Secondary School Teachers’ Opinions and Course Practices on Interdisciplinary Teaching Approach

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the views of secondary school mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology teachers on the basis of mathematics education and their classroom practices on the interdisciplinary teaching approach. Content analysis, of qualitative research methods, was used in the study. 70 teachers from various provinces in Turkey. The data collection tool consists of an open-ended questionnaire developed by the researchers. As a result of the study, it was found out that teachers have knowledge about interdisciplinary teaching at the conceptual level, and they think that interdisciplinary teaching was effective in developing students academic success and positive attitudes. Teachers think that the most related topic in mathematics with all science subjects is rates-ratio, derivative is related to physics, logarithm is related to chemistry, and probability is related to biology. Despite these positive views on interdisciplinary teaching, most teachers are unable to perform interdisciplinary practices due to the lack of time / intensity in the curriculum. The fact that the teachers cannot organize an interdisciplinary lesson can be explained by their lack of knowledge and the difficulties in implementation despite the positive attitude they hold about interdisciplinary instruction.