A Case Study Exploring TPACK Framework within the Context of Early Childhood Education

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory single-case study was to investigate the affordances of iPads and how these affordances transpired within a technological, pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework by four early childhood educators at a low-income family preschool in Honolulu, Hawaii. Early childhood education (ECE) will be defined as education from birth to age eight although this study focused primarily on educators for preschool age group that is from age three to five. The targeted participants included four preschool teachers with varying technological skills and knowledge. Methods of data collection were pre-survey, post-survey, follow-up survey, group interviews, follow-up interviews, classroom observations, and documentation of iPad workshops and other email correspondences. The data included existing data from a grant project completed at the end of 2013 and new data from follow-up interviews collected in May 2014. The data were analyzed using coding methods in two cycles. The three major findings were 1) the exploration of affordances provided by iPads showed common themes of efficiency and effectiveness in assessing, teaching, and learning. In addition, there were some affordances particular to teaching and learning; 2) the exploration in how participating teachers discovered the affordances of iPad over time indicated parallel progression in technological knowledge and change in their value system about the affordances of iPad; and 3) the exploration in the progression of technological knowledge and change in their value system about the affordances of iPad within the TPACK framework suggested that there was a close relationship between progression of technological knowledge (TK) towards TPACK and progression of affective-valuing (AV) towards affective-characterization by value system (AC).