The development of early childhood physical education module in the Hong Kong Institute of Educaiton: Implications for future development in early childhood teacher education in Hong Kong

Early Childhood Physical Education (ECPE) is core curriculum in preschools. Children are physical beings and full of curiosity and drive to learn through physical play and movement which have been named as early childhood physical education. Young children are learning a great deal as they move about (Davis, 1996), and explore, learn, experience and interact with the world and its myriads parts (Whitehurst, 1971). Gallahaue and Donnelly (2003) has emphasized that movement is at the centre of young children’s lives. In Hong Kong, the Curriculum Development Council (2006) has issued the Guide to Pre-primary Curriculum and has emphasized the aim of early childhood education as fostering children’s whole person development. In light of this, the core of the curriculum framework is the four developmental objectives for young children, namely physical development, cognitive and language development, affective and social development; and aesthetic development. Given that, the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) has developed various ECPE modules since 1995 for different levels of programmes from Certificate, BEd (Hons), and to Postgraduate Diploma. The main purposes of this paper are twofold: first, to review the development of ECPE modules in the HKIEd; and secondly, to make recommendations for early childhood teacher education in Hong Kong. The findings have revealed that due to the inadequate credit points, tutors has been facing the dilemmas / difficulties in teaching both theoretical and practical core elements in these modules. Besides, students’ altitudes and abilities towards Physical Education have influenced their learning greatly. To provide high quality teacher education in ECPE, recommendations have been made in program structure, module contents, credit points and resources in this paper.