High/Scope Approach and the Project Approach in Hong Kong : Exploring Kindergarten Teacher's Perceptions

The preschool curriculum reform has been placed since 2006, and the new guide to the curriculum has just announced. Thus, it is crucial to incur the appropriate teaching methods while implementing the new curriculum. Since... [ view full abstract ]

The preschool curriculum reform has been placed since 2006, and the new guide to the curriculum has just announced. Thus, it is crucial to incur the appropriate teaching methods while implementing the new curriculum. Since teacher’s perception is an important factor that affects the implementations of different practices and what kind of approach they used make a difference. Therefore, the current research study aims to find out teacher’s perceptions of the High/Scope Approach, an approach that has its focus on play corner, and Project Approach, an approach which focused on questioning and problem solving. Misconceptions or gaps between perceptions on practices and actual practices will also be explored. A mixed method survey design was employed for the current investigation. There were 100 in-service teachers filled a questionnaire and ten teachers participated in interviews about the benefit and difficulties of applying on the both approaches. First, it was interesting enough to find that the perceived effectiveness of High/Scope Approach was significantly correlated to the perceived effectiveness of Project Approach. Furthermore, the suitableness of both approaches was significantly correlated with the effectiveness for children to learn new knowledge. Finally, teachers provided their views and opinions on High/Scope Approach and Project Approach in the separating senses, which showed their misconception that also witnessed on the correlations of both effectiveness from the questionnaire. While this study has its limitations on sampling method and yet both qualitative and quantitative data could not be integrated. This study recommends the importance of parents-schools collaborations, and good relationship with teachers in order to provide the best leaning and teaching environment for children. Meanwhile, teachers should also equip themselves their adequate knowledge and skills to choose a suitable approach for children to learn best under the rigorous reforming of the curriculum in Hong Kong. 

Keywords: High/Scope Approach; Project Approach