Promoting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an undergraduate preservice teachers’ mathematics course using DeCoRe+ methodology and assessing students’ SDG understanding through concept mapping

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to review the course syllabus for mathematics teaching methods with a lens to identify topics related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and develop strategies to promote their understanding among the students. This study involved two phases. Phase 1 used the capacity building model to train teacher educators to review the syllabus, map the curriculum, and identify topics nearest to SDGs. In Phase II, teacher educators developed three teaching mathematics modules on infusing SDGs in the course using the DeCoRe + methodology. The developed modules were implemented in the Teaching Mathematics Methods II course with 39 preservice mathematics teachers over a semester (14 weeks). The students’ concept maps were analyzed by using rubrics which have five categories (excellent, very good, good, fair, and failing) and to relate to SDG understanding as: knowledge representation, interconnectivity, the meaningfulness of links, complexity, contextuality, and transformation. The result from the students’ concept maps showed that students’ understanding for SDGs are good for knowledge representation, interconnectivity, and meaningfulness of links. However, students showed “fair” for complexity, contextuality, and transformation whereby linkage of the different SDGs are given. In conclusion, our exploration of integrating SDGs into a mathematics teaching methods course using DeCoRe+ has demonstrated promising outcomes. Our findings indicate that students not only acquire knowledge but also internalize key concepts, empowering them to contextualize and integrate SDGs within the mathematics curriculum. This preparation equips them with the necessary skills to become future educators capable of seamlessly incorporating sustainability principles into their teaching of mathematics.