This paper is to investigate kindergarten teachers’ understanding of play and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in practicing play-based curriculum. Kindergarten teachers’ professional knowledge, particularly their PCK, has always been considered an important component in securing the quality of early childhood education (Hedges & Cullen, 2005, Sheridan et al., 2009, Wood & Bennett, 2000). This study is built upon the work of Shulman (1986, 1987). Among seven domains of knowledge, PCK blends both content and pedagogy, encompasses both teachers’ understanding of content areas and enactments, with aims to develop better practices for children. This specific domain constitutes knowledge base of teachers to warrant the quality of play-based curricular practice. This study invited 19 kindergartens and 29 teachers. Using the interpretivist approach, qualitative data were collected through classroom observations and teacher focus group interviews to gain a deeper understanding about the kinds of PCK embedded in their actual practice. The present study has met the university’s research ethics. Informed consent has also been obtained from kindergarten principals, teachers and parents of the participating children. Our findings indicated that kindergarten teachers’ situated form of knowledge appeared as significant as their PCK in shaping their professional practice of play-based curriculum. Teachers conceived that ongoing complexities and dilemmas that circumscribing their practice required them to constantly frame, adapt and modify pedagogical strategies. Findings revealed that teachers’ knowledge on play-based pedagogy is contextually bounded. This study gives insights into how teachers develop situated wisdom to complement their PCK in constructing authentic play-based learning in classes. Copyright © 2018 28th EECERA Conference.

This study aims to conceptualise a drama-integrated curriculum devised from process drama as an approach to play-based pedagogy and curriculum to realise the policy initiative of learning through play. By investigating teachers’ perspectives and practices in relation to the curriculum of a local kindergarten, examples of effective drama-integration strategies and the associated children's learning are identified and organised into four themes – namely, drama teaching and learning through, before, in and after play. The teachers understood that although their curriculum is not based on free play, its not-so-free features may reconcile the play–learning binarism, daring them to navigate the maze of complex relationships between play, drama, teaching and learning in implementing a playful curriculum. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s).

This article investigates the variety of factors that hinder the implementation of play (as defined by western scholars) in Asian preschools. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of policy borrowing, enactment and glocalisation, we analyse three jurisdictions that illustrate distinctive problematics: India, Mainland China and Hong Kong. The methodology involves a bibliographic review. Each jurisdiction is presented as a narrative portrait, including key sociocultural characteristics, features of early childhood education system, role of play in government policies, and teachers’ beliefs and practices pertaining to play. The findings show that the distinctive factors hindering play relate to societal mindsets in India, a lack of curriculum clarity in China, and structural factors and parental pressures in Hong Kong. Common hurdles include a high societal emphasis on academic learning, lack of information on how play should contribute to achieve curriculum outcomes, and insufficient teacher preparation. The authors show that play is neither adequately defined nor justified in some Asian policy frameworks, and argue that play might not be viable in certain preschools (especially in half-day programmes). An alternative glocal notion is proposed – child-led activities – which would be less conceptually problematic and more culturally appropriate. The study highlights the need for the glocalisation of Asian early childhood education systems. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s).

This study examined the perceptions of two groups of teachers, namely Secondary 3 and Secondary 6, regarding effective pedagogical practices in relation to curriculum reform. A total of 1,215 teachers from 91 secondary schools participated in the study. Collaborative inquiry, instructional strategy and catering for learner diversity were conceived as the three most effective pedagogical practices for implementation of the reforms while seven perceived student learning outcomes were also identified. Further multi-group analyses supported invariance between the two teacher groups in their perceptions of student learning when applying the three pedagogical practices in the classrooms. Results of path analyses revealed that Secondary 6 teachers viewed collaborative inquiry as having a significant effect on all aspects of student learning, but such impacts were not seen as very likely in the view of Secondary 3 teachers. On the contrary, Secondary 3 teachers conceived instructional strategy as the most effective way to enhance student learning. Catering for learner diversity had a positive association with various aspects of student learning in the view of both teacher groups. The study concludes with the implication for enhancing professional development of teachers. Copyright © 2021 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

In this study, a modified version of the Curriculum Orientation Inventory for Early Childhood Education (COI-ECE) is developed and validated with a sample of 717 in-service teachers from fifty Hong Kong pre-primary schools. Results of confirmatory factor analysis show that the curriculum beliefs of pre-primary school teachers can be conceptualised into four dimensions: humanistic, cognitive process/academic, technological, and social reconstruction orientations. Results also reveal that pre-primary school teachers hold strong humanistic orientation beliefs while cognitive process/academic orientation beliefs are held less strongly. Further analyses by one-way ANOVA tests find that differences in curricular orientation beliefs are related to teachers’ educational level and teaching position. This study reaffirms the importance of implementing an integrated developmentally appropriate curriculum in promoting whole-child development in children’s early years. The implications for supporting and sustaining teachers’ curriculum-based planning and subsequent teaching practices will be discussed. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

This study employed an inductive qualitative approach to understanding the effects of local culture on early childhood curriculum development in two Hong Kong kindergartens. A triangulation of interviews, observations and documents was established, and cultural-historical activity theory was employed as the theoretical framework. The results indicated that local culture played an important role in early childhood curriculum development. First, the two cases learned from diverse models and approaches during the transformation of their curricula, resulting in contradictory demands and motives. Then, these contradictions were, in turn, resolved by the local culture to achieve curriculum hybridisation and innovation, as well as inherit the culture. Such findings provide valuable implications for early childhood professionals to integrate social and cultural diversity into curriculum development and to localise imported curricular practices so as to ensure a good fit between the curriculum and the local context. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

Hong Kong preschool teachers have long been portrayed as ineffective reform implementers entrenched in the Confucian educational practices. This study, conducted in an award-winning drama partnership, solicits nineteen teachers’ voices on their first-hand experiences in using process drama for curriculum and pedagogical innovation. Based on Bakhtin’s voice theory and thematic analysis, the study identifies various kinds of teacher-reported benefits of this western educational borrowing, ranging from teaching capacity building, perceptual changes concerning childhood and teachers’ role, to personal wellbeing enhancement. Unlike previous studies, these findings represent teachers as effective implementers of process drama and active agents of education reform. Copyright © 2021 American Alliance for Theatre and Education.