International Journal of Multidisciplinary and Current Educational Research (IJMCER) The Teacher Trainers' Perceptions of the Challenges in Achieving Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teacher Education 1 (original) (raw)

The study examined the challenges in implementation of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) as a basis for 21st century learning and skills acquisition. The TPCK advocates for adequate balance of content knowledge with pedagogy and technology. The study sampled one hundred and twenty (120) teacher trainers whose status was senior lecturers and above in three Colleges of Education in Oyo State, Nigeria to determine the problems of achieving TPCK in teacher education. An open ended questionnaire which contained fifteen (15) statements on 4-point Likert scale was used as the only instrument. This allowed the teacher trainers to freely express their opinions on the issues related to the implementation of TPCK in the teacher education in Nigeria. The responses of the sampled teacher trainers were analysed using simple percentage. The finding indicated that inadequacy in teacher preparation, teachers' knowledge of application of technology, inadequate technological facilities, mode of recruitment of teacher trainers, lack of teacher motivation and irregular in-service training for the teacher trainers plague the implementation of TPCK in Nigeria teacher education system. The study recommends adequate knowledge and application of technological pedagogical content knowledge in teacher preparation, recruitment of teacher trainers, teacher motivation through prompt payment salary, adequate provision of technological facilities and regular in-service training. The study also suggested learning strategies that could be employed in teacher education to foster digital literacy, critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration Keywords: Teacher education, pedagogical content knowledge, technological pedagogical content knowledge, 21 st century learning and skills.