TPACK: Technological Pedagogical Content

Knowledge Framework
By Serhat Kurt, PhD
September 16, 2019

What Is TPACK?
Technology has become an increasingly important part of students’ lives beyond school, and
even within the classroom it can also help increase their understanding of complex concepts or
encourage collaboration among peers. Because of these benefits, current educational practice
suggests that teachers implement some form of technology in their classrooms – but many
teachers face difficulties in doing so. Cost, access, and time often form considerable barriers to
classroom implementation, but another obstacle is a lack of knowledge regarding how
technology can best be used to benefit students across diverse subject matter.

Punya Mishra and Matthew J. Koehler’s 2006 TPACK framework, which focuses on
technological knowledge (TK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and content knowledge (CK),
offers a productive approach to many of the dilemmas that teachers face in
implementing educational technology (edtech) in their classrooms. By differentiating among
these three types of knowledge, the TPACK framework outlines how content (what is being
taught) and pedagogy (how the teacher imparts that content) must form the foundation for any
effective edtech integration. This order is important because the technology being implemented
must communicate the content and support the pedagogy in order to enhance students’ learning
experience.

According to the TPACK framework, specific technological tools (hardware, software,

applications, associated information literacy practices, etc.) are best used to instruct and guide
students toward a better, more robust understanding of the subject matter. The three types of
knowledge – TK, PK, and CK – are thus combined and recombined in various ways within the
TPACK framework. Technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) describes relationships and
interactions between technological tools and specific pedagogical practices, while pedagogical
content knowledge (PCK) describes the same between pedagogical practices and specific
learning objectives; finally, technological content knowledge (TCK) describes relationships and
intersections among technologies and learning objectives. These triangulated areas then
constitute TPACK, which considers the relationships among all three areas and acknowledges
that educators are acting within this complex space.
 image ©2012 by tpack.org
Mishra and Koehler, researchers from Michigan State University, developed TPACK in the
absence of other sufficient theory to explain or guide effective edtech integration. Since its
publication in 2006, TPACK has become one of the leading theories regarding edtech and edtech
integration: research and professional development activities both draw from it heavily.

However, TPACK has remained such a powerful principle for almost 12 years because the
complex constituents described above allow room for a range of specific educational
circumstances. Any effective implementation of technology in the classroom requires
acknowledgment of the dynamic, transactional relationship among content, pedagogy, and the
incoming technology – all within the unique contexts of different schools, classrooms, and
cultures. Factors such as the individual educator, the specific grade level, the class
demographics, and more will mean that every situation will demand a slightly different approach
to edtech integration. No one monolithic combination of content, pedagogy, and edtech will be
applicable for every setting, and TPACK leaves room for researchers and practitioners to adapt
its framework to different circumstances.

This adaptability can be seen in the various intersections and relationships already embodied in
the TPACK acronym.

Content Knowledge (CK) – This describes teachers’ own knowledge of the subject matter. CK
may include knowledge of concepts, theories, evidence, and organizational frameworks within a
particular subject matter; it may also include the field’s best practices and established approaches
to communicating this information to students. CK will also differ according to discipline and
grade level – for example, middle-school science and history classes require less detail and scope
than undergraduate or graduate courses, so their various instructors’ CK may differ, or the CK
that each class imparts to its students will differ.

Pedagogical Knowledge (PK) – This describes teachers’ knowledge of the practices, processes,
and methods regarding teaching and learning. As a generic form of knowledge, PK encompasses
the purposes, values, and aims of education, and may apply to more specific areas including the
understanding of student learning styles, classroom management skills, lesson planning, and
assessments.

Technological Knowledge (TK) – This describes teachers’ knowledge of, and ability to use,
various technologies, technological tools, and associated resources. TK concerns understanding
edtech, considering its possibilities for a specific subject area or classroom, learning to recognize
when it will assist or impede learning, and continually learning and adapting to new technology
offerings.

This describes teachers’ knowledge regarding Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)

foundational areas of teaching and learning, including curricula development, student
assessment, and reporting results. PCK focuses on promoting learning and on tracing the links
among pedagogy and its supportive practices (curriculum, assessment, etc.), and much like CK,
will also differ according to grade level and subject matter. In all cases, though, PCK seeks to
improve teaching practices by creating stronger connections between the content and the
pedagogy used to communicate it.

Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) – This describes teachers’ understanding of how

technology and content can both influence and push against each other. TCK involves
understanding how the subject matter can be communicated via different edtech offerings, and
considering which specific edtech tools might be best suited for specific subject matters or
classrooms.

Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) – This describes teachers’ understanding of how

particular technologies can change both the teaching and learning experiences by introducing
new pedagogical affordances and constraints. Another aspect of TPK concerns understanding
how such tools can be deployed alongside pedagogy in ways that are appropriate to the discipline
and the development of the lesson at hand.

TPACK is the end result of these various combinations and interests, drawing from them – and
from the three larger underlying areas of content, pedagogy, and technology – in order to create
an effective basis for teaching using educational technology. In order for teachers to make
effective use of the TPACK framework, they should be open to certain key ideas, including:

1. concepts from the content being taught can be represented using technology,
2. pedagogical techniques can communicate content in different ways using technology,
3. different content concepts require different skill levels from students, and edtech can help
address some of these requirements,
4. students come into the classroom with different backgrounds – including prior
educational experience and exposure to technology – and lessons utilizing edtech should
account for this possibility,
5. educational technology can be used in tandem with students’ existing knowledge, helping
them either strengthen prior epistemologies or develop new ones.

Because it considers the different types of knowledge needed and how teachers themselves could
cultivate this knowledge, the TPACK framework thus becomes a productive way to consider
how teachers could integrate educational technology into the classroom. Then too, TPACK can
also serve as a measurement of instructor knowledge, potentially impacting both training and
professional development offerings for teachers at all levels of experience. Finally, the TPACK
framework is useful for the ways in which it explicates the types of knowledge most needed in
order to make technology integration successful in the classroom. Teachers need not even be
familiar with the entire TPACK framework as such in order to benefit from it: they simply need
to understand that instructional practices are best shaped by content-driven, pedagogically-sound,
and technologically-forward thinking knowledge.