The place of theoretical thinking in professional development: bringing science concepts into play practice

Decades of research into early childhood teacher confidence and competence in science abound. Mostly what is reported is that teachers do not have the background discipline knowledge of science concepts and thereby lack confidence to teach in this area. The net effect is a worryingly limited amount of science being taught in the early childhood period. This paper proposes a different approach to conceptualising teacher confidence and competence in science through a theoretically informed study that gives new directions into how to solve the pressing problem of increasing the amount of science taught in play-based settings. Teacher participation in a face-to-face and on-line PD program over 10 weeks was digitally documented and analysed. Using the concepts from cultural-historical theory, the results show four types of crises emerged in the PD program. Through a model known as a Conceptual PlayWorld, new conditions for practice change were created to amplify concepts in play-based settings. The major conclusion was that it is not teacher knowledge of concepts that is preventing science teaching, but rather it is how to pedagogically bring concepts into play practice to motivate and sustain children's engagement in science.