TPACK Framework

Have you ever found yourself in the following conundrum: you have technology in your school and classroom and student academic outcomes don't improve? Or, you have plenty of professional development focused on pedagogy and student outcomes aren't rising? Or, you have pacing guides and content curriclum coaches and student outcomes stay stagnant? If you have or are experiencing this, you are not alone.

Far too often, we take a silo'd approach when it comes to increasing student outcomes. We often think if we have technology in classrooms that enables students to learn independently on programs like Kahn Academy, etc. that we're checking off the box that says students have access to technology. However, that isn't the case and ultimately could be detrimental for student learning.

Here comes the TPACK framwork. You can think of this framework as a way that merges both pedagogy, technology, and content into one. For teachers to be effective and for students to meet high expectations, all three components must come together to form a cohorent strategy in the classroom. Technology must enhance strong pedagogy skills and content-delivery. Technology can't be a substitute for strong content-delivery and pedagogical skills.

Here is a diagram that explains this framework and the intersection between the three components from www.tpack.org:

So, if you're a school leader, consider where your teachers are at and where you need to go in order to hit the TPACK sweet spot.