This paper explored the challenges to the infant care profession in Hong Kong creches, with an aim to contribute to the existing early childhood care literature for reference and comparison elsewhere. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 55 childcare workers and 12 supervisors, followed by interviews with some selected participants to examine the education, experience, training, working conditions and staff-child ratios of the practitioners in creches, and their perceptions towards the profession. The findings identified the areas for enhancing the education level and training of the practitioners to improve the quality of infant care. The results also indicated the problems of low salaries, unpleasant working conditions and inadequate staff-child ratio in the profession, discouraging high-calibre candidates from entering the field. This paper discussed the implications of the findings and offered some recommendations to raise the status of the infant care profession and the attractiveness of the job for prospective practitioners.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge.]

香港學前教育機構和學前教育課程都在不斷發展，學前教師入職資格在不斷提高，政府資助也在增加。對香港業內人士的訪談研究表明，有效能的幼稚園校長的特徵應是“有遠見，有領導與管理才能”“具有專業的知識與能力”“知人善任，處事公正”“富有愛心和同情心、對幼兒教育事業具有責任感和使命感”“擅長人際溝通與交往”；有效能的幼兒教師的特徵應是“對幼兒有愛心，熱愛幼兒教育事業，對幼兒教育事業具有責任感和使命感”“具有專業的知識與能力”“主動、持續的學習與反思”“能夠團隊合作，掌握人際交往與溝通技能”。香港學前教師教育的質量亟待提高。 The instructions and curriculum of Hong Kong’s preschool education are developing and the requirements for preschool teachers and the government’s investment are increasing. It has been agreed that efficient kindergarten leaders and teachers should have relevant attitudes and abilities to kindergarten education. The quality of Hong Kong’s preschool education still needs to be improved. Copyright © 2007 長沙師範學校.

The contribution of teacher knowledge to learning outcomes at the beginning stages of literacy acquisition is of growing concern because the ability to provide quality instruction is central to successful literacy acquisition, particularly for pupils with dyslexia. To date, the majority of research has focused on teachers of English as a first language. Yet, English is the most widely taught foreign language today. The present study extends the exploration of teacher knowledge by probing two heretofore unexamined groups of teachers who are responsible for teaching beginning stages of literacy in English as a foreign language: regular class teachers who are non-native English-speaking (N = 96) and native English-speaking teachers (N = 24) working in the kindergarten setting in Hong Kong. As these two teacher groups serve as gatekeepers of beginning English as a foreign language literacy for kindergarten children in Hong Kong, it is crucial to gather information about the depth and quality of their teacher knowledge. This information can be instrumental to improving the quality of beginning literacy instruction in English and assisting early identification of dyslexia. Both groups completed the basic language constructs survey (Binks-Cantrell, Joshi, & Washburn, Annals of Dyslexia, 62, 153–171, 2012a). Results showed while native English teachers performed significantly better than non-native English teachers, total percentage correct scores were below 50%, except for phonological awareness tasks. All teachers scored higher in items requiring syllable as opposed to phoneme manipulation. Only teacher type predicted teachers’ performance on the survey. The need for quality instruction, particularly for children at-risk for dyslexia or those struggling at the beginning stages of literacy acquisition, is addressed. Copyright © 2020 The International Dyslexia Association.

Extending Shulman’s work, this study investigated kindergarten teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in developing play-based learning. Data were collected from focus group interviews with 29 teachers, head teachers, and principals in Hong Kong. Findings suggested the development of play-based learning is contextual. Teachers believed that ongoing complexities and dilemmas regulating their practice which required them to modify pedagogical strategies. Situated forms of knowledge were found as dispensable component shaping their professional practice. This study highlighted how teachers developed pedagogical wisdom to complement their practice involving the construction of effective play-based learning. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This study examined the relationships between teachers' perceptions of faculty trust, professional learning communities, and their professional learning among a sample of 2106 Hong Kong kindergarten teachers. It analysed the differences between the effects of faculty trust in various stakeholders (i.e., colleagues, parents, and the principal). The results show that while trust in colleagues exerted a positive effect on teacher professional learning, the direct effects of trust in the principal and trust in parents were non-significant. Meanwhile, professional learning communities positively mediated the effects of teachers’ perceived faculty trust on their learning. Implications for teacher learning in kindergartens are presented. Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This study investigated the direct and indirect roles of verbal and visuospatial memory in Chinese reading comprehension. One hundred twenty-eight Cantonese-speaking children participated in the study at the end of their 3rd year of kindergarten in Hong Kong. Both verbal and visuospatial memory were found to be significantly associated with Chinese reading comprehension. Path analysis showed that visuospatial memory was significantly associated with reading comprehension through word reading. Verbal memory was associated with reading comprehension indirectly through listening comprehension. Additionally, the direct path from visuospatial memory to reading comprehension was significant when word reading and listening comprehension were considered simultaneously. The findings of the direct and unique role of visuospatial memory in reading comprehension in Chinese elaborated and extended our understanding of the simple view of reading in young children in a non-alphabetic language. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature B.V.

