Examining preservice mathematics teachers' perceptions of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK)...

When TPACK is first proposed, it is believed to consist of 7 components, and 3 of them are core components: TK, PK and CK; another 4 components are compound ones overlapping the 3 core components, which are: TPK, TCK, PCK and TPACK. Many subsequent empirical studies find validity of the TPACK framework has not always been supported. This study adopts structural equation modeling to accurately measure and construct the TPACK structure perceived by preservice mathematics teachers, and based on this, proposes several strategies of promoting the formation and development of preservice teachers' TPACK structure.

To investigate the internal structure and developmental pathways of their TPACK, this study surveyed 368 preservice mathematics teachers from a local comprehensive university in China by using an adapted PMT-TPACK questionnaire. By employing exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), a four-dimensional TPACK model was constructed and validated.

The model consists of content knowledge (CK), technological knowledge (TK), technological content knowledge (TCK), and integrated TPACK. The results reveal that preservice mathematics teachers can't distinguish the boundaries among technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and synthesized TPACK. This study has also found that preservice teachers have the strongest confidence in TCK. The confidence in TK is significantly low, especially in terms of self-evaluation in learning new technologies and using professional software. The findings indicate that TCK demonstrates a significant mediating effect between CK and integrated TPACK, the level of participation in technical courses and educational practice courses has a significant weak positive impact on all dimensions of TPACK. This suggests that the development of TPACK is an integrative process driven by both coursework and practical experience, with TCK acting as a critical mediator. Based on these conclusions, it is recommended that teacher education programs should systematically develop a curriculum that deeply integrates technology, content, and pedagogy, reinforce the central role of integrative knowledge, and enhance preservice teachers' ability of integrating technology into effective teaching practice through progressive, hands-on experiences.