Developing and Validating an AI-TPACK Assessment Framework: Enhancing Teacher Educators’ Professional Practice Through Authentic Artifacts

In today’s digital era, teachers are expected to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into the classroom. Teacher educators must therefore model its use while evaluating their own AI-related knowledge to guide future teachers effectively. Existing assessments often rely on self-reporting questionnaires, which may introduce bias, and the TPACK (Technological-Pedagogical-Content-Knowledge) framework, which overlooks distinctive AI characteristics. This study develops and validates an AI-TPACK assessment tool for teacher educators, grounded in authentic pedagogy and systematically designed through the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation). The study aims to identify AI-relevant TPACK components and add new ones; test the tool’s validity; and analyze teacher-educator competency patterns. The development involved dual literature reviews (22 TPACK studies; 34 AI studies) and empirical analysis of 60 authentic instructional artifacts. Five experts confirmed their content validity (CVR = 0.86, CVI = 0.91) and the inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.84, range 0.76–0.88). The tool comprises 4 components—AIK, AIPK, AICK, and Integration—14 criteria, and 65 indicators, and reveals four competency patterns: technological innovator; pedagogical integrator; content developer; and beginner. The strong correlation (r = 0.78) between AIPK and integration underscores the importance of synergy. The tool contributes theoretically and practically to advancing teacher-educators’ AI knowledge and competency assessments.