In early childhood education (ECE), curriculum encompasses prevailing theories, approaches and models. Curriculum is planned appropriately based on the knowledge of theory and research about how children develop and learn, with special attention given to individual children's needs and interests in relation to program goals. In this paper, focusing on ECE, I discuss the underlying rationale, principles and meaning of developmentally appropriate curriculum (DAC) as developed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in the United States in 1987. Drawing from relevant literature, I discuss issues of relevance, and application related to DAC with specific reference to ECE experience in Hong Kong.
幼兒教育課程包括了不少流行的理論、方法與模式。適切的課程是基於幼兒理論、研究與設計，而課程目標能照顧兒童的身心發展、學習、個別需要和興趣。本文旨在探討由國際幼兒教育協會(NAEYC)所倡議的發展適切幼兒課程之理念、原則和意義。作者探用相關文獻資料，引用香港之事地實例來討論發展適切課程的相關和應用。
[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/]

幼兒教育素被視為終身學習與全人發展的一個重要基礎，它的重要性亦在香港的教育改革中被認定。為了確保幼稚園的課程質素，教育局等政府部門印製了不同的文件以供老師參考，這些課程文件反映出政府對幼稚園課程的期望在這些年來是一致的。本文分為兩個部分，並嘗試從三種廣義的課程觀去分析上述文件：第一部分是以經典的泰勒式課程觀去分析；第二部分是以施瓦布的實用性課程觀去討論。最後，我們將從批判的視角出發評論這些文件。
Early childhood education has long been recognised globally and locally as significant in laying the foundations for lifelong learning and all-round personal development. The same recognition is prominent in the education reform proposals of Hong Kong. To facilitate kindergarten teachers to design quality curricula, several government bodies issued curriculum related documents to serve teachers as guidelines. A study of these government-published materials reveals a degree of consistency among them in terms of what the government expects of the kindergarten curriculum, despite the fact that their publication spans the two decades 1984 to 2006. This paper, divided into two parts, attempts to analyse the aforementioned documents from three broad, multiple curriculum perspectives. The first part will cover the categories and questions inherent in a Tylerian perspective. The second part will cover the notion of Schwab's practical perspective and associated curricular "commonplaces" (teacher, student, subject matter and milieus) (Reid, 2006), which address related pedagogical questions such as what, when, how, why, to whom, and by whom (Heydon & Wang, 2006). Finally, we shall offer some comments from critical perspectives.
[Copyright of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre Journal is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre at http://www.edb.org.hk/hktc]

Research Findings: This article describes research into leadership practice for school improvement in Hong Kong preschools at a time when there was a move toward increased accountability. Two schools were selected for study, both of which were rated as excellent in the quality assurance inspections of the Education Bureau. Leadership practice for school improvement and related factors were investigated from the perspectives of various school stakeholders.
Practice or Policy: The findings indicate that the 2 case study schools adopted different approaches to the process of change. One school principal delegated more to her subordinates and sought a radical change in the curriculum. In contrast, the other school principal imposed more restrictions on the exercise of authority in decision making and delegation and tended to follow the logic of a quick-fix approach. Overall, though the 2 schools adopted different approaches to curriculum change, the exercise of leadership in both schools was still highly centralized. The characteristics of leadership practice as perceived by various school stakeholders were different from the concepts of distributed leadership documented in the Western literature.
[Copyright of Early Education & Development is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10409280903582835]