A Cultural-Historical Study of Chinese Kindergarten Teachers’ Professional Development in STEM Education

This thesis draws upon cultural-historical theory to understand teachers’ professional development within the Chinese kindergarten context. A pedagogical approach known as the Conceptual PlayWorld (Fleer, 2019b) was introduced to Chinese kindergarten teachers through an educational experiment, aiming to enhance teachers' instructional practices in STEM education. Overall, this study argues that by implementing a Conceptual PlayWorld, the educational experiment can serve as a social situation of development for teachers, which becomes the source of their professional development in STEM education.