This study explored the effect of a social emotional learning programme- the ECE-Peace Ambassador Project (ECE-PAP) − on children's (i) emotional intelligence, (ii) prosocial behaviour, (iii) aggressive behaviour with peers, (iv) and peer exclusion. Employing a quasi-experimental design, ECE-PAP was implemented in 16 schools in Hong Kong. In each school, teachers in one K3 class (4- to 5-year-olds) implemented the programme and a second K3 class served as a control (N=302). Multiple reporters (children, parents, and teachers) provided assessments of children's emotional competence, social behaviour, aggressive behaviour, and responses to peer aggression the week before the programme, the week after, and three months later. Preliminary analyses showed that at pretest, children in the experimental condition showed lower emotional intelligence and less competent responses to peer aggression than controls. However, these differences disappeared by posttest and remained non-significant at follow-up. Children in the experimental condition showed increases from pre- to posttest in emotional intelligence, emotion labelling, and taking action to stop bullying, and decreases in avoidance and aggressive responses. Implementing the programme over a greater number of weeks was associated with more positive child outcomes. These results suggest that ECE-PAP may be an effective, cost-effective way to address aggressive behaviour in kindergarten classrooms by promoting children's emotional intelligence and social skills. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

In 2017, Hong Kong included the notion of creativity in its official kindergarten curriculum framework. However, the curriculum did not define what creativity means in relation to 3- to 6-year-old children. Stakeholders such as teacher educators, kindergarten principals, and teachers may have different understandings of creativity, possibly leading to difficulties in implementing this notion into practice. We adopted Rhodes’ 4P model to examine Hong Kong kindergarten stakeholders’ definitions of creativity in relation to young children. We posed two research questions: (1) What are the themes and elements that Hong Kong kindergarten stakeholders refer to in their responses when defining the notion of creativity? (2) How do these stakeholders differ in their responses when defining this notion? We asked 50 kindergarten stakeholders (20 teacher educators, 10 principals, and 20 teachers) to define the notion of creativity using their own words. Content analysis, descriptive statistics, and multiple Fisher’s exact tests (2 × 2) were used to analyze their responses. We found that all stakeholders possessed a partial understanding of creativity, especially teachers. Stakeholders’ definitions mainly focused on the importance of creative processes. Other components such as the learning environment, the traits of a person, and the creation of products were rarely alluded to in their definitions. We conclude that there is an urgent need to explicitly articulate and conceptualize the notion of creativity in kindergarten curriculum frameworks, such as Hong Kong’s curriculum Guide. This would allow stakeholders to find common ground in the teaching and learning of creativity. Implications for the enhancement of creativity education are discussed. Copyright © 2024 Faculty of Education.

香港的學前課程政策幾十年來一直強調以遊戲為基礎之學習的重要性, 目前由 上而下的政策, 將學前課程推向更以遊戲為基礎的學習邁進。教師是課程政策的最 終執行者, 因此教師能否充分瞭解政策, 是政策成敗的關鍵。本研究試圖透過調查 課程政策對教師信念的影響, 來瞭解政策變化和教師以遊戲為基礎的學習的信念變 化之間的關係。本研究使用論述分析 (discourse analysis), 研究分析兩個課程政 策文件 (2006年和2017年), 分別在2013年和2022年對14名教師進行訪談, 以瞭 解他們對以遊戲為基礎的學習教學法之信念和課程政策的理解。調查結果顯示, 課 程政策對教師的遊戲安排和以遊戲為基礎的學習之教學法信念產生了明顯的影響, 特別是教師們常引用「賦權予兒童」、「自由遊戲」等概念, 反映了他們的思維變 化。然而, 該教學法的一些概念不明確, 可能導致政策實施的混亂, 故本研究也討 論了這些遊戲概念的理解或誤解在政治和教學層次上的意義。The Hong Kong preschool curriculum policy has stressed the importance of playbased learning for decades. However, the current top-down policy moves the preschool curriculum toward play-based learning. Since teachers are the ultimate implementers of curriculum policy, how far they understand the essence of this policy is the key to its success. This study attempted to understand the relationship between the policy change and changes in teachers’ conception of play-based learning by investigating the impacts of curriculum policy on teachers’ beliefs. Two curriculum policy papers of 2006 and 2017 were examined by using discourse analysis. Interviews with 14 teachers were then conducted in 2013 and 2022 to tap their beliefs about play-based learning approach and understanding of curriculum policy. The findings showed that curriculum policies have had an evident impact on teachers’ beliefs about play arrangements and play-based pedagogy. In particular, the teachers mentioned the terms such as “child empowerment” “free play” which reflected their changes in thinking. However, some unclarified concepts about the approach have led to confusion of the policy and its implementation. The political and pedagogical implications of these (mis)understandings are discussed. Copyright © 2024 National Chi Nan University.

Music education is often regarded as an elite discipline in Chinese society, and pre-service teachers in early childhood education may lack musical knowledge and confidence in teaching music due to interdisciplinary teacher training. This study aims to explore the essential components of a quality responsive teacher education course in music for pre-service teachers in Hong Kong and evaluate the impact of six-hour training workshops on their self-perceived musical competence and music teaching confidence. The study employs a quasi-experimental research design and consists of six-hour training workshops in music to enhance pre-service teachers' musicianship and competence in conducting music appreciation, performance, and creative activities. This study answers two research questions based on the quantitative and qualitative data: (1) How will the training workshops impact pre-service teachers' self-perceived musical competence and music teaching confidence? (2) How will the musical competence enhance their music teaching confidence? The study employs a quasi-experimental research design and finds that the workshops significantly improve pre-service teachers' confidence in leading music activities and their perceived importance of children's music education. The study underscores the need for music training in early childhood teacher education and may offer insights into designing responsive music professional development courses for early childhood teachers globally. Copyright © 2023 ACE.

