Many teachers have begun to adopt information and communication technologies (ICT) in early childhood education (ECE) settings to support children’s learning. However, research shows that ECE ...teachers’ ICT implementation practice is not always appropriate, and their limited professional learning opportunities is one reason for this. Researchers worldwide have called for more understanding of professional learning that supports ECE teachers’ use of ICT in the kindergarten curriculum. In China, although ECE teachers’ ICT competencies and skills are required in national documents, little has been reported about how they are supported in learning about implementing ICT in the current curriculum. Drawing on the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model, this study investigates how a small group of ECE teachers in China have experienced professional learning regarding ICT-related curriculum. By conducting individual interviews and analyzing public and teachers’ personal documents, this study finds that teacher participants had received diverse types of professional learning opportunities related to ICT implementation. These opportunities were provided by different organizations; however, one shared feature was a focus on the technical level of how to use ICT devices. This study also discusses the teaching-research culture underpinning participants’ professional learning. This article provides significant implications for advancing current professional learning programs.
In 2001, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued Guidelines for Preschool Education (GPE) (trial version) to call on early childhood practitioners to use a child-centred and play-based approach to ...teaching and learning. In order to implement the requirements, many kindergartens in China have carried out the play-based kindergarten curriculum reform. Among them, there are three successful trial cases in China on putting play as the core and base activity in kindergarten. They are Anji play in Zhejiang province (south east China), Lijin play in Shandong Province (east China) and Gamification of the curriculum in Jiangsu Province (east China). All the kindergartens there whether private or public start to change the old group teaching and return play to young children. The similarities of three play modes are: open and constantly changing play environment, adequate play time, multiple teachers' roles and child-centred play evaluation. Play-based curriculum in these three cases are top-down reform, which is the most effective way in China.
Many recent articles have focused on reading instruction in kindergarten, but few have solicited the beliefs of the experts—kindergarten teachers. This study examined California teachers’ perceptions ...of teaching reading to kindergarten students. Kindergarten teachers from northern to southern California were surveyed (N = 103). Teachers reported on student oral language competence, reading achievement, and mastery of six of the English Language Arts Standards. Due to numerous standards, teachers reported that there was less time for traditional kindergarten activities and subject area instruction, both of which promote language development. Participants believed that students with advanced language skills at the beginning of kindergarten became proficient readers. Some students, with underdeveloped language, found learning to read frustrating and confusing. Other students, with underdeveloped language, may have grasped the decoding aspect of reading, but were lacking in comprehension.
Research has consistently demonstrated that self-regulation is essential for the development and preservation of health and well-being in the early years and across the lifespan. Based on the ...emerging literature on the important role of self-regulation in promoting healthy child development, policymakers have made efforts to include self-regulation skills in practice and policy documents worldwide. Despite efforts to include self-regulation skills in early years curriculum documents, there is limited understanding by teachers, scholars, and policymakers of what self-regulation is and how best to support it in the day-to-day classroom. This limited understanding is perpetuated by a lack of a unified definition of self-regulation. Thus, it becomes important to examine these efforts in a critical way. In Ontario, where the research was completed, a revised play-based full-day kindergarten program was introduced in 2016. In this research we use a qualitative document analysis approach to compare the conceptualization of self-regulation in Ontario’s revised play-based kindergarten program with theory-driven models of self-regulation from empirical research. Analysis was iterative, and themes emerged based upon a coding scheme developed by the research team. Results suggest that co-regulation has a powerful influence on student learning. In addition, the policy document de-emphasizes behavioral regulation and expands cognitive regulation to include more than inhibitory control. Lastly, the kindergarten program discusses metacognition in relation to the use of language to articulate one’s thinking with little attention to goal-directed behaviors. In this paper, explicit recommendations for policymakers and practitioners are provided to ensure that emerging conceptualizations of self-regulation are promoted in early years curricula. Further, empirical evidence is needed to support why it is necessary to understand emerging conceptualizations of self-regulation and outline implications for current early years curricula.
This study examines how origami has been implemented, practised, and developed in the early childhood education of Japan over the past 140 years. Historically speaking, paper-folding has been part of ...Japanese symbolic art, craft culture, and religious ceremonial artefacts since paper and paper-folding techniques were first imported from China during the seventh century. By the eighteenth century, paper-folding provided a form of mass entertainment in Japanese society. During the 1870s, paper-folding was dramatically transformed into a pedagogical tool within Japanese kindergartens after Friedrich Froebel's (1782-1852) kindergarten system and its curriculum was transferred to Japan from the West. "Papier-Falten" (paper-folding) comprised an element of Froebel's Occupations - which was a series of handiwork activities - in his kindergarten curriculum, whereby various folding techniques and models were derived from European traditional paper-folding and introduced into a Japanese kindergarten curriculum that was associated with the concept of Froebel's kindergarten. Particularly seen in early childhood education in Japan, what we now call origami developed as a new form of paper-folding. This gradually emerged through the marriage of Western (German) and Eastern (Japanese) paper-folding cultures. The study highlights the benefits and uniqueness of cultural transmission and transformation when developing origami in early childhood education in Japan.
