The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of extracurricular music participation on preschool children’s social skills in Hong Kong. This study was quantitative dominant, whilst qualitative data was collected to triangulate with the quantitative data. Phase one was the intervention and quantitative data collection whilst individual interviews and class observations were conducted in phase two. Interventions were three different extracurricular activities including: 1) group music training; 2) piano lesson; and 3) drawing class. The duration of the interventions was 24 weeks and the instrument used to collect data was the Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scale (SSIS-RS). Participants were 180 preschool children aged from four to five (n1=72, n2=72, n3=36).Interviewees were teachers and parents from the different intervention groups. Results of ANOVAs revealed that extracurricular activities have positive effects on participants’ social skills. Tukey post hoc tests revealed that the effects of group music training on participants’ social skills was significantly higher than the piano lesson and the drawing class in all seven subscales; effects of piano lesson on participants’ social skills were significantly higher than the drawing class in four subscales. Qualitative data indicated that parents’ understanding of social skills was similar with each other. Parents’ expectations of extracurricular activities were varied between groups, but were similar within each studied group. Teachers’ perception of social skills and their perception of their role and responsibilities were diverse between groups. Teachers’ perception of effects of extracurricular lessons on young children’s social skills was diverse too. Qualitative data showed that parent’ expectations on the extra-curricular activities, teachers’ beliefs and instructional strategy might influence the results.This study indicated that music education can play a role in young children’s development

The aim of the study is to explore preschool teachers’ folk pedagogy as reflected in music education in Hong Kong by examining how Hong Kong teachers act, think and interact with their students when teaching music, and their response when stimulated by Japanese preschool culture. To illuminate the concept of folk pedagogy, the study investigates the tacit norms, views and values of selected Hong Kong and Japanese music teachers. This research is a multi-case study with an ethnographic design for cultural observation. A meta-aspect of this study is to provide a venue for teachers’ professional development, which consists of sharing videos from other countries, discussing their values and allowing these discussions to enlarge their sense of teachers. Through individual and group discussions and the teachers’ beliefs construction one year later, the teachers’ beliefs, teaching pedagogies and implicit behaviours are identified and analysed. The implications of the study will strengthen music teachers’ evaluations of Hong Kong’s folk pedagogy. All rights reserved.

Physical activity (PA) is important for young children in achieving positive health outcomes and there is growing evidence suggesting that PA and fitness play an important role in children’s brain development and academic performance. Studies of preschool children typically show that few meet recommended daily PA levels. Meanwhile many preschoolers worldwide attend preschools, but little is known about their on-campus PA or the factors that influence it, especially during classroom sessions. The purpose of this study was to use a validated instrument to conduct a micro-analysis of student PA levels, lesson contexts, and teacher prompts for PA during classroom sessions. We assessed these factors during 165 classroom sessions taught by 25 teachers in four preschools. The sessions occurred prior to (PRE-PE) or following the PE lessons (POST-PE) that we described in an earlier paper (Chow et al., 2015) . Children spent classroom time primarily sitting (76%) and standing (13%), while engaging in PA (mostly of low or moderate intensity) 11% of the time. PA occurred mostly during lesson transitions and music time. Overall, boys were more active than girls (MVPA% = 12.1 vs. 8.8), and teachers rarely promoted either in-class or out-of class student PA. The study contributes to the limited literature on PA and its related contexts in preschools. The results have implications for providing pre-service and in-service teacher education related to the importance of PA and how to implement it. Expanded surveillance studies are recommended. In addition to using questionnaires and accelerometers or pedometers to assess PA, the studies should include observation methods so that important on-site and potentially modifiable contexts can be assessed directly. Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Adolescent problems in Hong Kong have brought questions about their moral development and mental health to light. Moral education for preschool children will be strategically important to address these issues because applying early educational interventions to preschool children will effectively enhance their personal development. This article highlights the inadequacy of the Hong Kong preschool curriculum guides in the promotion of moral development in children. The lack of a consensus about the values and character that preschool children should develop is a fundamental problem of implementing preschool moral education in Hong Kong. If moral education is regarded as a school curriculum, either formal or informal, the objectives, content and assessment should be closely adhered to one another. In addition, the learning and teaching activities should also be in line with student's developmental characteristics and experiences. The O-C-A model is then proposed for moral education in the preschool settings of Hong Kong. Advice has also been made for the promotion of moral education in Hong Kong's early childhood settings.
[Copyright of Global Studies of Childhood is the property of SAGE Publications.]

