In Hong Kong, preschool education is not included in the formal education system. However approximately 95% of children as young as 2 years of age attend either kindergartens or child care centers (Rao & Koong, 1999). Parents and early childhood educators in Hong Kong have been enthusiastic in their support of the inclusion of computer activities in programmes for young children. Chinese parents expect their young children to learn with computers, and anecdotal evidence suggests that they are eager to enroll their child in a kindergarten that provides computer activities. This has given rise to some important issues, and it is suggested here that early childhood educators and parents need to rethink the rationale underpinning the use of computers with young children. In particular, they need to consider whether computer activities are in the best interests of parents, kindergartens or young children. This paper will report a summary of the current status of computer learning environment in kindergartens using the Kindergarten Profile (2000) by Committee of Home-School Operation. There is a need for early childhood teachers and parents to understand how the children’s learning occurs and the factors that maximize the benefits of these learning experiences in such innovative program with ICT.

The beliefs of a teacher may serve as the lens that affects his or her perception and interpretation of classroom experience in the world of teaching. Prior to becoming a trained teacher, students in pre-service and in-service early childhood teacher education programmes would have acquired certain beliefs about teaching young children, about children and how they learn, and about the goals and values of educating young children through “apprenticeship of teaching” in their experience of schooling, family and community life. In recent years, teacher educators who are concerned about reforming teacher education in Hong Kong have increasingly taken an interest in studying the impact of teacher education on teacher beliefs of pre-service and in-service teachers, as change in teacher beliefs is a crucial element in teacher development. In a series of related studies that we carried out either individually or as a team in the past years, we had access to teacher beliefs held by pre-service teachers at the time they joined a fulltime kindergarten teacher education programme, progressed through the programme, and in the first year of their teaching career as kindergarten teachers. We had access to teacher beliefs of in-service teachers before, during, and after going through teacher education. Studying the changes in teacher beliefs before, during, and after receiving teacher education will shed light on the impact of pre-service as opposed to in-service teacher education programmes in Hong Kong. For the purpose of gauging changes in teacher belief during and after receiving teacher education, we benchmarked teacher beliefs of kindergarten teachers at four points in the teacher development process: novice teacher, teacher-in-training, trained but inexperienced teachers, as well as trained and experienced teachers. Data were collected by individual interviews, focused group interviews, stimulated recall of classroom experience, and classroom observation and debriefing. As change