Children's interest in exploration is the hallmark of their curiosity. As people who are significant in organising children's environment, how teachers and parents respond to children's exploratory behaviours may promote or hinder the child's desire for further investigation. With reference to Kurt Lewin's concept of 'total situation', various hypothetical scenarios on children's exploratory behaviours in different contexts were designed to solicit teachers' and parents' interpretation of the behaviour, how they might respond in the situation and the rationale behind their response. The findings indicated that the decision of adults in allowing children to explore is influenced by a combination of child, adult and situational factors.
[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/10.1080/03004430802181965]

The Hong Kong government has sought to encourage environmental education (EE) in schools. However, little is known about how government and private initiatives impact at the level of the kindergarten. This article, based on a small-scale study, investigates what is happening in Hong Kong kindergartens in EE. The findings show that there have been positive changes in EE in Hong Kong kindergartens in the last decade: more hands-on environmental activities and resourcefulness of teachers in sourcing teaching materials. Teachers and parents were found to have positive attitudes. However, teachers had to tackle the following issues: the overloaded school curriculum and isolated environmental learning experience, teacher's insecurity and inadequate knowledge of EE, weakness of government support in terms of formal teacher training programmes and funding on EE.
[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/10.1080/03004430802181361]

This study investigates the transition from kindergarten to primary school through the experiences of the teachers, parents and children involved. Emphasis is given to the transitional activities participated in by the stakeholders and the effectiveness of these activities. These experiences of children's transition to school will inform further research into the design of effective transition programmes in the local context. The means of investigation in this study include questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and observations. The results show that the teachers and parents generally believed that the children performed quite well academically, although the primary school teachers reported that they were average in discipline. The findings from both the questionnaires and the interviews show that most of the respondents agreed that strong connections between kindergarten, primary school and parents could facilitate a smoother transition to school. However, in reality, both kindergarten and primary school teachers showed ignorance of each other's teaching practices and curriculum.
[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/10.1080/03004430802586130]

The call for professionalism in kindergarten education has been an important educational issue over the past several decades in Hong Kong. Official expectations have been published to guide the services of kindergarten education and to supervise teachers' pedagogical practice. Kindergarten education services that are child centred and play based, and that practise integrated learning to nourish children's holistic and balanced development are advocated. However, Quality Assurance Inspection reports have shown that kindergarten teaching and learning is still teacher directed. Young children are passive recipients of knowledge. The services run counter to the progressive motives of the 2000 Education Reform in nurturing young children to be active and self-motivated life-long learners. Driven by the interest to study the practice-expectation gap, the present study sought to observe kindergarten teachers' classroom practice, investigate their pedagogical decision making, and reveal the complexities underpinning their pedagogical roles which, to an extent, emerged from the practice-expectation gap.
The present study, framed by in a qualitative research design, employed on-site observations and teacher interviews, together with official document analysis and training curriculum document analysis. The wealth of data and information collected revealed that a practice-expectation gap does exist.
The data analysis suggests that the teacher informants' pedagogical decision making and practice were shaped by a number of intervening forces. These forces can be categorised into (a) the personal variables of the teacher informants in terms of their personal beliefs and values towards kindergarten education, (b) the contextual variables of school management structure and administrative arrangements within which the teacher informants delivered their teaching and fostered the children's learning, (c) the societal variables of parental expectations of the kindergarten education

本研究的目的是透過設計及實踐資訊科技教育活動，了解其教育功能。本個案研究為期一年，共有十位教師及七十五名學生參與。研究成果是三個應用資訊科技主題活動，他們是：(1)製作數碼圖書，(2)製作數碼活動記錄冊，(3)製作數碼短片分享行為表現。研究結果顯示資訊科技創造屬實的學習機會，提供豐富的教學功能及扮演授權賦能的角色。
The aim of the case study is to design thematic learning activities for understanding and analyzing roles of IT for improving Learning & Teaching (L&T) of school education. This research involved 10 teachers and 75 learners in a one-year study. Three thematic activities were designed and implemented. They were: (1) digital book production, (2) digital activity record production, and (3) digital video clip production for sharing behavior of learners. Results of the study indicated that IT could play three roles in education. They are: (1) providing authentic learning opportunities, (2) enhancing teaching capability, and (3) empowering L&T activities.
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

The objectives of this study were to examine (i) behavioral differences in popularand unpopular children; (ii) the ability of kindergarten teachers to identify children with peer interaction difficulties; and (iii) strategies teachers use to guide appropriate social behaviour in the kindergarten classroom. Forty-eight 4-5 year-olds completed sociometric interview. Eight children including two Popular, two Rejected, two Average and two Controversial were observed during free play. Popular children had good social skills; they were able to initiate and maintain peer contact, communicated clearly and were co-operative. On the other hand, Rejected children were more physically and verbally aggressive with peers and showed low levels of co-operative behaviour. Teachers had some difficulties to identify the social status of children in their class, suggesting that they placed more emphasis on academic development than social development. They did not typically interact with children during free play. However, they occasionally tried to enhance the cognitive complexity of children's play. The implication of these findings for teacher-training are discussed.
本文旨在探究i)幼稚園內受歡迎與被拒絕的兒童之行為差異; ii)幼稚園老師對於辨別兒童與兒童之間難於彼此互動的能力; 及iii)老師在課室引導兒童適當社交行為的策略。 48 位四至五歲的兒童獲邀完成了面談, 而其中8 位兒童被選為觀察對象: 包括了2 位受歡迎的兒童、2 位被拒絕的兒童、 2 位表現平均的兒童和2 位表現較爭議性的兒童。受歡迎的兒童有良好的社交技巧, 他/她們能展開和維持與同伴的接觸、具清楚的溝通能力和表現合作的行為。相反地, 被拒絕的兒童愛用言語和身體攻擊同伴,並有不合作的行為表現。教師對於辨別兒童在課室內之社會地位表示有些困難, 因教師們較著重兒童學術發展多於社交發展。兒童在自由活動的時段內, 教師沒有與兒童互動,但她們也偶然地嘗試提升兒童遊戲的複雜認知能力。有關教師培訓會從結果中顯示出來。
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

Learning through play' in early childhood education is widely advocated, but studies show that play is not easily enacted in classrooms. The quality of learning through play has been questioned in various countries, especially when learning outcomes are a global concern. This paper examines how one teacher implemented learning through play within a formal and didactic Hong Kong pre-school classroom. Following this real-life adaptation of the play pedagogy, this paper aims to illuminate the practical theories of linking play with learning in the classroom. The findings support the adoption of 'play' in young children's learning and reveal tactful ways in which a teacher can encourage the evolving 'flow' of children's play while simultaneously scaffolding their learning. The paper analyses the tact involved in the above process and suggests key dimensions for realizing 'learning through play' in the classroom.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598660903474163]