Elementary Math Instruction for Bilingual Education Majors: An Intersection of Pedagogies

This article reports a study on the intersection of Foreign Language and Math Pedagogy. The settings were an undergraduate Bilingual Education program in Bogotá, where one of the co-authors lectures, and an international bilingual school, where another of the authors teaches elementary math. The problem addressed was the fact that pre-service teachers leave with a strong background in language, while the educational sector, in which they will work, has a high demand for bilingual content area teachers. We look into how Bilingual Ed majors perceived their readiness to teach content and how they assessed training taken in elementary math teaching*. Seven trainees received a 20-hour course that drew on key aspects of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and Early Childhood Mathematics (ECME). We gathered data on what happened during and after the training, and on how trainees felt about what was happening. We used field notes, observations, interviews, questionnaires, self - evaluation and co-evaluation formats. In addition, five in-service teachers of an international school took an interview. The results suggest that by understanding math pedagogy, participants increased their repertoire of teaching techniques, English Language Proficiency, and. self-confidence.