Educational Neuroscience Learning Sciences and Teachers Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Spyridon Doukakis, Assistant Professor, Department of Informatics, Ionian University and Chrystalla Mouza, Professor, School of Education, University of Delaware and Panayiotis Vlamos, Professor, Department of Informatics, Ionian University

In the last few decades, we have witnessed a rapid development of digital technologies in all areas of human activity. Industry 4.0, with innovative processes in digitization, automation, and robotics is already changing the world around us leading to a new industrial revolution. As individuals with expertise in new and emerging technologies, we observe these developments with great interest and respect, but simultaneously with skepticism as we need to determine the extent to which they benefit or hinder human activity and society more broadly.

"By using new technologies and pedagogies, educator scan transform the way they think about teaching and the way their students experience learning".

These developments are also observed in the field of education, inevitably leading to new perspectives in education. For instance, Extended Reality (XR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Social Media (SM), the Internet of Things (IOT), and Big Data (BD), are some of the emerging technologies that educators, parents, and learners are experimenting with and gradually beginning to integrate in educational practice. Further, in the 21s century, opportunities for access to education through virtual learning environments (VLMs) have increased, gasification as part of the educational process has improved, competency-based approaches have advanced, and adaptive learning has been enhanced. By using new technologies and pedagogies, educator scan transform the way they think about teaching and the way their students experience learning.

While these new technologies may have the potential to transform teaching and learning, educators are not always able to keep abreast of new developments. Further, even when they become familiar with new technologies, they do not always adopt them in their teaching. Early adopters, however, are essential to advancing our understanding of the educational process. Early adopters can attempt to integrate new tools in their educational practice, further exploring and even developing their capabilities (Niles et al., 2009). To this end, researchers are interested in partnering with educators who incorporate new digital technologies into their educational practice in order to engage in cycles of testing and evaluation, with the overall intention of improving the efficacy of educational technology tools.

Going through iterative cycles of implementation and evaluation, it is possible to improve the quality of both educational technology tools and the manner in which they are integrated in classrooms. However, even today, data indicates that 2/3 of educators use printed work sheets for instruction and on average only approximately half (53 percent) of educators in OECD countries often or always incorporate technologies into the classroom (Niche & Mine -Pic, 2020).

In the last century, Shulman (1987) had shown that the modern (of that time) educators, in addition to the excellent knowledge of the content they are going to teach and the pedagogical knowledge that they need to possess, they need to have knowledge in the intersection of content and pedagogy. Hat is to have knowledge of what they teach and how they teach it. Shulman called this kind of knowledge Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) and defined it as the knowledge with which the educators can transform the content and teach it in an appropriate way, so that it will be accessible to the learners (Shulman, 1987). At the beginning of the 20th century, when the integration of digital technologies into education was widely attempted, the need arose to redefine Shulman’s PCK to include technology knowledge. This change has led to the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge framework (TPACK; Mishra & Koehler, 2006) (Figure 1). TPACK describes the type of knowledge needed for the successful integration of technology in teaching.

A key component associated with the development of TPACK, is the education of pre-service and in-service educators. As a result, Schools of Education nationwide are now incorporating opportunities for pre-service educators to delve into the content of the subject they are going to teach, the pedagogical knowledge needed to teach, and the technological knowledge essential to using new technologies. At the same time, attempts are being made to provide in-service educators with professional development that helps them increase their TPACK, reconsider their beliefs, and alter their practice to incorporate technology. Yet, according to the OECD, only 43 percent of pre-service and in-service educators feel well or very well prepared to integrate digital technologies into their teaching practice (Nusche & Minea-Pic, 2020). Therefore, more work is needed before all educators are ready and prepared to integrate digital technologies in teaching practice.

Based on the above, it is clear that we need to continue examining new approaches and opportunities that help pre-service and in-service educators achieve universal integration of digital technologies in teaching and learning.

Towards this end, we suggest that research and development focuses on two key aspects of teacher preparation. The first is the integrated development of introductory teaching and training programs based on the TPACK framework. These training and education programs can be performed both in person and using digital clinical simulations (e.g., Kaka et al., 2021). In this way, learners will be able to orchestrate technology, pedagogy and content in their teaching practice, while simultaneously taking into account the specific educational context in which the work is situated.

The second lies in the integration of learning sciences principles in teacher preparation and professional development. For instance, findings from neuroscience can be applied in the field of education contributing to our increased understanding of how people learn. The ability to monitor specific digital biomarkers of learners in real or simulated situations and the collection and analysis of this data using machine learning and artificial intelligent, can favor and lead to differentiated teaching and learning which ultimate benefits both the learners and society in general. Educational neuroscience is an extremely promising field, in which the findings can help confirm or refute widely used teaching and learning practices (e.g., neuron-myths).

In conclusion, utilizing the TPACK framework as a guide and drawing on learning sciences principles, including principles from neuroscience, can help transform educators' perspectives on the use of digital technologies in teaching practice gaining a deeper and more substantial understanding of the TPACK framework, the learning mechanisms, and the function of the human brain. Towards this end, teacher preparation and professional development programs must help all educators increase their understanding of the following principles and practices (Figure 2):

(a) The plasticity of the human brain and its ability to develop through synapses and neural pathways (Rees et al., 2016);

(b) The integration of non-threatening diagnostic, formative and final assessment;

(c) The role and utilization of the obstacles that the learners encounter in their learning (Moser et al., 2011);

Educational Technology

Big Data

Artificial Intelligence

Robotics

IoT

Machine Learning

Industry 4.0