STEM Education Using Digital Tools in Undergraduate Teacher Education

There is a growing trend in the primary mathematics education the application of augmented reality software tools connected with concrete thematic area from the math curricula, which has an interdisciplinary approach. It is a contribution to teaching and learning with digital tools based on the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) concept, which should be implemented to teacher training at universities. In this context, the authors of the contribution focus on some possibilities of innovative approach to teaching and learning with digital tools based on the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) concept implemented in the framework of undergraduate teacher training of primary education students at the Faculty of Education of Comenius University Bratislava. They clarify the connections between the formation of professional didactic-technological competences of primary education teacher candidates in the usage of the Augmented Reality (AR) Ruler software application and the development of their mathematical competences necessary for the successful and effective performance of their future profession in the context of the requirements and needs of the reform changes of the digitalization of education in the Slovak Republic. In the paper they approach a qualitative analysis of the integration of STEM activities adapted for the primary education environment. The action research was organized in the academic year 2022/2023 within the educational discipline of Manipulative Geometry integrated into the curricular structure of the bachelor’s degree Program of Preschool and Elementary Pedagogy at the above-mentioned faculty. In the sense of the Slovak State Educational Program of Mathematics for Primary Education, students prepared outdoor educational activities with the AR Ruler application for the following areas: distance, distance measurement, distance comparison, estimated length, real length. In the sense of STEM interdisciplinarity, the future primary education teachers appropriately linked the mathematics area with architecture and the usage of the AR Ruler application which facilitates their digital competence.