Dis-integrating mathematics and science in early childhood methods courses: Encouraging discrete content-area proficiency

ABSTRACT

Methods for teaching early childhood mathematics and science are often addressed in a single, dual-content course. Approaches to teaching this type of course include thoroughly integrating the content and the pedagogy of both subjects, or keeping the subject areas distinct. In this paper, we discuss and illustrate our approach to teaching such a combined course, and argue that focusing on the subjects’ commonalities without first learning about their epistemological and pedagogical differences may promote an inappropriate assimilation of content and instructional practices. We primarily emphasize preservice teachers’ independent development of pedagogical content knowledge in both mathematics and science, making eventual integration possible through continuing education. By concentrating on one big idea for each subject area and discussing and highlighting the similarities and differences between early childhood mathematics and science methods, we offer preservice teachers a conceptual infrastructure that we hope empowers them to make informed choices about their mathematics and science programs.