The third article in this TPACK-literature study is Margaret L. Niess’ article Mathematics Teachers Developing Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge (TPACK) In K. McFerrin et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2008 (pp. 5297-5304). Chesapeake, VA: AACE

In this article Niess describes 5 TPACK-levels for teaching mathematics with appropriate technologies. Niess states that teacher “do not demonstrate that they either have of do not have TPACK for teaching mathematics with appropriate technologies. They differ in the actions with respect to each of the components as they are confronted with whether to accept of reject the use of various technologies in teaching mathematics.”

With Everett Rogers (1995), she states that teachers’ development of TPACK for teaching mathematics with appropriate technologies is a developmental process. Niess developed a descriptive model to analyze teachers’ TPACK-development. Using Rogers (1995) ideas the five levels are:

  1. Recognizing (knowledge) where teachers are able to use the technologies and recognize alignment of the capabilities of the technologies with mathematics content.
  2. Accepting (persuasion) where teachers form a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward teaching and learning mathematics with appropriate technologies.
  3. Adapting (decision) where teachers engage in activities that lead to a choice to adopt or reject teaching and learning mathematics with appropriate technologies.
  4. Exploring (implementation) where teachers actively integrate teaching and learning of mathematics with appropriate technologies. 
  5. Advancing (confirmation) where teachers evaluate the results of the decision to integrate teaching and learning mathematics with appropriate technologies.

In the article see also provides an in-depth description of each stage. Following each description is a “teacher comment”. In the phase of Recognizing teachers only see a limited use of technology. In the phase of Accepting teachers think that technology will only help students that are already competent with the technology. In the phase of Adapting the teacher thinks that technology is worthwhile for themselves and students. Teachers are aware that they have to learn more about the technology if they want to use it in the classroom. In the phase of Exploring teachers are somewhat anxious to introduce new technologies into their curriculum but explore they possibilities with their students. They also recognize that technology can engage students in learning mathematics. In the fifth phase Advancing the teacher can integrate technology in such a way that students perform higher-level math and higher-level thinking and let the computer do the basic arithmetic. They also know how to engage students through the use of technology