Educational innovations in Hong Kong: Its implications of policy change for early childhood development

Previous studies suggested that teaching in early childhood settings appeared to be highly structured, highly teacher-directed with a lot of direct instructions, and teacher-initiated questions. With increasing numbers of middle-class parents sending children to kindergartens, the competence of kindergarten teachers has aroused great public concern in Hong Kong. Currently, there is rigorous effort involved in preschool improvement in HK. The present mode of early childhood educational accountability in Hong Kong has been in place since 2000. in the recent educational reforms (www.edb.gov.hk), the focus has been placed on self-evaluation and subsequent evaluation by an external body. A set of performance indicators (ww.edb.gov.hk) was developed in 2000 to facilitate the reform process. However, according to the two most recently published reports by the Education Bureau Annual Report, none of the inspected kindergartens met the “excellent” standards set in the Teaching-Learning domain. ECE centres have difficulties in meeting high standards, and this deficiency affects outcomes for children. The 2007 voucher system (www.edb.gov.hk) was introduced and it includes such incentives as a teacher professional development scheme. This investment can potentially be seen as the key to quality assurance in Hong Kong. The focus of the enquiry will be strategic plans and activities undertaken by 10 preschools implementing self-assessment and school improvement. While the present system of school improvement is being implemented, and is in its initial stages, the theorizing of the characteristics and process of practice will inform its future implementation as well as preschool improvement from the cultural perspective. Copyright © 2009 Nova Science Publishers.