This study examines the quality of Hong Kong centre-based childcare services with the aim of identifying areas for further improvement. With the use of the Chinese version of the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ITERS-R), the quality of the classrooms in nine non-profit centres located in different districts of Hong Kong was systematically assessed. The findings revealed the global quality of the childcare centres in Hong Kong and indicated the relative strengths and weaknesses of the specific areas of childcare services compared with findings from the international community. The results showed that the quality of centre-based care servicesfor infants and toddlers in Hong Kong was minimal. Compared to other countries, the health and safety practice in Hong Kong scored higher. However, the scores were especially low in space and furnishings, listening and talking, activities and programme structure. These results revealed that Hong Kong faced challenges with the quality of its centre-based care servicesin general. It was also surprising to find a negative correlation between the quality of the childcare centres and the teachers’ experience. The findings also indicated the importance of early childhood education training and continuous professional development. Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.

Limited research has examined STEM education in early childhood, or addressed how STEM is integrated into the curriculum in the kindergarten level. Teachers‟ conceptions of STEM appear to differ from the pedagogical theory. They may be aware of the basic subject concepts, but they lack the effective teaching approaches required to integrate the subject concepts into playful learning processes. Thus, it is important to investigate how teachers can design STEM activities that involve digital toys, in addition to the subject concepts, pedagogical approaches, and factors that affect teachers‟ pedagogical designs. The aims of this study were to 1) investigate the different types of STEM activities in a kindergarten in Hong Kong; 2) understand the perspectives of school management teams and teachers on implementing STEM activities, and 3) provide recommendations for STEM activities appropriate to kindergartens. Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.

Educators and policy makers have increasingly recognized the importance of computational thinking (CT). Despite the growing body of CT literature, how to cultivate CT is still underexplored and undertheorized in early childhood education. Informed by Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development, this exploratory study was conducted with a focus on three CT skills: pattern recognition, sequencing, and algorithm design. The framework for the study was developed in two stages. First, we designed two sets of unplugged activities (relying on tangible materials), aiming to (1) provide students with more concrete experiences of CT and (2) equip them with the necessary vocabularies/instructions for the subsequent plugged activity (with a digital device). The theoretical foundation for such an unplugged and plugged design comprised Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development and Asher’s Total Physical Response. In the second stage, we offered our CT course in a kindergarten in Hong Kong, involving six teacher participants and a total of 11 students from K1 to K3 (aged 3 to 6). After 10 h of CT training, almost all students demonstrated their mastery of pattern recognition and sequencing. However, the K1 students could only partially complete the tasks of algorithm design while the others generally reached the target level of achievement. Strengthening preschoolers’ training on CT language and differentiated instruction are some possible strategies to improve the CT instructions. Copyright © 2019 De La Salle University.

This study adopted a pre- and post-intervention design to develop and investigate the efficacy of the social inclusion intervention for pre-schoolers with social communication deficit (SCD). It is based on the operant conditioning theory to promote peer acceptance and positive attitude towards children with SCD for their friendship formation in inclusive preschool settings. The participants were 128 pre-schoolers aged from 3 years 9 months to 6 years 11 months old (Mean age = 4 years 9 months) in Hong Kong. There were 54 children with SCD and 74 without SCD with 71 boys and 57 girls. A quasi-experimental research design was conducted, and quantitative data analysis methods were applied. The data were analyzed using a mixed measures ANOVA, followed by two-way ANOVA and independent samples t test or pair samples t test for further analysis. By comparing the sociometric, observation, and questionnaire data before and after the social inclusion intervention, the changes in the sociometric status, interaction frequency, and questionnaire scores of the participants were analyzed. The results indicated a significant increase in popularity and decrease in peer rejection for social acceptance level (SAL) and gain in mutual friendships (MF), F (1, 124) = 4.74, p < .05, ηp² = .04, for all children (both SCD and non-SCD) in the experimental class. No significant differences were found in the Mutual Social Interaction (MSI) and Social Inclusion Status (SIST) scores for all children in the experimental and control class, ps > .05. The performance across the diagnostic types (SCD versus non-SCD ) were further compared. The results in the SCD group revealed a statistically significant gain in the production of SAL and MF, F (1, 124) = 5.08, p < .05, ηp² = .04, and no statistically significant differences in MSI and SIST, ps > .05. The key findings suggested that the novel intervention in the current study is effective to enhance children’s social acceptance level and friendship formation