The effect of Technopedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) in-service training on geography teachers and its reflections of student success

The technology which has enabled to reach the level we came and has been contiuning to develop will resume to shape our future. It is obvious that societies that find or develop technology in the world of the future will have more say in the world. Considering that the most important factor in the development of societies is education, if technology is expected to be devoleped as an educational output, technology should be integrated into education at first. The stakeholders who has the most important role in integrating technology into education are teachers. Like all teachers, geography teachers must have the competencies to integrate technology into education. While 30 years ago the definition of a highly qualified geography teacher was "a geography teacher who has content knowledge", as time passed, this definition became insufficient and turned into a "geography teacher who masters his/her content and pedagogy". In today's world, where technology has become essential like air and water, the definition of a highly qualified geography teacher becomes "a geography teacher who has a command of his/her content, pedagogy and technology". There are many models in the literature to integrate technology into education. One of the few models focused on pedagogy is the Technopedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model. Geography teachers should also have high TPACK levels in order to be able to appeal to the students who were born into technology and defined as the generation Z In this context, the purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of an in-service training, which aims to gain TPACK competencies within the scope of FATİH Project, on geography teachers and on the success of students whose geography teachers participated into the in-service training (IST). In order to achieve the general purpose, one of the mixed method research designs, "Convergent Parallel Pattern" was preferred. Various data collection tools have been developed to collect data in line with each sub-purposes of the research. While developing and analyzing these data collection tools, the competencies which are adapted from "Technopedagogical Teacher Competencies" to geography teaching were used. Within the scope of the research, with the data collection tools such as lesson plans, vignettes, diaries, lesson observation guides, semi-structured interview forms and achievement tests from 37 geography teachers who participated in IST; data were collected from 254 students by means of an achievement test. In the quantitative part of the study, "single group pre-test-post-test" from experimental designs was used for geography teachers, and one of quasi-experimental designs "control group pre-test-post-test" design was used for students. In the qualitative part of the study, one of the "case study" designs named "One Case Pattern (Type 1)" was used. The quantitative data obtained from the research was added into the SPSS 27.0 statistical program and Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program, and analyzed using dependent samples t-test, Mann-Whitney U test and independent samples t-test. On the other hand, qualitative data was analyzed using the "Content Analysis" method. IST which is redesigned according to the results has increased the TPACK levels of geography teachers in general, but it has been determined that this increase is not at the same level in all competency areas of TPACK. It has been observed that geography teachers have generally positive views about IST, the problems they have experienced during the integration period of TPACK into geography teaching. and their solutions to these problems were determined. In addition, in the geography lessons compatible with TPACK model it was seen that the success of the students whose geography teachers with high TPACK competencies increased in accordance with the students of geography teachers who did not have these competencies. After blending all the quantitative and qualitative findings, the results were presented and discussed. At the end of the research, suggestions were made about organizing the curricula and Geography Curriculum in higher education in accordance with TPACK, regulating the IST (in-service training) designs as field-based and choosing the trainers for IST from the same branch as the learners, and making some adjustments in the policies of MoNE to technology integration.