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You
are here: First Impressions of Early Childhood Education in China
by Mary Ellen O'Keeffe, Ed.D.
I began my travels to China in June of 1998 as a member of a People to People Ambassador Program. Mona Lee Locke, First Lady of Washington, led a 55-member early childhood education delegation. During the trip we visited kindergartens in four cities, Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou and Shanghai, all very large cities. Kindergarten is the name given to schools in China that are similar to preschools in the United States. Children ages three through six attend programs that include week-long boarding schools, where children arrive on Monday morning and return to their families on Friday evening to full and half day programs. We also visited a nursery school that serves children from 18 months to three years.
In the Fall of 1998, I was asked to go to Chengdu to begin conversations on a faculty exchange between my college, Edmonds Community College and Chengdu College of Education. The exchanged focused on English as a Second Language but during my visit I visited Kindergarten #3, with 670 children in nineteen classrooms. Approximately 100 children boarded during the week. Most of the children's parents worked for the municipal government. Later I met with kindergarten directors and college professors that prepare kindergarten teachers to teach.. The audience was very interested in early childhood education practice that would encourage their children to become more independent and creative. They wanted to learn more about ECE curriculum from the United States. The Chinese kindergarten curriculum is a national curriculum.
In the Fall of 1999 the University of British Columbia, Early Childhood Department hosted a international symposium among kindergarten teachers and professors from Shanghai and Chengdu, UBC and representatives from our college. The purpose of the symposium was to exchange early childhood education practices that focused on the development of creativity. After the symposium, the Chinese delegation visited our campus and other early childhood programs in the Seattle area.
In June of 2000 two early childhood faculty and I were invited to Chongqing to visit schools and exchange best practices. Chinese early childhood teachers are learning about early childhood practices from many different sources. Some examples of curriculum and program philosophy are Montessori, High Scope and Reggio Emilia. In visiting the classrooms, we saw some evidence of teaching materials and classroom design that reflected these influences. Teachers were very eager to learn ways to improve their teaching. Our first impressions were that many teachers are doing a great job at creating learning environments that are a combination of teacher directed learning as well as child centered learning. The number of children in the classroom can range from 35 to 50 so it was amazing to see the efforts the teachers were making to create individual learning centers for such large number of children.
I have just returned from my fourth visit in early March 2001 to Shanghai where the China Welfare Institute hosted my colleague, Wayne Reinhardt and me. The Institute has a long history in serving children and families through schools and hospitals and was founded by Soong Ching Ling, the wife of Sun Yatsen and one of three famous Soong sisters. We spent a week visiting three different schools including a nursery school, the China Welfare Institute Kindergarten, and the Soong Ching Ling Kindergarten, famous for having nine international classrooms as well as nine classrooms for Chinese kindergartners.
During each visit I have learned more about the similarities and differences in early childhood practices between China and the US and realize that we have a lot to learn from each other. The most obvious similarity is the spontaneousness of the children's play. When children are free to play outdoors or indoors you see similar interests in climbing, running, playing chase, using wheel toys, throwing balls and using balance beams. As I observed dramatic play, I saw common themes including nurse/ doctor play, grocery shop, office worker and housekeeping roles. Teachers encourage dramatic play by preparing the classroom with props for children to use in their role-play. Teachers also set up table activities to allow children to make choices in their learning. For example, a variety of materials like beads and strings are placed on tables for children to practice their fine motor skills. Large motor skills are encouraged through block building, easel painting and riding wheel toys.
In the Chinese kindergartens, I saw more structured activities led by teachers. In one school, I observed a teacher do a mini lesson on the use of rhythm instruments. Approximately thirty three year olds watched the teacher demonstrate the lesson and then they had the opportunity to try out the instruments. I was amazed to see how these very young children were able to focus on the lesson for at least thirty minutes. Another difference I observed was how quickly young children were capable of self-regulating their behaviors. A teacher's handclap or a soft voice will be the signal for children to stop their activity and give their attention to the teacher. They make the transition from very active play to a quiet activity. I also observed preschool children learning to play musical instruments like the piano and accordion. One obvious difference is the length of time that young children attend school. Many start their classes on Monday mornings and stay at the school until Friday evenings. This length of time allows for the child to have many more opportunities for structured learning experiences. In all the schools that I saw, children began the day with outdoor morning exercises.
The area that was most in contrast was in children's art, in painting and drawing. During my last visit to Shanghai, I watched a teacher teach young children how to draw a panda bear and a bamboo tree. Children (approximately four) sat at tables in pairs and were given two paintbrushes, and two small dishes of black ink and paint. The difference in the paint was the thickness. The teacher began by drawing a circle; next she drew the parts of a panda bear's face. The children followed her directions. When the teacher observed that some children were having difficulty drawing the bamboo, she repeated the instructions and demonstrated how to do it in smaller steps. The children enjoyed the activity and in spite of the fact that the teacher drew a model, each child's drawing represented their own picture. In my experiences in working in preschool education, I have not seen teacher teach children how to draw before giving them a lot of time to create their own art. I am very curious about learning and observing more on the development of art in young children in China and with all the new evidence on early learning from the brain research, I wonder what new synapses are being connected with this kind of experiential learning.
I hope to continue my visits to China and look forward to many more ECE exchanges. I will say again that I think we, early childhood educators, from China and the United States have a lot to learn from each and it is very clear that we care deeply about our children and want them to have the best learning experiences. I will be preparing to bring ECE educators from China and the US together to exchange expertise. The China Welfare Institute will be hosting an international conference on Early Childhood Education in late October 2001 in Shanghai.
Mary Ellen O'Keeffe is the Associate Dean of the Health and Human Services Division of Edmonds Community College. As an Early Childhood Specialist, she also designed and led the training for New Horizons for Learning's Day One Parent Education Project which was piloted at Swedish Hospital in Seattle. It is now being used throughout the country in hospitals and birthing centers. You can contact Dr. O'Keeffe at mokeeffe@edcc.edu.
© April 2001 New Horizons for Learning, all rights reserved.
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