Rubrics of TPACK-P for Teaching Science with ICTs

Abstract

Advances in information communication technologies (ICTs) have diversified teacher instruction. The appropriateness of representation selections and learning activity designs involving ICTs is determined by teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge-practical (TPACK-P), a knowledge construct transformed and reinforced through different tasks in teaching. This study developed rubrics for evaluating preservice teachers’ TPACK-P, according to the proficiency levels and features identified by in-service teachers. We collected lesson plans and microteaching video clips of seven preservice teachers in order to verify the rubrics and explore how their TPACK-P was demonstrated in lesson plans and microteaching. Results revealed that the preservice teachers’ performances on lesson planning and microteaching were similar, with discrepancies of +/− 1 level on the rubrics. Their performances on teaching with ICTs were comparatively better in curriculum design and enactment than on assessment. It may not be difficult for preservice teachers to implement ICTs, but the real challenges are to use ICTs with considerations of students, content, and pedagogy. Teacher education programs are advised to pay attention to how meaningfully ICTs are used to support instruction, rather than simply counting the number of times ICTs are used.

Appendix: Lesson Plan Exemplar (Case 4)

Theme: classical mechanics	Topic: static friction and dynamic friction
Target students: Grade 9	Duration: 45 min
Curriculum: handouts for junior high school students	Tools: tablet PCs, projectors
Learning objectives:
1. Get students to be interested in the content (i.e., friction)
2. Let students find answers from the experiments
Content analysis:
1. Motivate students to learn physics by displaying videos and referring to similar cases in daily life situations
2. Teach students by making connections between subject content and experiment results
Presentation of the concept of friction (15 min)
[1] Display a commercial video about tires. Familiarize students with the course topic by asking them what the commercial tries to convey. The commercial shows that a man suddenly depresses the brakes in his car once he sees a car rolling into the road. Later, he gets angrily out of the car and tries to argue with the law-breaking driver
[2] Ask students: Why can the brakes stop the moving car within such a short distance? Why can someone running not stop him/herself within such a short distance? [Q1] (Assume that students have some experience being in a car that stops quickly upon depression of the brakes, even if the car is moving at a speed as high as 20 km/h. If they do not have related experiences, students should be able to imagine that a runner at the same speed could not stop him/herself as quickly. These questions are expected to arouse students’ curiosity.)
Experiments of friction coefficients (30 min)
[3] Display a news clip that shows a scooter rider’s dangerous ride on nonfriction tiles. Ask students: Why did the scooter slide less on the asphalt road and more in the “dangerous zone”? [Q2]
[4] Students with different levels of background knowledge may make teaching more challenging. For Q1, students might point out that the treads on tires and shoes have similar functions. They could attribute the fact that fast runners are unable to stop within a short distance to the runner only wearing two shoes (cars have four tires) or that human legs have less strength than a car engine. If so, point out what is lacking in the students’ answers and help them to modify their answers. The experiment of friction coefficient measurement with the tablet PCs should be used once the students are able to offer good answers to Q1
[5] If the students cannot answer Q1, move to Q2. Students are assumed to be able to figure out the question regarding tiles. Make a connection between the tiles and the friction coefficient measurement experiment for the students. (Note: This section follows up with presentations of the definitions of static friction, dynamic friction, and friction coefficient. After acquiring definitions of terms related to friction, students will be told in the next course to use their tablet PCs to measure friction coefficients. They will also be told to bring small-sized items [i.e., palm sized] of different materials.)
[6] Display the video about a racing scooter making a curve (resource 4). Guide students to wonder: Why can a racing scooter lean on its wheels, but a regular scooter cannot? [Q3] (It is common to see dangerous riding behaviors like biking without using hands to hold the handlebars, carrying objects that are bigger or longer than the motor, or riding scooters with two feet standing on the pedals. Why are there no cases of riders’ leaning on their regular scooters?)
[7] Guide students to conduct the experiment of measuring friction with their tablet PCs. Start the APP called tangent MU1. Place an item (clothes or lightweight strips) on the top of the tablet PC. Then try to place items of different shapes (e.g., rectangle logs, little balls) on the tabletop and see at what angle the tablet tilts to make the item on the tabletop begin to slide
[8] Put 2–3 students in a group (small groups make discussions in experiments easier). For testing bigger items that are not easily measured on a tablet (e.g., wood chunks), one person from the group can hold the item, making the desired angle between the chunk and the floor, and place the tablet on the chunk. The other person can place the item to be measured on the tablet. They can set different angles between the item and the floor by lifting or lowering it. Friction coefficients can be calculated by pressing the function key marked “Setting” in the APP. Students can keep records of the coefficients by trying different items and angles
[9] Each group can measure different items, and they can then obtain an average coefficient from measuring the same item 3–5 times. All of the coefficients should be displayed on the blackboard for students to use in making comparisons. Students should here be asked again: Why can the racing motorbikes lean on their wheels but not the regular ones? [Q4] Hint to the students to refer back to the data; they will be expected to be able to point out different friction coefficients between racing tires and regular tires and find higher coefficients on the racing tires. (Some students may point out that it’s the surface of the floor that makes the friction coefficients different. The teacher should remind students that the racing tracks and regular roads are all paved with asphalt, and paving techniques probably don’t contribute to any major differences.)
[10] We can top-glue wood chunks and make an experiment for the students if they are interested in racing tires. The teacher can explain that the racing tires are slick tires, and the tires will heat up and melt if the racing motor passes at a high speed. That would make the tire surface seem like the glue topping
[11] Use PPT to synthesize the main points for students