In the global world, globalization influences education worldwide; therefore, the dynamics between local and global, termed “glocalization,” is crucial to curriculum guidelines that officially represent an ideal education. The latest Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) curriculum was announced during the 2012–2017 period in China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Following Bereday’s four-step comparison method, this article systematically compares four guidelines and, referring to their socio-historical backgrounds, examines how global trends, Chinese culture, and local context interactively influence their ECEC guidelines. Within the Chinese context, this study coins a new concept of “glo-re-calization “ based on glocalization and regionalization by which we examine how global trends, regional culture, and local forces co-contribute to the sameness and differences in four curriculum guidelines. Based on the four guidelines analysis, we propose the Glorecal Power Model with four patterns. A “logloblization” is a model that overwhelmingly weighs a local force, seen as a regional force, as in the case of China pursuing loglobalization towards regionalization. A “GloRecalization” model weighs global and regional forces much more than the local ones, as in the case of Hong Kong, which is rushing towards globalization and regionalization. A “gloreCalization” model considers mainly local force, as in the case of Macau, which calls for localization. A “Glorecalization” model takes place where global trends are the most significant feature among the three powers as in the case of Taiwan walking on global trends. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

In the past, visual arts education in Hong Kong was not considered an important area of early childhood education. While the Hong Kong kindergarten curriculum has recently been updated to encourage creativity, there remains a lack of adequate visual arts education for young children. This deficiency stems from the fact that the visual arts receive minimal attention within Hong Kong teacher education programs. Little research has been conducted on how visual arts education is actually delivered in local kindergarten classrooms in Hong Kong and what kinds of artistic knowledge and skills kindergarten teachers need. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate kindergarten teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in early visual arts education (EVAE) and to identify the challenges they faced in teaching visual arts to children. The study surveyed 342 in-service kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong and conducted individual interviews with 12 participants. The findings revealed that Hong Kong kindergarten teachers generally performed well in terms of their pedagogical content knowledge, but they lacked content knowledge in various forms of early visual arts (EVA) and faced challenges in teaching visual arts effectively. This study has the potential to change how early childhood visual arts teaching is conceptualized and taught in Hong Kong and other Asian regions. Copyright ©2025 Springer.

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.