacher education with examples and implications. Cilsalar investigates the literature on TPACK and primary teacher education. While still at its infancy, TPACK has produced a number of research studies conducted within the context of k-5 teacher education level. This chapter provides a review of those studies with examples from the field. Final chapter in the “Exploring TPACK within Disciplines” section is the computer education. Computer education has is a unique discipline in the context of Turkey. Bahcekapili provides an analysis of the studies conducted on TPACK in the context of computer and technology teacher education.

Second section focuses on TPACK measures. Ilci provides a detailed review of the TPACK measures used in the literature. His discussion includes the development phases of the measurement tools as well as the challenges regarding measuring TPACK. Sat continues with the investigation of a specific measure: the TPACK self-assessment survey developed in collaboration with Iowa State University and Michigan State University in 2009. Sat’s review present the impact of this widely adopted survey around the world by reviewing the studies that used the tool in different contexts.

Recently, TPACK been cited frequently in efforts for renewing Turkey’s teacher education system. Considering this, Kayaduman's chapter on the investigation of technology initiatives in Turkey within the light of TPACK provides a detailed and critical picture of some of the large technology initiatives started in Turkey. Kayaduman provides recommendations on how TPACK can be used to inform teacher education research and practices in Turkey’s teacher education contexts. Final chapter focuses on TPACK from the perspective of simultaneous renewal. Yasan, investigates technology initiates around the world such as the PT3 in the United States and Fatih project in Turkey with the TPACK framework.

Throughout this Wikibook, authors not only examine TPACK within different disciplines, research methods, and initiatives, but also provide their own insights on how this frame might impact future research and practice both in Turkey and around the world. I believe this is just a beginning to our “bon voyage” on TPACK and motivation to improve learning and teaching with technology. We cherish this collaborative effort that opened the borders of our course to the scholarly community and hope to continue such endeavours in the near future.

Evim Baran
Ankara, Turkey
August 20, 2012