Teaching applications of Mathematics in other disciplines: teachers' opinion and practice

Abstract

"Abstract. One of the main topics of mathematics education nowadays is teaching applications of mathematics in various fields, which lead in the recent decades to the development of the STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), connecting these disciplines using transdisciplinary or interdisciplinary approaches. Applications of mathematics has become important not only from academic point of view, as helping students to understand mathematics, to apply mathematical knowledge in various contexts, and to show the utility of mathematics, but also because mathematics is an integral part of our daily lives. Teachers have an important role in this approach, so it is important to study their attitude towards teaching applications of mathematics and their experience. The research was conducted in 2021 in Israel. The participants are 221 mathematics teachers from post primary schools. The research instrument was a questionnaire developed for this study based on the scientific literature and aimed to find out teachers’ opinion about teaching applications of mathematics and their practice in integrating applications in their teaching. The questionnaire contains both closed and open questions. The responses were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. The results of the study show that 42.5% of teachers in Israel are teaching applications of mathematics. Analyzing the answers given by those teachers, who teach applications of mathematics, 47% are teaching applications in physics, 47.5% integrate them in their lessons few times a semester, and 52.1% of them teaching applications through presenting it to the students. In the participants’ opinion, the most important benefits of teaching applications of mathematics are arising students' interest for mathematics (44.3%) and motivating students for learning mathematics (34.8%). The most important obstacles of teaching applications of mathematics are time-constrains (30.8%) and lack of teachers’ skills to teaching mathematical applications in other disciplines (24.6%)."