Perpectives of primary pre-service teachers on integrated teaching

Abstract

Integrated teaching has been implemented in many educational systems across the world. In order to organize integrated teaching effectively, teachers need to be equipped with integrated teaching knowledge and skills from the time they are studying at a teacher training program. This study aims to evaluate the viewpoints of primary school pre-service teachers on integrated teaching in Mathematics at the primary education level. The research used a quantitative method by surveying 354 students from five universities across the main regions of a developing country in Asia. The results show that participants were aware of the important role of integrated teaching and the necessity of skill training in designing and using activities in Mathematics integrated teaching. However, their current skills in designing and using activities in Mathematics integrated teaching are only at or below the average level. Moreover, they have not often been trained or guided to design integrated teaching situations in primary education Mathematics. It is suggested that primary school pre-service teachers should be trained to be able to comprehend the integrated teaching concepts, processes and implement them in real teaching situations.  Keywords: Integrated teaching, primary education, Mathematics, pre-service teachers, pedagogical institutions