This study was situated in an educational technology course, Digital Learning in the PK-6 Classroom. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between preservice teachers’ self-reported TPACK and their performance in integrating educational technology into lesson plans. The relationship between students’ self-reported responses to a post-TPACK survey and their graded performance of lesson plans via TPACK-based technology integration assessment rubric scores were investigated using a Pearson product-moment correlation analysis. The results of the Pearson correlation indicated that both the survey data and the lesson plan evaluation rubric constructs showed high internal consistency within each instrument, but there was a weak negative correlation between the same constructs assessed via different methods (survey and the rubric). The negative correlations suggest that the students who report high levels on the constructs via the survey are actually receiving lower evaluation/assessment scores on the lesson plan.

The study also attempted to explore how preservice teachers integrate digital technologies into their lesson plans that were designed as a course assignment. Both descriptive statistics of students’ lesson plan evaluations and content analysis of lesson plans were employed to address this research question. Content analysis revealed that preservice teachers incorporated digital technologies at differential compatibility levels for curriculum goals and instructional strategies.

The findings of this study have pointed out that self-reported assessment of preservice teachers’ technology knowledge is higher than their actual ability to integrate technology with content and pedagogy into lesson plans. Improving preservice teachers’ technological knowledge should not only be restricted to educational technology courses. In fact, teacher education programs should redesign various methods courses (like literacy, science, social studies, math) to help preservice teachers design lesson plans not only with content and pedagogical knowledge but also with technological knowledge.