Teaching development grants final and financial report: A review of “A practical guide for BEd (ECE) (full-time) field experience”

This project is an extension of the TDG project "A Practical Guide for BEd (ECE) (Full-time) Field Experience" (FPECE/TDG/07-08/06). A course pack titled "Becoming an Early Childhood Teacher: A Practical Guide for Field Experience" was developed as a result of the previous project. In view of the fact that the Practical Guide aims to support students' independent learning throughout their course of study, all BEd (ECE) (Full-time) students and respective practicum tutors got a copy in the 2008/09 academic year. The purpose of the newly proposed project is threefold: (1) to conduct a follow-up on the use of the Practical Guide, (2) to further improve and enrich the content of the guide, and (3) to explore alternative modes of delivery of the guide and ways to formalize this independent learning approach. Continuous data collection will be implemented throughout Semester II of 2008/09. To track the use of the Practical Guide, students' field experience portfolios will be collected and analyzed. Students will also be invited to self-report their use of the guide. Likewise, practicum tutors will be interviewed on how they have used the guide to support students' learning. Focus groups including students, practicum tutors, as well as supporting teachers and link teachers of the placement schools will be organized to comment on the coverage and content of the guide and to make necessary recommendations. Revision and improvement will then be made based on the collected data. In preparing the Practical Guide, it was found that there were insufficient local professional articles written for local early childhood teachers. Thus, pre-service ECE programme graduates and experienced early childhood teachers will be invited to share their ideas in writing. This attempt create a new platform to promote professional exchange of knowledge that is specific to the Hong Kong context. The revised Practical Guide will enable student teachers to gain a more authentic understanding of the local situations and practices of early childhood education.