Foundation Studies | Professional Studies | Language Enhancement
Required Courses - Professional Studies
ECP 4110 Classroom Communication for Early Childhood Teachers
The course examines elements of classroom communication, with a view to enhancing effective communication with children and supporting children’s language development in the classroom. Participants will gain insights into the nature of classroom discourse and the dynamics of classroom communication. They will examine effective communicative strategies for supporting interactions in early childhood contexts.
ECP 4120 Language and Literacy in Young Children
This course is an introduction to the theories of language acquisition and literacy development in young children. The stages of language acquisition in early childhood will be covered. The course examines literacy from contemporary perspectives and how young children acquire literacy through participating in a range of activities in their family, school and community. Participants will be encouraged to examine critically current practices in literacy education in local settings. They will also explore a range of resources and strategies to support and facilitate literacy learning opportunities for young children.
ECP 4210 Educational Policy and Practices in Hong Kong
This course aims to help participants gain an understanding of the Hong Kong education system in relation to their occupational well-being and working environment. It is designed to provide participants with analytical tools to comprehend and review educational policies and their implementation. Educational issues and policies in Hong Kong will be analyzed from an international-comparative perspective and a local concern for efficiency and equity. With a brief historical background, the empirical analysis of policies will begin with the 1982 Llewellyn Report and then extend to other educational policy papers and reports. Topics for analysis may include: (1) the school system and the curriculum; (2) allocation, selection and examination; (3) quality in school; (4) gender and class differentials in education; (5) teacher education and qualification; and (6) early childhood education and protection.
ECP 4310 Aesthetic Experience and Creative Expressions in Early Childhood
In this course, you are invited to examine the nature of aesthetic experience and its significant role in the early years of human development. The interrelated development of empathetic understanding, imagination, and creativity through the arts will be discussed. Focus will be given to the design of activities that facilitate young children’s appreciation and creative expressions of different forms of arts. These forms encompass visual arts (e.g. drawings, paintings, handicraft, sculpture, photography), language arts (e.g. picture books, poems, fairy tales), expressive arts (e.g. music, dance, drama), and the integrated arts. All the above forms could be actualized in various kinds of play, which serve as an ideal form for creative expressions. With the view to uncovering the dynamics of creativity development, we shall pay attention to the processes of symbolic mediation (internalization and externalization processes inclusive). In the recognition of creativity as the essence of human existence, deliberations will be given to facilitate creative expressions of a young child in the context of kindergartens, home, and community.
ECP 4410 Motor Development and Physical Activity
Course objectives:
- To describe the normal, orderly process of growth during early childhood;
- To analyze the role of individual variability, readiness, and sensitive learning periods in the process of motor development;
- To discuss the interrelationship between the phases and stages of motor development and the levels of movement skill learning;
- To provide examples of stability, loco-motor and manipulative movements at the fundamental and specialized movement skill phases; and
- To apply motor development and motor learning principles to the structuring and teaching of physical education activities at the preschool level.
A developmentally appropriate curriculum for preschool children provides experiences which encourage development in the psychomotor, affective, and cognitive areas. The content of physical education in pre-school programs consists of both fundamental motor skills and movement concepts. Children are ready to begin learning these basic motor skills and movement concepts by age three or four. Acquiring these basic movement patterns increases a child’s potential for learning more advanced sport skills and lifetime physical activities. Researchers agree that competency in movement skills can have a positive influence on children’s self-esteem and peer interactions. Participation in sports and games may also substantially contribute to cognitive development because fundamental motor skill ability promotes the development of visual-spatial abilities and field-independence which may indirectly influence subsequent academic performance.
ECP 5110 Math, Science, Tech Experiences in Early Childhood
This course aims to help participants understand how young children learn mathematics and science by actively constructing knowledge and making connections between new knowledge and prior knowledge. Participants will be provided with opportunities to consolidate their understandings of foundational concepts in mathematics, science and technology. They will also explore various ways to develop appropriate learning activities to foster young children’s development. This will include active exploration and manipulation of concrete materials and computer animations.
