Getting to Know Your International Contacts-Part 2

This week Lisa Zhang shared her experience and knowledge about Excellence and Equity of Care and Education for Children and Families.

In China, Majority of children in the city go to Kindergarten. Children go to elementary school at 6 years old. Kindergarten serves children from 3-6 years old. It has three levels: Junior (3-year-old), middle (4-year-old), and senior (5-year-old). Kindergarten is a full day program, children go to school around 7:30 am and go home around 4:30 pm. Children have two meal and snacks and 2 hours nap in the school. Around 32-40 children and 3 teacher in one class. Teachers are looping every year so that children will have same teachers for 3 three years. Two teachers are co-teaching in the classroom. Another one only take care children's daily life in school and tidy up classroom.
     Early childhood education prescribed curriculum includes language, math, art, music, physical education and general knowledge, which is a combination of science and social studies.Children seldom work independently or in small groups on self-selected tasks. Instead, the emphasis is upon teacher-directed, total group instruction. All children are expected to do the same thing at the same time. Each section of lessons is around 20 to 30 minutes, which depend on children's age groups. For example, in a typical art lesson the teacher demonstrates how to fold tissue paper into butterflies. She then gives guidance to those children doing it incorrectly before proceeding to the next step. Drawing lessons often consist of children copying an object drawn by the teacher. The curriculum is provide by each province's Bureau of Education.
      Early childhood education in China currently faces external challenges increased influence of foreign ideas and values. As China becomes more open to outside contact and influence, traditional teaching comes into conflict with Western ideas about "developmentally appropriate practices" and goals of creativity, autonomy and critical thinking. Some kindergarten start to change the curriculum in the school. They set up the classroom in different areas and have certain time when allow children to have free choice to works with and teacher going to do the observation. It also more focus on children creativity and start to spend more hour to learning English.

In my opinion, the excellence and equity of care and educational for children and families rely on factors such as the supports of government, well-trained teachers, philosophy of early childhood education. If all these facts are taken account when we provide children with care and education, that is what we are called high-quality progrom.