EXPLORING TEACHERS' OVERALL COMPETENCIES IN INDIAN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION SYSTEM USING TPACK MODEL.

Abstract

In the present digital era, it is important that a teacher is equipped with proper technology usage besides having a domain and pedagogical knowledge. It is very important to assess the overall teaching competency matrices. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is an established model to assess such competencies of teachers. The study was conducted to understand the overall competencies of teaching faculty of higher agricultural education in India and explore the influence of demographic factors on the digital competency of teachers. In this regard, a modified TPACK questionnaire was designed that is fit for the Indian agricultural education system. Statistically analyzed results indicated that the developed modified TPACK framework was satisfactory internal reliability. The study found that the teachers have a lack of technical knowledge amongst the other subdomains of TPACK. Significant differences were found among the teachers' competencies with respect to gender, age, education and teaching experience. Male teachers have higher levels of competency than the female in Technology Knowledge (TK), Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) and female faculty have higher levels of competency in Pedagogical Knowledge (PK). Faculty were having higher education have more knowledge of TK and Content Knowledge (CK). older and experienced faculties were found to have higher pedagogical related knowledge. It is recommended that more technology oriented and customized capacity building programmes would be provided for effective teaching-learning in higher agricultural education.