This course will study teaching methods and key sequences for developing young childre’s concepts and knowledge in the following: number, space, measurement, chance and data, patterns, body structure and functions, living and nonliving things, plants and animals, energy, water and gas, and simple toys. Participants will be able to master the skills to help young children acquire simple specific skills, such as observing and recording changes, making predictions and assumptions, and classifying objects. The course contents will include:
- Theories of mathematical development and science learning in young children;
- Exploration of children’s prior knowledge in mathematics, science and technology;
- Concepts and language development for mathematics, science and technology;
- Mathematics and science curriculum and pedagogy for young children; and
- Using historical stories to develop mathematical and scientific thinking.
An inquiry-oriented approach will be used to develop participants’ knowledge of young children’s learning of mathematics and science, and mathematics and science curricula. Participants will examine a variety of learning activities, reflect on relevant readings, and explore relevant software and web-based resource materials. Participants are expected to review teaching strategies, monitor children’s learning, and plan and evaluate early childhood curriculum in mathematics, science and technology.
ECP 5210 Teachers’ Roles in Early Childhood Education Organizations
This course provides an introduction to organizational and management theories. Three different sets of perspectives will be discussed in depth, including (1) the structural perspectives, (2) the human resources perspectives and (3) the cultural perspectives. The use of these theories in contemporary preschools and kindergartens will be illustrated through the recent school management reforms in Hong Kong, including the implementation of school based management as well as the restructuring of the governance system in schools. Through different learning activities, students will develop their conceptual skills and frameworks for effective management in educational organizations, and fulfill their respective roles and functions as administrators or teachers within an early childhood educational organization.
ECP 5310 Introduction to Educational Research
This course will introduce to the participants the basic constructs of educational research and prepare them for carrying out a project of field inquiry into early childhood education which is required by the programme. The purposes and processes of various types of educational research, such as ethnographical research, survey research, experimental research, ex post facto research, action research, and etc. will be illustrated with examples of educational studies. The primary statistical tools will be demonstrated to help the participants understand how the tools can be appropriately applied to educational research. In learning and understanding the various aspects of educational research, the participants will be provided the opportunity to experience how to generate and shape a research question and how to choose a research method to approach to the question.
ECP 6310 Teaching Students with Special Needs
This course serves as an introduction to exceptional children, covering a range of exceptionality including learning difficulties, language deficits, hyperactivity, autism, mental handicap, sensory impairment, and giftedness. Students will be exposed to a number of contemporary special education issues and controversies. Basic principles of identification and education of children with special needs will be discussed, with focuses on teacher’s roles in helping these children and adapting instruction to their needs in the regular classroom.
ECP 6320 Assessments for the Development and Learning of Young Children
This course provides students a basic understanding of the assessment principles and methods for teachers of young children from three to eight years of age. The primary foci of the courses are: (1) the basic concepts of educational and psychological assessment; (2) the purposes and processes of a variety of assessment methods currently used to assess and understand learning and development of young children; and (3) challenges in assessing young children from developmental, educational, psychological, and cultural perspectives. Students are expected to improve their educational practice by acquiring a working knowledge of appropriate assessment and gaining an understanding of the methods of observation, interview, standardized testing, and alternative assessment approaches for young children.
ECP 6510 Field Inquiry in Early Childhood Education
The purpose of the course is to provide students the opportunity to understand what actually happens in settings of early childhood education and why it happens by a field inquiry of integrating concepts and theories discussed at the university classroom with child care and education practices. The participants will be required to conduct a small project under the guidance of teacher supervisors. The project should focus on a question of the student’s interest and significant to the development and learning of children in early childhood education institutions (including families). It can be a case study, a small survey, a small experimental study or other types of study. With the permission of the project supervisor, it is possible for a group of not more than three students to conduct one substantial project. (Pre-requisite: ECP 5310)