English as a foreign language (EFL) education has become increasingly ubiquitous in Eastern Asian early childhood education (ECE) settings, but the studies on this phenomenon have not been thoroughly reviewed. This scoping review investigates the scope and findings of the current literature regarding this under-researched phenomenon. Through a five-step protocol, 17 empirical studies published during 2012–2022 are included. Findings indicate that: (1) there are four major research areas: education policy, education technology, teacher and teacher education, and curriculum and pedagogy; (2) Hong Kong receives the most research attention; (3) teachers’ knowledge and beliefs, implementing early EFL education, and effects of interventions constitute three prominent research themes. This review also identified research gaps and highlighted the need for more quantitative research on early EFL education in other parts of Asia, the planning and implementation of EFL policies in micro-level contexts, and in-service educators’ beliefs and practises. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

Background: Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy is a crucial part of digital literacy that all individuals should possess in today's technologically advanced world. Despite the potential benefits that AI education offers, little research has been done on how to teach AI literacy to children. Objectives: This study aimed to fill that gap by investigating how children were engaged in AI literacy activities that are supported by intelligent agents. These activities were implemented in a Hong Kong kindergarten with a class of six 5-year-olds (Mage = 62.83 months, SD = 2.91) over a 6-week period. Methods: The study gathered data from multiple sources, including classroom observations, teacher interviews, and documents/artefacts. Results and Conclusions: The results showed that children could learn about AI through interaction with intelligent agents in embodied learning contexts. The findings of this study have implications for the broader field of digital technology education, particularly in the context of early childhood education. Copyright © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Changing times and postmodern perspectives have changed the traditional beliefs about child development knowledge, early childhood learning and curriculum and their relationships. Despite ongoing exchanges about how best to respond to the critique of the developmental knowledge base, few descriptions of how particular educators have reconceptualized their curriculum exist. Employing postmodern views of knowledge, learning, and curriculum, this chapter describes a new narrative curriculum developed by the authors to enact a postmodern early years learning in a typical Chinese context: Story Approach to Integrated Learning (SAIL). It first reflects on the existing early childhood curricula in Hong Kong and the associated problems and challenges. Second, it reviews the literature about the reconceptualization of early years learning and curriculum to seek possible solutions to Hong Kong problems. Third, a brief introduction of SAIL is presented and an example is given to illustrate how SAIL can put postmodernism curriculum into practice. Last, this chapter concludes with a discussion of some of the challenges and future directions relating to the shift from developmental to postmodern practices in the development of early childhood curriculum.

本研究旨在深入瞭解個案幼稚園並深入分析其幼兒生命教育課程的特色， 明白其具體的教學情境脈絡， 及其家長參與的方式和成效，藉此瞭解家長參與到校本幼兒生命教育課程的意義所在。 目的在於探討以下問題： 課程的設計理念是如何發展而來的？其具體實施歷程是如何進行的？課程的成效如何？ 以及對各方面的意義及其影響為何？本研究使用混合研究方法，以質性個案研究為主，量化分析為輔， 透過文本分析、實地觀察、問卷分析、訪談記錄等方法，蒐集撰寫論文所需的資料， 對象包含個案幼稚園的幼兒、家長、老師和行政人員，從多角度探究個案幼稚園讓家長參與到校本幼兒生命教育課程的具體實施過程、 成效及其意義所在。綜合研究發現，本研究獲得以下結論： (一)課程的實施歷程是一個互動感染的過程； (二)課程的成效顯著； (三)課程的舉辦對不同持分者均產生影響：讓幼兒有更多機會從日常生活中學習到生命教育議題；讓家長明白不要把所有重心放在子女身上，應該先要懂得愛自己，才有足夠能力愛子女；讓老師得到成長的機會，擴闊人生智慧和視野；可以讓幼稚園與家庭及幼兒連繫在一起，共同達到生命培育的目標。綜合上述研究結果，研究者分別對幼稚園、老師、家長及未來的研究方向提出了相關建議。All rights reserved.

In Hong Kong, the Education Bureau (EDB) is responsible for the quality assurance of kindergarten education services. EDB inspectors regularly conduct school visits to monitor kindergartens’ performance and publish a Quality Review (QR) report for each kindergarten. Given the limited research on pedagogical practices pertaining to physical activities in Hong Kong kindergartens, the current study analyzes the content concerning this learning area in the QR reports. We analyzed 164 QR reports (published between 2017 and 2020) according to four analytic dimensions: (1) Overall presence of content pertaining to physical activities; (2) References to specific forms of physical activities; (3) Positive feedback; and (4) Negative feedback and recommendations. The presence of physical activities in the QR reports was found to be low (5% on average). EDB inspectors alluded to physical activities generically, not specifying the motor skill(s) at hand. Both positive and negative feedback focused primarily on matters pertaining to the time of exposure to physical activities and teachers’ pedagogical quality. Our evidence suggests the existence of potential gaps between Hong Kong’s kindergarten policies and actual physical activity practices. Further professional development seems necessary to strengthen both teachers’ pedagogies and inspectors’ understandings of physical activities. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s).