Validation of the application of TPACK framework to train teacher in the use of ICT

Abstract

Training teachers in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is now an undeniable necessity if we wish to incorporate ICT into teaching-learning processes in an educational and significant manner, and not merely use them as an additional element operating separately from the other curricular variables (contents, strategies, methodologies, etc.). The incorporation of ICT in teachers’ professional development is affected by such peculiar elements as the teachers’ different types of knowledge. The design of the TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework, which was fundamentally put forward by Koehler and Mishra (2007), has highlighted the link between the different types of knowledge and is forming the basis of a line of research, diagnosis and reflection on teacher training in ICT. One of the tools that have most widely been used in studies to assess teachers’ TPACK has been the instrument prepared by Schmidt et al. (2009), made up of 46 items with a Likert-type response scale. Our aim in this article has been to verify that this instrument is reliable in Latin American and Spanish teaching contexts, applying it to a sample of 1326 teachers. The main result has been the model’s high level of reliability, so we can deduce that no new assessment instruments are required to be designed in this field. When we apply the Pearson correlation coefficient, we find that the obtained correlations are highly significant. This leads us to conclude that the instrument used to measure the TPACK framework’s reliability with pre-service teachers or those