Summary: | Sociocultural perspectives of learning emphasise the role of social interaction and activity in the
process of knowledge construction and foreground the social-cultural settings in which knowledge
construction occurs. This paper examines how in-service language teachers co-construct technological
pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) in asynchronous discussion and explores two significant
areas: 1) the critical elements of TPACK and 2) the process and strategies of knowledge construction.
As such, the focus of the paper is placed on the type of knowledge that is considered significant by
language teachers and the process of knowledge construction, with attention to the communicative
strategies and resources. Online chats from 13 teachers are analysed using both thematic and
sociocultural discourse analysis. The results indicate that TPACK mainly concerns the affordances of
technology and methods to integrate technology from teachers’ perspectives. In the process of coconstructing TPACK, teachers use different communicative strategies to negotiate meaning and
achieve mutual understanding. Various contextual resources are exploited to facilitate and mediate
the process of knowledge construction. This paper highlights the significance of context in developing
knowledge, the need for providing participants with training for communicative strategies,
establishing ground rules in collaborative work, giving ownership of task or topic to the participants
and the importance of social talk.
|