Examining Pre-Service Physical Education Teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)

Background/Purpose: Implementing technology within all areas of education is an objective in most schools strategic plan. It appears in mission statements, effective teaching objectives, and student learning objectives (Goktas, 2012). Physical education (PE), like all subjects,  needs to integrate technology and, physical educators need to think creatively for opportunities to integrate technology to create more enriching learning experiences for their students (Pyle & Esslinger, 2014). The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service PE teachers’ technological pedagogy skills, beliefs about, and implementation of technology in their classes.

Method: A modified version of Pre-service Teachers' Knowledge of Teaching and Technology (Semiz & Ince, 2011) was completed by 91 pre-service physical education teachers from several universities in the Northeast. Using a 5-point Likert scale, the 39-item inventory assessed: (a) demographic background, (b) technological knowledge, (c) pedagogy knowledge, (d) content knowledge, (e) pedagogical content knowledge, (f) technological content knowledge (TCK), (h) technological pedagogical knowledge (TPACK), (i) technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge, and (j) modeling computer use by professors.

Analysis/Results: Initial analyses revealed that there is a significant association between the amount of TPACK pre-service teachers perceived having and the technology that physical education teacher education (PETE) faculty modeled including various methods for implementation. These results are supported by 50% of the students’ agreeing that over 60% of the PETE faculty provide an effective model of combining content, technologies, and teaching approaches in their teaching. Males reported greater levels of TCK than females. Open ended responses indicated that PETE faculty were likely to use traditional forms of technology (PowerPoint and video) however, cooperating teachers were using more current technology including SmartBoards and iPads.

Conclusions: Integrating technology in PE will assist in creating more efficiency and greater understanding of concepts. If a teacher is able to utilize an iPad for assessment, or demonstrate skill analysis in real time on a SmartBoard along with having students practice the skill within progressive learning tasks, and follow-up with an online learning assignment for homework students will gain a deeper understanding of content. This study has shown that PETE programs are moving in the right direction, however, more examples of integration, using current technologies, need to be modeled by both PETE faculty and cooperating teachers more readily so pre-service teachers are well trained in implementing technology within a lesson. This study provides significant findings that technology is being used, however equity is not always represented within implementation.