Abstract:

One of the most important principles of the primary school curriculum is the horizontal and vertical integration and interdisciplinary connectedness of knowledge, which is most easily achieved through an interdisciplinary approach to teaching. The interdisciplinary approach synthesizes more than one subject and creates teams of teachers and students that enrich the overall educational experience and enables the development of integrated knowledge. This way of learning and teaching involves the students' bodies, thoughts, feelings, experiences, and intuition and ultimately offers a more complete understanding of the problem being addressed.
The most common example of interdisciplinary teaching is a thematic unit taught from multiple perspectives, that is, across multiple subject areas. The common thread that connects different school subjects or areas is the transfer of learning skills, the development of concepts in different content, the development of problem-solving skills, self-confidence, self-efficacy, learning through emotions, the development of attitudes, the promotion of communication, etc., while supporting students' different learning styles, diverse backgrounds, interests, talents, and values. Such work requires from the teacher a good definition of the selected objectives and contents of the different school subjects, as well as detailed planning and a good organization.
At the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education many different profiles of future primary school teachers are trained. In their study programs there are subjects that are focused on an interdisciplinary approach. This paper presents some examples of good practice in the training of future primary school teachers at different levels. As part of their courses of study, students plan and conduct activity days in groups, are involved in project-based learning or plan and create teaching materials. It will be shown how well students in the different degree programs have succeeded in defining the selected objectives and contents of different school subjects and how they have implemented interdisciplinary ideas into teaching practice in terms of content creation and organization.

Keywords:

Interdisciplinary teaching approach, pre-service teacher training, project-based learning.