This is the what of teaching This is the what of teaching. It includes the content, knowledge and skills that you need to teach as, for example, a Maths, English, History or Life Orientation teacher. Your content knowledge includes your knowledge of the curriculum, the concepts involved in your subject and the theories and ideas.

This is the how of teaching and includes your deep knowledge about the processes, practices and methods of teaching e.g. group work, mindmaps, direct instruction and projects. Your knowledge of constructivism, as an example of a theory explaining how and why children learn, is also part of your pedagogical knowledge as is your understanding of the overall purposes, values and aims of education.

This is your knowledge about various technologies, how they work and what their potential educational applications might be. If you know how to use the interactive functions of an interactive whiteboard, this is part of your technological knowledge.

This is what you know as the best ways to teach your subject This is what you know as the best ways to teach your subject. If you are a Grade 10 Maths teacher, you may know that a great way to introduce trigonometry is to have learners do an investigation where they calculate the height of a building based on the length of its shadow. If you are a primary school language teacher, you may know that simulated news reports are a great way to teach complicated vocabulary. Your pedagogical content knowledge is a direct result of your experience teaching and figuring out which approaches work best when.

This is your understanding of which technologies are best suited to teaching your particular subject. It also includes understanding how a technology can influence the content and vica versa. For example, it means understanding that not everything on Wikipedia is definitely true and that learners need to analyse and assess the information that they get from this source. Or, it means knowing that a simulation of how atoms behave in solids, liquids and gasses does not tell the full story and may, in fact, introduce some misconceptions if you are not careful.

This is your understanding of how teaching and learning change when using particular technologies including the particular affordances (or kinds of things that are possible) of certain technologies. It means understanding that video is a relatively passive medium and unless learners are directed and helped to watch actively, the information could “go in one ear and out the other.” Another example is understanding what kinds of protections and limits need to be in place if you are going to allow, especially, younger learners to collaborate online with other people.

This is where it all comes together and represents your understanding of how content, pedagogy and technology intersect and influence each other. For example, TPaCK is your understanding of what visual literacy your grade 12 learners need to acquire, that a great way for them to acquire these skills is by comparing and contrasting different adverts and then making their own for a specific purpose and also knowing what technology will help you best achieve your learning goals – in this case video, video production and virtual interactions with advert producers and how best to use these technologies.