Developing reflective and thinking skills by means of semantic mapping strategies in kindergarten teacher education

Developing reflective and thinking skills by means of semantic mapping strategies in kindergarten teacher education

• Lim, Swee Eng School of Early Childhood Education, Hong Kong Institute of Education
• Chan Cheng, Pui Wah School of Early Childhood Education, Hong Kong Institute of Education
• Lam, Mei Seung School of Early Childhood Education, Hong Kong Institute of Education
• Ngan, So Fong School of Early Childhood Education, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Early Child Development and Care, 173(1), 55-72, 2003

Routledge

2003

• M Teachers & Education for Teachers
  • MA Professional Education for Teachers

Affective Objectives Concept Mapping Educational Practices Foreign Countries Higher Education Kindergarten Preschool Teachers Teacher Education Thinking Skills Hong Kong Reflective Thinking

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

As part of the module "Further Studies in Kindergarten Curriculum" in the Certificate in Kindergarten Teacher Education Course conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Education, teacher-educators made use of semantic webbing to help kindergarten teachers/principals develop reflective and thinking skills regarding subject matter content and teaching curriculum. Semantic webbing/mapping or semantic networking or plot maps may be defined as a strategy in which information is categorically structured in graphic/visual form. However, its use in teacher education is more recent. Kindergarten teachers/principals were interviewed to discern how they developed critical thinking and evaluative skills concerning subject matter content and teaching curriculum through the use of semantic webbing. Interviews of a random sample of participants and analysis of their mind-maps revealed a change in perspectives and attitudes towards subject matter content and teaching curriculum. The present paper examines some of the affective outcomes for both teacher educators and student-teachers resulting from the use of semantic webbing/mapping as a strategy for facilitating reflective and critical thinking skills in four components of the module "Further Studies in Kindergarten Curriculum"; namely, Art, Language, Mathematics/Science, as well as Social Studies. Implications for teacher education are drawn from the findings.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0300443022000022422 ]

Special Issue on: "Early Childhood Education in Hong Kong."

• English

Journal Articles

• 03004430

• 10.1080/0300443022000022422

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/9c41805f

2010-09-08