Investigating the mental readiness of pre-service teachers for integrated teaching

There has been some criticism of the teacher education programs in Turkey, claiming that pre-service teachers were not ready for the profession. This study explored the mental readiness of pre-service teachers to facilitate integrated mathematics and science. Data were collected from pre-service teachers who were enrolled in either integrated or departmentalized teacher education programs. Data were analyzed using a three-way multivariate factorial analysis of variance model. The independent variables were program (integrated or departmentalized), department (mathematics or science), and gender while the dependent variables were the attitudes towards the integrated teaching and nature of mathematics and science. The results indicated that pre-service mathematics teachers in the integrated teacher education program had more favorable attitudes towards integrated teaching of mathematics than pre-service mathematics teachers in the departmentalized program. The study showed that the integrated program may be an effective alternative to the standard departmentalized teacher education programs in Turkey.