This paper describes a self-study research project that focused on our experiences when planning, teaching and evaluating a course in initial teacher training. The focus of the course was the pedagogical use of web 2.0 resources to support learning in the preschool/school context. The potential of the different digital tools was mainly explored by situated use in the design and teaching of the course. The focus, content, form of distribution, teaching and assessment of the course went beyond what is common in initial teacher training in Sweden. The analysis highlighted the challenges and opportunities that teacher educators and student teachers might encounter when working with, and learning about, ICT to support learning. Some of the findings discussed are related to the identified challenges and opportunities for both teachers and students to integrate content knowledge (CK), pedagogical knowledge (PK) and technological knowledge (TK) into a technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). For teacher educators this is especially challenging, since they need to develop TPACK themselves and understand what this means for different categories of teachers. Taken-for-granted organizational and institutional assumptions of teaching, learning and assessment in teacher education were identified in the study.

This conceptual paper discusses Donald A. Schön’s views on design and how itcould inform design-based research (DBR) on teachers’ use of technology ineducation. It argues that the rich affordances of digital technologies and teachers’and students’ situated designs with such technologies in complex and changing educational contexts make viewing design as rational problem-solving problematic. Instead, it is suggested that adopting Schön’s view of design as a reflective conversation with the situation in DBR approaches has the potential of informing both research on the use of digital educational technologies and teachers’ situated use of such technologies. The paper then presents suggestions as to how Schön’s ideas for research on teachers’ situated practices could contribute to theory development in DBR. Finally, some of the possibilities and challenges of the reflective DBR approach suggested in this paper are discussed.

Theoretical outcomes of design-based research (DBR) are often presented in the form of local theory design principles. This article suggests a complementary theoretical construction in DBR, in the form of a design framework at a higher abstract level, to study and inform educational design with ICT in different situated contexts. Laurillard's Conversational Framework (CF) is used as a conceptual lens to analyse how eight teachers use or envisage using technology to support learning in one-to-one environments. The findings demonstrate how the researcher uses the CF to discern different aspects of the teachers' situated design practices. In the study, ICT is primarily used to support communication and the exchange of knowledge representations between the teachers and their students. Considerably fewer examples are found where ICT is used to support communication, collaborative creation and modelling between peers. However, the interview analyses reveal that the teachers' intentions to apply ICT to support learning often include this second type of ICT use. Reasons for this discrepancy between the expressed intentions and de facto use of ICT include limitations in technical know-how and a perceived conflict between collaborative learning, existing school cultures and individual assessment. The findings suggest that in DBR, an analytical design framework could be an important tool for researchers and teachers when analysing and discussing educational uses of ICT. The CF provides a promising basis for a design framework, but should be expanded to include interactions with actors outside the classroom.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of teachers’ reframing of practice in digital contexts by analysing teachers’ pedagogical reasoning processes as they explore ways of using ICT to create added pedagogical value.

Design/methodology/approach

A design based-research (DBR) approach is employed, in which the on-site researcher collaborates with eight teachers of English as a foreign language in four Swedish schools over a period of two years. Multiple data sources are included for thematic coding and analysis. The TPACK framework is used as a conceptual construct in the analysis.

Findings

The findings show that teachers’ pedagogical reasoning is a complex and multidimensional process and is closely integrated with teachers’ reframing of practice. Common characteristics in the teachers’ reframing of practice are identified. The results highlight the reciprocal relationship between developments in teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and TPACK development and the need for a distinction between general and specific, theoretical and practical TPACK.

Research limitations/implications

An increased focus on TPACK research on teachers’ pedagogical reasoning is required. DBR is a relevant approach for this.

Practical implications

The pedagogical uses of ICT identified as adding value could benefit teachers in other contexts.

Originality/value

Rich data from multiple design contexts is collected and analysed over time through DBR. The paper contributes new knowledge about the process of pedagogical reasoning and its relation to teachers’ reframing of practice. The paper also contributes to TPACK theory development.

This research is part of a longitudinal design-based research (DBR) project in which the researcher collaborates with eight teachers of English as a foreign language. The objective of this study is to analyse the pedagogical use of ICT and the value this adds in educational designs that are described by teachers and students as having successfully supported learning during the DBR project.

A design framework is used as a conceptual tool to support the creation, evaluation and elaboration of research-based and context relevant educational designs. Nvivo software is used for the thematic coding and analysis of multiple data sources.

The findings show that the use of ICT added pedagogical value by enabling collaborative practices with peers and external actors in authentic contexts and empowered students as designers of their own meaning-making practices by affording and stimulating communication and reflection for learning in relation to knowledge representations of the teachers’, peers’, external actors’ and students’ own conceptual organisation and practice capabilities.

Moreover, the findings illustrate how the use of ICT for added pedagogical value depended on the teachers’ willingness and abilities to reframe and develop their pedagogical reasoning and practices in relation to: the content to be taught, the students in question, possible pedagogical strategies and the available technologies. 

The article provides evidence-based examples of how technology can be used to add pedagogical value and shows that it is how teachers and students use the existing technology to support teaching and learning that determines whether value is added or not.