This paper critically analyses how the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region has tackled the issue of preschool quality over the past 30 years. Although early childhood education is not part of the publicly funded education system, there is almost universal preschool attendance among three to six year olds. The government regulates, monitors and evaluates early childhood services, and has taken numerous steps to improve the quality of early childhood provision. However, a paradox lurks within government policy. On one hand, the facility-focused and provider-focused regulatory standards for the operation of preschools have been faulted for being too lax; but, on the other hand, policies and incentives have clearly improved the quality of preschool education. These include measures to support the upgrading of serving kindergarten teachers and an emphasis on quality assurance. The implementation of enabling policies is essential to ensure that all children have access to high-quality early education and care.
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Research literature has long indicated that action research may stimulate practitioners themselves to actively evaluate the quality of their practice. This study is designed to report the use of action research for the development of early years professional practice by analyzing the pre-project and the post-project video-filmed teaching events. The finding was that action research might support knowledge development in the teacher profession. However, the teacher's ability to accommodate outside knowledge might be limited by one's inside knowledge. The study helps to clarify the assumptions and potentials of action research for teachers learning to teach.
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This study investigated how a set of newly developed indicators of early learning and teaching by the government, which was based on western ideology of child learning, was implemented in a Chinese context like Hong Kong. Twelve early childhood settings of 5747 children and 284 staff volunteered to implement the indicators within two years and the processes were observed and analysed. A multi-method, multi-source data collection strategy was used to document the self-evaluation and improvement process. All the participating settings went through the five stages of the evaluation cycle: understanding the Performance Indicators, assessing learning and teaching, formulating an action plan for improvement, implementing the action plan, and reflection. The results indicated that: (1) implementing a quality assurance cycle took time, resources and commitment; (2) the implementation helped to enhance practitioners' professionalism; and (3) teacher professionalism was the key to the success of this quality assurance mechanism. The socio-contextual factors and the educational implications of these findings are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Early Years Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669760701516942]

Transition from home to kindergarten is the first and major ecological transition in children's educational lives in Hong Kong. In this transition, children cross a cultural boundary from home to kindergarten and start to learn about 'school' as a place to learn and about themselves as 'pupils' in kindergarten. The conceptual framework of this paper is developed from sociocultural theory and select literature on rites of passage and pupil career. Descriptive data were mainly collected from participant observations, semi-structured interviews, photovoice and review of documents. Utilising the conceptual framework, this paper describes and analyses the story of a three-year-old girl's playing and learning experiences, strategic actions and adaptation outcomes during the transition from home to kindergarten in Hong Kong. Her pattern of strategic actions fell into the dimensions of non-conformity, redefinition and adaptation, but most often fell into the dimension of non-conformity, that is, being independent with respect to formal school expectations. Her preferred strategic actions included watching, being slow to respond, ignoring, withdrawal, gentle refusal, operating in alternative ways, negotiating and following the practice and expectation of the class.
[Copyright of European Early Childhood Education Research Journal is the property of Routledge . Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13502930802689095]

This paper provides information on a measure that was developed to assess children's level of development at preschool and entry to school level, as well as their readiness for formal schooling. This measure - Who Am I? - is based on early copying and writing skills and is designed to identify the broad stages of development that underlie children's readiness for more formal learning in a school situation. Although originally developed in Australia, it has now been used in studies in a number of different countries, including Canada, and data from these studies provide some insight into the variations in development that are associated with different patterns of preschool provision and different ages of entry into an educational program. The results of these studies indicate that Who Am I? provides a valid measure of development across different language and cultural groups and can therefore be used as a tool to evaluate the effectiveness of different forms of early childhood provision, as well as children's readiness for more formal learning in a school situation.
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Over the past two decades children's fitness levels may have declined (Ross and Pate, 1987; Ignico, 1990; Leung, 1995). Currently, attention is being directed to young children's gross motor performance, assessment procedures and program planning issues. This paper will present findings of a study which investigates the gross motor proficiency of young children in Hong Kong. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (Subtests 1-5) was used to assess the gross motor proficiency of 320 children aged 5 to 6 years. Gross motor proficiency was measured in terms of their performance on running speed and agility, balance, bilateral coordination, strength and upper-limb coordination.
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The present study investigated physical activity trends among young children aged three, four, and five years old in Hong Kong preschools using pedometry. Subjects were eighty-six boys and sixty-two girls (n = 148). The Digi-walker sw-200 electronic pedometers were utilized to collect activity data during daily regular physical activities in three preschools. School A was located at the rural area whereas School B and C were in urban areas. An observation inventory, Children Activity Rating's Scale (CARS), was used to categorize the intensity level of the physical activities and to validate the pedometer counts. In line with overseas studies, significant age and gender differences in physical activity levels were also observed among the Hong Kong preschool children. A two (gender) × three (age groups) analysis of variance indicated that both main effects were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Older children in the school (School A) with a larger outdoor play space in a rural district were much more active than their counterparts in urban schools (Schools B and C) with limited indoor play space. The pedometer counts correlated significantly (p < 0.05) with the CARS scores, which suggested that pedometry can be a reliable tool to measure the intensity of physical activity level of preschool children.
[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/10.1080/0300443022000022459]