Theorizing Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge to Support Networked Inquiry Learning in Science: Looking Back and Moving Forward

Abstract

The notion that teachers and students can incorporate digital technology to support science investigations and enhance learning experiences has received considerable interest from researchers, practitioners, and policymakers (Loveless & Ellis, 2001; New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2007; Somekh, 2007). For instance, the World Wide Web offers easy access to multimodal and up-to-date information and opportunities to interact with people and information, compared to facilitating face-to-face meetings or using standard texts (Cowie, Moreland, Jones, & Otrel-Cass, 2008; Slotta & Linn, 2000). Careful orchestration of digital technology in classrooms has the potential to enhance understanding of science ideas, promote learners’ independence, motivation and engagement in science, and support visualizing investigations and science learning. However, this requires that teachers and students have sandpit time, which means time to practice, and reflect for, the use of digital technology (Otrel-Cass, Cowie, & Khoo, 2011). It has been argued that if teachers want their students to learn about what it means to think and work as a scientist, then they should be involved in activities that are authentic and meaningful. This means that students should get opportunities to apply their growing scientific literacy, practice decision making (Roth, van Eijck, Reis, & Hsu, 2008), and learn about social practices and discourses that contribute to the way scientists generate knowledge (Kovalainen & Kumpulainen, 2009). This demand for authenticity is challenging the traditional school environment, because activities that involve students as self-directed learners, who investigate, interpret, and assess the trustworthiness of information from a variety of sources, for the purpose of answering their own questions, are not easily achieved (Duschl, 2008; Otrel-Cass et al., 2011). Although Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been identified to provide a suite of tools that support such endeavors, digital technology alone will not change teacher practices in science classrooms. If digital technology is to contribute to transforming science learning, those involved with shaping teacher pedagogy, including researchers and teacher educators, need to explore how teachers can use the creative, collaborative, experimental, and evaluative possibilities ICT may have to offer (Somekh, 2007). It is also not enough to assume that twenty-first century students may be digitally literate in using technology for recreational purposes, such as social networking, and to then believe that they can, or want, to automatically transfer those skills into educational settings (Kennedy, Judd, Churchward, Gray, & Krause, 2008). Such oversimplifications of digital technology use and practices in science, or other subjects, may lead to less productive teaching and learning outcomes, and alienate both teachers and students from using digital technology in class.