This paper reports the results of a study concerning the expectations for the transition from kindergarten to primary school amongst teachers, parents and children in Hong Kong. It probes the expectations that teachers and parents have about children's competence in five specific areas of child development thought to be essential for a smooth such transition, as well as children's competence in these different developmental areas and their performance upon the transition to primary school. The study's data were obtained through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations, and its results will serve as a reference for evaluation of existing transitional practices and the design of effective transition programmes in the local context. Children's voices and their observed performance during the transition period indicate that they have varied expectations of the transition. Parents, in contrast, have high expectations for their children's academic ability and self-discipline. Both primary school teachers and the parents of kindergartners rank pre-academic skills as the most important developmental area, whereas kindergarten teachers rank them as the least important. Most of the adult respondents in this study agree that a stronger connection amongst kindergartens, primary schools and parents would facilitate a smoother transition to primary school.
[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/10.1080/03004430.2011.569543]

Across cultures and eras, children have engaged in play as part of the process of growing and maturing into adulthood. Play has been recognized as an effective form of pedagogy to promote learning in the early years. However, beliefs about what play is and how it should be practiced vary across Hong Kong and in other countries. Because Chinese culture places a heavy emphasis on academic achievement, a play-based curriculum has not been widely implemented in the region. Through classroom observations and interviews with key stakeholders in early childhood education, namely parents, teachers, and principals, this study reveals the complexity of views on this matter and uncovers the root cause of the difficulties in supporting play in the Hong Kong kindergartens. These findings may help promote the play-based curriculum in Hong Kong and other countries where play is in crisis.
[Copyright of Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2011.599794]

This study investigated various aspects of the Social Information Processing Model, in particular, young children's emotional behavior regulation and negative emotionality, in Hong Kong. The sample was N=628 from 12 schools. Using Rasch measurement, linear unidimensional scales were constructed for Emotion and Behaviour Regulation (10 items) and for Negative Emotionality (10 items). The well-known Short Temperament Scale was Rasch analyzed too, but a linear scale could not be created – it had initially been designed under the True Score Test theory paradigm. The children were divided into Type A (high on negative emotionality and low on emotion and behavior regulation, N=27 and Type B (low on negative emotionality and high on emotion and behavior regulation, N=31). The children's teachers were given conflict situations and asked to state what strategies the Type A and Type B children would adopt in each conflict situation. The first conflict situation was about the child who was being accidentally pushed by a peer. The second conflict situation was about the child who is being excluded from a game that has enough participants. The third conflict situation was about the child being called "a baby" because he/she was playing with baby toys. The fourth conflict situation was about a peer criticizing and putting marks on a child's picture. The fifth situation was about a peer pushing ahead and taking a toy that a child has been waiting for a long time. The Type A and Type B children were also asked to state what strategies they would adopt in each conflict situation. When the teachers' views were compared to the children's views, it was clear that the teachers did not know their children's thought processes very well. For both Type A and Type B children, Rasch analysis was used to create a calm/angry scale and a sad/happy scale. Conflict situation two (being excluded from a game) is very hard on the calm/angry scale and both Type A and Type B children need to have a very