Preparation for Inclusive Teaching: Entangling Prospective Teachers’ Perspectives on Inclusive Teaching Using Mathematics Education as an Example

Abstract

Inclusive mathematics education leads to new requirements for teachers of mathematics education and of special needs education. Thus, in German schools, collaboration in lessons is a key task. Therefore, it is crucial to prepare prospective teachers of special needs and mathematics to pursue interdisciplinary collaboration. Furthermore, teacher education has to raise students’ awareness of other perspectives. To achieve these aims, new concepts were applied in seminars at the Universitat Hamburg. In this chapter, we discuss one of these concepts and our empirical findings. The seminar is based on strengthening and entangling perspectives and designed for bachelor-level students in mathematics education (primary education) and special education. We focus on situation-specific skills and the questions: To what extent do the perceptions, interpretations, and decision-making of inclusive mathematics learning differ between these disciplines and to what extent do they change in the course of the seminar? Prospective teachers’ perspectives on inclusive mathematics lessons and situation-specific skills were assessed before and after the seminar by using a vignette. The results show differences between the two groups of prospective teachers: Prospective mathematics teachers focus more on the pupils’ handling of the mathematical task, while prospective teachers for special needs focus more on the pupils’ motivation and working attitude. From the pre- to the post-measuring point, the data become more complex and the interconnections of the perspectives increase.