This article describes the practical application of an innovative bilingual preschool program that involves two-way immersion of both English and Chinese in classrooms. This has not been written ...about extensively, especially in the context of early childhood classrooms in Asian countries. The primary goal of the two-way immersion kindergarten is to offer children aged 3 to 5 the opportunity to achieve their maximum potential in all aspects of personal growth by using an enriched bilingual education model and an integrated learning curriculum. This initial curriculum plan has been developed for a two-way immersion kindergarten in Beijing, China. This framework articulates the goals of the program, program planning, implementation and design, as well as the expectations for these children. Samples of preschool and kindergarten schedules, Kindergarten Year 1 (K-1) curriculum projects, and Kindergarten Year 2 (K-2) curriculum maps are included in Supplementary A, B, and C. A detailed description of different type of activity centers is given in Supplementary D.
The purposes of this research are: 1) to get the picture of student’s creativity in science activity by implementing contextual approach to kindergartens’ students; 2) to get the picture of ...student’s creativity in science activity by implementing conventional approach to kindergartens’ students; 3) to know the different of kindergarten’s student’s creativity between the students taught by implementing contextual approach and the other ones taught by implementing conventional approach in science activity. Data are analyzed with the descriptive and inferential statistics; The result of this research shows that 1) In the science activity, the creativity of kindergartens’ students; taught by implementing contextual approach having a higher average point to the ones taught by implementing the conventional approach; 2) In contextual approach teaching, thenumber of students having higher point than the average point are higher to the ones having lower point than the average point. The same result is obtained in conventional approach teaching as well; 3) The number of students having higher point than the average point in contextual approach teaching are higher to the ones in conventional approach teaching; ABSTRAKPenelitian ini bertujuan untuk 1) mengetahui gambaran tentang kreativitas anak didik dalam kegiatan sains dengan pendekatan Kontekstual pada TK; 2) mengetahui gambaran tentang kreativitas anak didik dalam kegiatan sains dengan pendekatan konvensional yang diterapkan guru pada TK; 3) mengetahui perbedaan antara kreativitas anak didik yang diajar menggunakan pendekatan kontekstual dengan kreativitas anak didik yang diajar menggunakan pendekatan konvensional pada kegiatan sains di TK. Data dianalisis dengan analisis statistik deskriptif dan analisis statistik inferensial; Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa 1) Kreativitas anak didik TK; dalam kegiatan sains yang diajar dengan pendekatan kontekstual mempunyai skor rata-rata lebih tinggi dari pada yang diajar dengan pendekatan konvensional; 2) Dari hasil penelitian dengan pendekatan kontekstual diketahui anak didik yang mempunyai skor di atas skor rata-rata lebih banyak dari pada yang memiliki skor dibawah skor rata–rata, dan hasil penelitian dengan pendekatan konvensional diketahui anak didik yang mempunyai skor diatas skor rata-rata juga lebih banyak dari pada anak didik yang memiliki skor di bawah skor rata-rata; 3) Anak didik yang memperoleh skor di atas rata-rata pada pendekatan kontekstual lebih banyak dibanding anak didik yang memperoleh skor di atas rata-rata pada pendekatan konvensional.
The natural sciences teaching objects that are included in curricula do not constitute simplifications of scientific knowledge, but arise as the result of certain “didactic transpositions” that ...constitute objects of research. In this article we present an approach to Greek kindergarten curricula texts, which was attempted through qualitative text analysis and aimed to define the official teaching proposals regarding the “States and Properties of Matter”. The specific teaching object was selected among others as a discipline representative example. We describe the process of text analysis, the categories that emerged, as well as the possibilities of data interpretation offered by the use of a data presentation table, in conjunction with the aims of the study.
The kindergarten curriculum in mainland China has evolved through four periods and the current reform began in the end of 1980s. The reform aimed to transform kindergarten practice by shaping ...ideologies including respect for individual child, active learning, and play-based integrated curriculum. This review of research literatures shows that compared with the practice before the reform, many kindergarten teachers organize classrooms in learning centers, provide more play materials, pay time, and freedom for free play, and pay more attention to individuals. But indoor space organized in rice-seedling-bed model, teacher-led group instruction and teacher-controlled interactions are still often observed after three decades of reform efforts; there still exist great variations among kindergartens of different sponsoring bodies and in different regions. The problems resulted from the innate deficiencies of the top-down and value-priority reform, the conflicts between the advocated value and the traditional Chinese culture with emphasis on Ming-Fen, testing, and the value of children for the whole family and nation, and the unequal distribution of public resources decided by the educational institutions. Therefore, the curriculum reform is not a separate endeavor from other social changes, but a comprehensive and systematic change. To guarantee the success of the curriculum reform, the Chinese society needs cultural transformation and institutional reconstruction.
PDF
