A Study on the Impact of Professional Development of Urban Primary School’s Science Teachers on Interdisciplinary Teaching in China

The cultivation of interdisciplinary thinking has gradually become the key direction of science education, however, the interdisciplinary teaching method is still not widely used in the current classroom. Especially in urban areas, where schools serve as the forefront of educational innovation and have diverse student bodies, the need for interdisciplinary teaching is crucial for addressing educational disparities and advancing scientific literacy. The current teacher professional development method cannot meet the needs of inclusive urban school teachers to improve their interdisciplinary teaching skills. For a developing country like China with a large population and significant regional differences, it has greater value in educational equity from the perspective of inclusive education to find how teacher professional development affects interdisciplinary teaching skills. Urban schools, as the forefront of educational innovation, offer a critical setting to examine these effects due to their concentration of resources and diverse student bodies, which are pivotal for addressing educational disparities and advancing scientific literacy. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of China’s urban primary school science teachers’ professional development on interdisciplinary teaching skills from the perspective of inclusive education. The study used structural equation modeling and path analysis methods to explore the relationship between teachers’ professional development and interdisciplinary teaching skill with science professional knowledge, science epistemological beliefs, and science teaching beliefs as mediating variables. The findings indicated that teacher professional development had a significant positive predictive effect on interdisciplinary teaching skill, while science professional knowledge, science epistemological beliefs, and science pedagogical beliefs played a significant mediating role between teacher professional development and interdisciplinary teaching. The results of this study have important practical significance for promoting the professional development of urban primary school science teachers and improving interdisciplinary teaching skills. This study puts forward suggestions in the areas of the development mechanism of inclusive professional development of science teachers, the cultivation of interdisciplinary skills, and the enhancement of teachers’ teaching beliefs.