STEM in Elementary Teacher Training in Austria

Abstract

Knowledge and skills from STEM subjects are becoming increasingly important. It is therefore important that these elements be implied in the curriculum of all educational institutions, starting already in elementary education. For this purpose, the training of elementary teachers in this field is very important and indispensable. In Austria, STEM topics are included in the curriculum of the vocational secondary school at the Educational Institute for Elementary Teachers. To find out about the actual implementation and impact of their STEM training, elementary teachers were asked to what extent they had become acquainted with the contents of STEM subjects in their teachers training, also with regard to their transfer into practice. The results show that the elementary teachers have received hardly any practical and theoretical information about the teaching of STEM content in their training. Moreover, without additional training, most of the elementary teachers do not feel prepared to teach the required STEM contents defined in curricula for elementary education in their daily work.