Teachers, pedagogy and professional development - Teaching with Technologies: The Essential Guide - page 102

Understanding teachers' pedagogical reasoning
Shulman's (1987) model of pedagogical reasoning includes the processes of planning,
teaching, assessing and evaluating, to which 'use of technology' was added by Webb
in 2002. During pedagogical reasoning, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is gen-
erated and the crucial process of knowledge transformation occurs during the stages
of planning, delivery and evaluation of teaching.
Pedagogical content knowledge refers to a teacher's knowledge about a cur-
riculum area that enables improved teaching of that subject. Further to PCK, the
element of 'technology knowledge' was added by Koehler and Mishra in 2005,
who introduced the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) model.
This refers to Content knowledge (C), Pedagogic knowledge (P) and knowledge of
Technology (T) and as a model illuminates the dynamic, transactional relation-
ship between knowledge of content, pedagogy and technology. While Koehler and
Mishra (2005) argue that teachers can develop TPCK, in particular, greater technol-
ogy knowledge through professional development, Webb (2010: 98) insightfully
argues that the 'amount and range of this knowledge makes it unmanageable for
individual teachers to achieve a sufficiently comprehensive knowledge set in this
domain'.
However, Webb (2010) does provide two solutions to this problem. The first is the
development of technical tools to support resource selection, such as digital assistants
and search engines. The second concerns reducing the reliance on the knowledge of
the individual teacher and enabling pupils to develop their own pedagogical reason-
ing. Pupils can be encouraged to take responsibility for their own planning and learn-
ing through strategies such as AfL 'assessment for learning' (Black and Wiliam 2009).
Through feedback from assessment activities learners come to identify what they
need to learn (content) and how to learn it (pupil pedagogical reasoning). This Webb
(2010) argues is a move to 'distributed pedagogy' where knowledge and pedagogical
reasoning in the TPCK model is co-developed and shared between teachers, learners
and digital assistants.
Transformation of knowledge in teachers' pedagogical reasoning
Advancements in technology, alongside an increased understanding of pedagogy,
following developments in metacognition, have led to a greater appreciation for the
processes teachers engage with when conducting pedagogical reasoning (planning,
teaching, assessing and evaluation) and the integration of technology into their
practice. Crucial in this process is the transformation of knowledge, which occurs
with teachers' pedagogical reasoning.
Here the work of Webb (2002, 2004, 2010) has been instrumental in clarifying
the complexity of the processes involved and highlights the challenges to teachers
when it comes to incorporating technology into practice, since, 'enabling teachers
to adapt their pedagogical reasoning and practices in response to learning oppor-
tunities provided by technology is likely to be very difficult and complex process'
(Webb and Cox 2004: 278). Consequently, the role of professional development is
increased.