Hong Kong has launched reforms to advocate child-centred pedagogies in kindergartens since 2000. This study examined the actual pedagogical interactions in eight kindergarten classrooms via videotaped observations. The teachers were surveyed before the observation and interviewed after receiving the observational report. Evidence revealed that the Hong Kong teachers used various scaffolding strategies to maintain a reciprocal interaction, and teacher-directed instruction dominated the pedagogical interactions. Most teachers had a positive attitude towards teacher–child interactions, yet traditional beliefs persisted. Teachers’ pedagogical interactions were associated with their age, years of teaching experience and educational level, but not with the age group they taught. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The way culturally responsive teaching is employed in school settings in non-Western contexts is unclear. The question of how to teach Chinese effectively to ethnic minority (EM) children in Hong Kong has recently attracted much attention because their generally low level of Chinese language proficiency hinders their education and social integration. This study investigated teachers’ competence in utilizing culturally responsive teaching to teach Chinese to EM children in kindergartens. Focus group interviews were conducted with 43 teachers from 20 kindergartens. The results showed that teachers from kindergartens with a high concentration of EM children were more competent in adapting their teaching methods to cater for EM children’s learning styles and educational needs. However, teachers from low concentration kindergartens were less competent in incorporating multicultural elements in curriculum design and teaching materials. They demonstrated a more monocultural mindset in teaching Chinese to EM children. Teachers from high concentration kindergartens developed a better understanding of EM cultures, were more caring and had higher expectations of EM children. Implications for teacher education, school level and policy were discussed. Copyright © 2021 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

The practice of documentation has been a "hard to reach place" for many preschool teachers despite the fact that it has largely been encouraged and used as a tool in early childhood settings to assess young children's learning. Recent policy changes in Hong Kong have also called for the continuous documentation and authentic assessment of children's performance to replace traditional examinations in preschools. In this study, 62 preschools in Hong Kong were surveyed to determine the current situation of documentation as a tool for assessment of children's learning in Hong Kong preschools in the face of the new governmental requirements and interventions. The results showed that (1) preschools generally recognized the importance and necessity of using documentation to assess children's learning, (2) governmental influences were clearly demonstrated in the learning areas documented and assessed, and (3) there was a dissonance between the practice and belief of preschools, and various concerns related to the implementation were also reported. Implications for policies, professional development, and research are discussed.
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