A comparative study on the preschool physical education curriculum in Zhuhai, China and Macau government kindergartens

Early childhood education (ECE) is an accepted culture both in Zhuhai, China and Macau. The purposes of this descriptive study were two-fold: to examine and compare the existing preschool P.E. curriculum in the government kindergartens of Zhuhai and Macau; and to make recommendations on the reform of the preschool P.E. curriculum in the tow cities. In the study, data were collected by participant observation, unstructured interviews and questionnaire. According to the findings, some major similarities in preschool P.E. curriculum were discovered in the government kindergartens of the two cities. It was obvious that well-trained preschool teachers, who were diploma holders in ECE, were recruited by the government kindergartens. Besides, the P.E. content covered the fundamental movement skills, games and large apparatus exercises. Also, games day and mini sports day were organized yearly in kindergartens. In addition, preschool teachers employed the directed teaching method. Furthermore, first-aid equipment was sufficient reform of preschool P.E. curriculum in the two cities were made in the final part of the paper. Copyright © 1999 New Horizons in Education.