Abstract—There is growing attention to STEM education in Mainland China, especially because of the global advancement of technology. The need for more skilled and highly capable teachers of STEM Education therefore increases. However, there is not enough research to investigate the level of in-service teachers’ STEM competence in Mainland China. Therefore, this study employed a survey method to examine the perceived competency of 66 in-service teachers in implementing STEM education in a nationwide middle school STEM education pilot in Mainland China. The adopted questionnaire is based on the four-dimensional Technological Pedagogical STEM Knowledge Survey (TP-STEMK). Descriptive analysis and T-tests were used for quantitative data. The results of the study indicated that the science-related dimension score was higher. However, engineering-related dimensions and the ability to integrate the former 3 factors were relatively lower. These teachers have a relatively higher self-perceived STEM competence than the median but lower than the whole average competence of STEM teachers in Mainland China according to the previous study, and besides that, there was no statistically significant difference in the scores according to gender. 
 

Keywords—teachers’ perceived competence, STEM education, technological pedagogical STEM knowledge, gender difference 

Cite: Chunyang Liao and Alex Wing Cheung Tse, "Exploring Teachers’ Perceived Competence in STEM Education in a National Pilot Middle School of STEM Education in Mainland China," International Journal of Learning and Teaching, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 331-335, 2024.

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