Reconceptualising the roles of researchers and teachers to enhance primary pre-service teachers’ knowledge for teaching mathematics

Bridging the gap between practice and research is fundamental for supporting pre-service teachers in learning the knowledge and skills required to be fully qualified teachers. Calls for improvements to teacher education recommend integration of theory and practice. To answer this call, a mathematics teacher educator and a primary school teacher co-taught a cohort of third year pre-service teachers for one semester. Open coding was used to analyse qualitative and quantitative data from pre and post survey responses, collected from pre-service teachers who experienced the co-teaching and those who did not. The findings indicated that the innovative and collaborative co-teaching approach assisted pre-service teachers to improve their knowledge for teaching across nine categories. The highest gains were in their knowledge of how to teach and knowledge of a primary mathematics classroom. The findings have implications for teacher educators who are looking to bridge the research-practice nexus.