2025 Theses Doctoral

Singing, Moving, and Learning: A Reflective Teacher Study Group for Creative Early Childhood Educators in China

Wang, Qian

This qualitative case study investigates how early childhood educators in China integrate music and movement into everyday teaching through a collaborative Teacher Study Group (TSG). To address the gap between preservice musical training and classroom practice, this study asks: (1) How do early childhood educators transition from using music and movement primarily for engagement to embedding these creative elements as structured, pedagogically driven strategies? (2) In what ways can music function as a multidimensional pedagogical tool to foster young children’s holistic development? (3) How do educators leverage a collaborative TSG, grounded in reflective practice and action research, to refine and continually innovate their instructional methods?

Over 12 weeks, three early childhood English teachers in China engaged in an adapted TSG model that combined shared readings (drawing on Education Through Music and SongWorks), collaborative lesson design, classroom trials, and iterative reflection. Data included session recordings, teaching artifacts, lesson plans, and reflective notes. Three interlocking findings emerged.

First, teachers’ integration of music and movement unfolded nonlinearly: they progressed from early hesitations through iterative cycles of trial and reflection, culminating in coherent, pedagogically aligned routines. Second, student engagement served as the most sensitive barometer of pedagogy; teachers progressively used multimodal, observable evidence (e.g., participation and autonomy) to adjust instruction in real time. Third, functioning as adynamic scaffold, the TSG leveraged collegial feedback and action research cycles to help teachers transition from an objective-delivery mindset to creative, inquiry-driven practice.

Implications include designing professional development that honors nonlinear growth; positioning multimodal indicators of student engagement as formative evidence when integrating music- and movement-based strategies; and leveraging culturally resonant Teacher Study Group (TSG) structures to bridge theory and practice. This study offers a context-grounded example, together with practical design principles, to support the adoption of music-infused, creative pedagogy in early childhood settings in China.