Impact of a course co-design intervention on university teachers’ TPACK technology- related knowledge

A professional development program with design-based components is promising to promote teachers’ technology integration into teaching and support teachers’ needs in developing technology-related knowledge. We designed a professional development intervention in which the process of co-designing courses stood central. Our intervention includes (1) four co-design working sessions where educational researchers and an education support officer assisted the course
coordinator and co-teacher(s) throughout the course design process, and (2) a virtual working space where the team could use the course design dashboard to preview the discussion minutes, collaborative files, and exchange ideas via the chat. Seven teachers, designing six courses with technology, from a large multidisciplinary university, participated in our intervention. In this study,
we examined the effect of this intervention on teachers’ TPACK technology-related knowledge, namely Technological Knowledge (TK), Technological Content Knowledge (TCK), Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK). We used a mixed-methods approach to evaluate our course co-design intervention. We administered pre-test and post-test TPACK surveys, and interviewed teachers after the intervention. Our descriptive
analyses suggest that, of all four TPACK technology-related knowledge types, our intervention mostly impacted teachers’ TPK. Combining quantitative and qualitative data, we found an overall pattern that all teachers participating in our intervention gained additional knowledge on TPACK technology-related types (i.e., TK, TPK, TCK, TPCK) and were more aware of their knowledge gaps. Furthermore, our findings emphasise the potential of professional development programs with
design-based components at the course level in promoting teachers’ technology-related knowledge and teachers’ technology integration.