Instructor Development of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) Self-Efficacy within a PoP-CURE Professional Development Community of Practice

This case study investigates changes in technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) self-efficacy in a group of instructors engaged in a Power of Place Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (PoP-CURE) Professional Development (PD) Community of Practice. We hypothesized that mentored and iterative PD would create a community of practice in which instructors become confident adopters of evidence-based technological PoP-CURE practices, promoting the overall development of instructor TPACK self-efficacy. Previous work on PD personas helped to inform our work by guiding observations of how interactions and individual choices contributed to TPACK self-efficacy. Within this case, the multiple embedded units of analysis were the five personas identified from the previous work. We found increases in various components of TPACK across all personas, but different TPACK components were emphasized for different personas. In-person PD retreats and group meetings offered opportunities for mastery, vicarious learning, and verbal persuasion to increase self-efficacy in TPACK building blocks (content knowledge, technological knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge). Mastery experiences during implementation, followed by reflection during the community of practice, were the sources of more complex forms of TPACK self-efficacy.