Aims and objectives: To test the effectiveness of a musical training programme in promoting happiness and quality of life of Hong Kong Chinese underprivileged preschool children. Background: The impact of poverty and income disparity on the psychological wellbeing of children remains a profound global public health concern. There is substantial evidence that poverty and income disparity have many negative impacts on children's psychological well‐being, adversely affecting their quality of life. Methods: A nonequivalent, quasi‐experimental, two‐group, pretest and post‐test, between‐subjects design was conducted with 171 Hong Kong Chinese underprivileged preschool children (aged 3–6 years). Participants (n = 100) in the experimental group attended a weekly 1‐hr musical training lesson for 12 weeks conducted by the Music Children Foundation. Participants (n = 71) in the wait list control group received the same training after all data had been collected. Data collection for both groups was conducted at baseline and 12‐week follow‐up. The measured outcomes were happiness level and quality of life. A TREND checklist was completed. Results: Participants in the experimental group reported significantly higher levels of happiness (p = .002) and quality of life (p = .44) than those in the wait list control group. Conclusions: The present study indicates the effectiveness of a musical training programme in promoting happiness and quality of life of Hong Kong Chinese underprivileged preschool children. It also demonstrated the feasibility of implementing the programme in a community context. Relevance to clinical practice: This study aids to inform nurses the beneficial effect of the musical training programme in improving underprivileged children's psychological well‐being and quality of life. Indeed, community nurses may act as facilitators to promote the musical training programme to underprivileged children. The involvement of community nurses may greatly enhance the sustainability

In this paper we outline the provision of pre-primary education in the Hong Kong SAR and discuss how the educational reform initiatives of 2000 (Learning to Learn) and global imperatives provided the impetus to reshape a new educational approach to early childhood education. We use the example of a half-day pre-primary (kindergarten) programme to illustrate the ways in which policy and guidelines are enacted and how they appear to reflect all the attributes of the reform movement that have adopted contemporary ideas from the international educational arena. We highlight the interpretations and enactments of these new educational imperatives in a system that has a long history of different cultural pedagogical traditions that often do not resonate with western pedagogical approaches.
[Copyright © 2016 TACTYC.]

This paper reports the experiences of using a pedagogical framework for creative practices (PFCP) to support preschool teachers in fostering children's creativity in their classrooms. The PFCP includes five pedagogical components: 1) motivation; 2) a divergent process of generating possibilities; 3) a convergent process of selecting ideas; 4) putting ideas into practice; and 5) evaluation. Eighteen teachers from six Hong Kong preschools participated in the study. According to the PFCP, each teacher developed six creative practices and implemented them in their classrooms. Individual semi-structured interviews were used elicit teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the PFCP and the changes of teachers' teaching pedagogy. The observations used as a source of evidence to illustrate teachers' actual teaching behaviours and children's creative performance. The results suggest that the PFCP was perceived as being effective in helping teachers improve their lesson planning and pedagogy. Positive effects such as enhancing teachers' knowledge and skills, infusing creativity into the various learning domains and shifting teaching practices from being strongly teacher centred to being more child centred were documented. This paper discusses the implications and suggests that the PFCP could serve as a starting point for teachers to explore their own creative-practice methods. Finally, the study should lead to further inquiry on effective creative practice teaching strategies.
[Copyright © Pergamon Press].

THE TRANSITION FROM HOME to early childhood education can be stressful for both children and parents. How parents cope with this potentially stressful event affects both the children's adaptation and the parents' lives during the preschooler stage of the family lifecycle. This paper examines how parents respond to their children's adjustment difficulties, particularly a reluctance to attend school, by examining the coping strategies of 29 Hong Kong parents. The parents expressed different kinds of negative emotions regarding their children's reluctance to go to school due to various adjustment difficulties. Parents' coping strategies can be classified as planful coping, seeking social support, accepting responsibilities, distancing, self-controlling and positive reappraisal according to Folkman and Lazarus's Ways of Coping (WOC) framework. The implications of these strategies for how early childhood professionals can support parents are discussed.
[Copyright © 2014 Early Childhood Australia Inc.]