Exploring Preschool Teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Educational Games

Abstract

Current technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) studies are inclined to treat technology in a general manner, an approach which may not be able to provide adequate guidelines to improve teacher preparation and professional development when teaching with games. This study developed two new questionnaires, namely the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge-Games (TPACK-G) survey to investigate 352 preschool teachers' confidence in their TPACK-G, and the Acceptance of Digital Game-Based Learning (ADGBL) survey to assess their acceptance of gamebased learning. The results show that both instruments exhibit satisfactory validity and reliability. Through a path analysis, the framework of the TPACK-G proposed in this study was supported. In addition, preschool teachers' experience with games and their attitudes toward game-based learning contributed positively to their reported game knowledge. Perceived learning opportunities and attitudes toward game-based learning had direct relations with game pedagogical knowledge. Lastly, experience with games contributed to game pedagogical content knowledge.

The Role of the TPACK in Game-Based Teaching: Does Instructional Sequence Matter?

“…In the study of Praet and Desoete (2014) examining 132 kindergarteners' arithmetic skills, the results show that in comparison with the children who did not play games, those who played games tended to have better performance on mental arithmetic and number knowledge in the immediate and delayed tests. Meanwhile, (Hsu et al 2013) also found that preschoolers of age six could construct scientific understanding about light and shadow after the treatment of game-based learning.…”

“…Based on the feedback given, they can also modify their strategies, repeatedly improve the game-playing outcomes, and gain enjoyment from it (Chang et al 2010). Most of all, games have the potential of promoting conceptual understanding and process skills (Barab et al 2010;Hsu et al 2013;Praet and Desoete 2014). In the study of Praet and Desoete (2014) examining 132 kindergarteners' arithmetic skills, the results show that in comparison with the children who did not play games, those who played games tended to have better performance on mental arithmetic and number knowledge in the immediate and delayed tests.…”

“…Although the current TPACK studies are fruitful, most of the studies were inclined to treat technology in a general manner (Hsu et al 2013;Liang et al 2013). Nonetheless, some still addressed TPACK in the context of particular technologies, such as the Internet (Lee and Tsai 2010), computer simulation (Khan 2011), and interactive whiteboards (Jang and Tsai 2012).…”

“…This may mean that the TPACK framework may not offer appropriate guidelines to improve teachers' professional development for teaching with games. To deal with this problem, Hsu et al (2013) proposed a framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge-Games (TPACK-G). Developed from the ideas of TPACK (Mishra and Koehler 2009), the TPACK-G framework consists of game knowledge (GK)-knowledge about the general usage of computer games, game pedagogical knowledge (GPK)-knowledge of using games with various pedagogical characteristics for teaching without specific reference to content knowledge, game content knowledge (GCK)-knowledge about using games to represent content without the consideration of implemented pedagogy, and game pedagogical content knowledge (GPCK).…”

Observing the technological pedagogical and content knowledge levels of science teacher candidates

“…The studies about the use of TPACK in teacher education have increased in recent years to measure TPACK Archambault and Barnett, 2010;Koh et al, 2010;Sahin, 2011;Fisser et al, 2015;Kartal and Afacan, 2017;Drummond and Sweeney, 2017), to examine the information communication technologies (ICT) and TPACK integration (Öztürk, 2012;Chai et al, 2014;Yurdakul and Çoklar, 2014;Tondeur et al, 2015;Gür and Karamete, 2015;Ersoy et al, 2016;Kihoza et al, 2016;Koh et al, 2017;Kontkanen et al, 2017), for exploring teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (Hsu et al, 2013;Delen et al, 2015;Dong et al, 2015;Boschman et al, 2015;Phillips, 2017;Turgut, 2017), to examine TPACK and teachers' self-efficacies (Kazu and Erten, 2014;Kenar et al, 2015;Saudelli and Ciampa, 2016;Blonder and Rap, 2017), to determine TPACK and needs of Twenty-First-Century Education (Mishra, Koehler and Henriksen, 2010;Koh et al, 2015;Cherner and Smith, 2017).…”