Juggling Spheres of Knowledge

In reading the articles about TPACK this week, one phrase that really stood out to me was from the Linton article: “Implementation of the TPACK model begins with content knowledge…” This statement struck me because, in my mind, this seems obvious. I think all teaching should begin with content knowledge. Without content, the rest of the teaching process would of course be hollow. On the other hand, content by itself is not enough. Content needs to be presented in such a way that students will actually learn it. This is the challenge of teaching.

The PCK model creates a visual representation of this interplay between individual knowledge of something and the ability to pass this knowledge onto others. I think it also highlights that teaching is more complex than many people deem it to be. I think that a lot of people consider teaching to be a simple task of passing along information, without considering just how difficult that “simple task” actually is. There are many people in the world who know a lot; who hold a lot of content in their heads. However, only a very small number of these people are able to teach. Teaching is a skill that is part natural inclination or ability and part skill acquired through years of training and practice. In fact, I would argue that no matter the natural talent of the teacher, the training and practice part of teaching skills are the most important. More than that, this part of being a teacher is (or should be) constant: a teacher should always be learning how to become a better teacher by learning new content and discovering new methods for delivering that content.  

The addition of technology to the model to create the TPACK model adds another level of complexity to the skill (or art) of teaching. As is discussed in the McGrath article, modern technology, by its very nature, is constantly evolving, so keeping abreast of using it requires continually learning and relearning how to use it. Therefore, as I see it, being an excellent teacher requires the ability to successfully juggle three constantly growing and changing balls (or spheres of knowledge). If one sphere is dropped, then the juggling is not successful. Perhaps this metaphor is a bit forced, but my point is simply to reiterate what our articles this week stated, that in today's school, technology needs to be viewed as a standard component of teaching and needs to taught and retaught to teachers, so that they can implement it properly in their classrooms.