This paper aims to evaluate the fieldwork placement of a higher diploma programme in early childhood education at the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE). In response to both academic and statutory requirements associated with education ordinances, students must take sufficient supervised fieldwork placement hours throughout the programme to learn to be a Qualified Kindergarten Teacher (QKT). In current institutional evaluative practices, the corresponding department evaluates fieldwork placement quality based on concerns about student and supervisor performance using questionnaires at the end of the semester. However, the evaluation might lose sight of unanticipated outcomes and its intrinsic value when it is too focused on the predetermined evaluation’s objectives. Guided by a responsive evaluation approach, this paper suggests a new form of evaluation concerning stakeholder perspectives on intrinsic value in the programme. Accordingly, it uses the practical tool RUFDATA to frame the evaluation practices under its key categories, namely, reason, use, focus, data, audience, timing and agency. By drawing empirical data from students who have just completed the programs’ fieldwork placement in spring 2017, this qualitative evaluation investigates how fieldwork supervision develops students’ professional identity to prepare them for entry into the childcare workforce in the last fieldwork placement in the programme. Copyright © 2018 Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice.

The paper aims to research kindergarten student teachers' perceptions of reflective journal writing and its role in fieldwork placement within the context of Hong Kong. To respond to their professional growth, student teachers use reflective journal writing as an essential assignment in early childhood education because it gives them the opportunity to explore the understanding they have gained in a specific context of fieldwork placement practices. Nevertheless, the quality of reflection is heavily dependent on their perception of the practices and the learning context, because they can choose to remain at the surface level and avoid the reflection process. In this regard, instead of merely implementing reflective journal writing, it is urgent that teacher educators learn more about student teachers' understanding of their role. Thus, first, this paper briefly illustrates the role of reflective practices in developing kindergarten student teachers' professional growth. It then reviews the relevant literature on reflective journal writing and argues the importance of individual practitioners' perspectives of reflective practices. By drawing empirical data from five kindergarten student teachers currently studying in an institution in Hong Kong, this qualitative study assesses their perception of reflective journal writing in placement learning through photo-elicitation interviews. Copyright © 2020 by THE PACIFIC.