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ENQUIRE PROJECT DETAILS BY GENERAL PUBLIC |
| Project Details |
| Funding Scheme : | Early Career Scheme | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Number : | 24615319 | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Title(English) : | Investigating kindergarten teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of visual arts education in Hong Kong | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Title(Chinese) : | 探討香港幼稚園教師於視覺藝術教育中的學科內容知識及教學內容知識 | ||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investigator(English) : | Dr Leung, Suzannie Kit-ying | ||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investigator(Chinese) : | |||||||||||||||||
| Department : | Dept of Curriculum & Instruction | ||||||||||||||||
| Institution : | The Chinese University of Hong Kong | ||||||||||||||||
| E-mail Address : | suzleung@cuhk.edu.hk | ||||||||||||||||
| Tel : | 3943 6983 | ||||||||||||||||
| Co - Investigator(s) : |
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| Panel : | Humanities, Social Sciences | ||||||||||||||||
| Subject Area : | Education | ||||||||||||||||
| Exercise Year : | 2019 / 20 | ||||||||||||||||
| Fund Approved : | 611,984 | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Status : | Completed | ||||||||||||||||
| Completion Date : | 31-12-2022 | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Objectives : |
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| Abstract as per original application (English/Chinese): |
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| Realisation of objectives: | Objectives of this study This is the final report I prepared for this ECS project titled Investigating kindergarten teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of visual arts education in Hong Kong. The study aims to investigate the content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge possessed by local kindergarten teachers of visual arts and to identify areas where they could be further developed. The specific objectives of this study are to (1) investigate in-service kindergarten teachers’ views on and their competence in visual arts education in Hong Kong; (2) examine how in-service kindergarten teachers deliver their visual arts knowledge (content knowledge) and pedagogies (pedagogical content knowledge); and (3) explore which kinds of visual arts knowledge and pedagogies in-service kindergarten teachers need in order to teach visual arts more effectively to young children. I report that I achieved 100% of three objectives designed in this project. Problems encountered This project started to be implemented on 1 January 2020. Since its outbreak in December 2019, the coronavirus disease has affected the health of people worldwide. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, kindergartens in Hong Kong have been closed for face-to-face instruction since early February 2020. Face-to-face lessons were being resumed and suspended repeatedly. The kindergartens only had 31 to 54 days of class, varying by grade, in 2020. All government-subsidized kindergartens must follow the regulations to stay closed until the Education Bureau allows up to a third of a school’s student capacity to return for in-person classes after the lunar New Year holiday after February 2021. The project timeline has been dramatically affected, especially the data collection work, which covers class K1, K2, and K3 class observations and post-observation interviews. This phase of research work had to be postponed until the school year of 2021-2022 since kindergarten principals claimed that they were uncertain about the school operation in the coming months (i.e., from March to August 2021). The scope of investigation undertaken and the result achieved Nevertheless, I managed to complete the first two stages of my research project. Two research assistants were recruited for this project. Specifically, our research team has achieved the following tasks: (1) Obtaining the approval of the relevant institutional ethics committee; (2) reviewing literature of content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of visual arts education; (3) designing an e-survey for peer review; and (4) conducting a series of focus group interviews for developing the survey. In general, 30% of research has been achieved for each of the objectives at the mid-term progress in March 2021. In April 2021, my collaborators and I kicked off a sequential mixed-method study for my ECS project. A focus-group interview study was conducted in Phase 1 to explore Hong Kong kindergarten teachers’ beliefs regarding early visual arts education and establish a conceptual structure based on the TPB model. The interview data were the basis for developing the questionnaire used in Phase 2, a large-scale survey to examine how far teachers' practices aligned with the TPB model suggested in Phase 1. The qualitative part (Phase 1) was an interview study of 19 kindergarten teachers in two focus groups, aiming to develop a conceptual structure of the teachers’ behavioural, normative and control beliefs. The quantitative part (Phase 2) was a survey of 243 teachers from 21 randomly sampled kindergartens regarding their EVAE beliefs and practices. Most teachers believed in child-centred teaching while practising teacher-directed instruction and supported creativity while delivering closed-ended instruction. Four influential factors were identified to account for this gap: (1) practising child-centred pedagogies due to behavioural beliefs, (2) undervaluing visual arts due to normative beliefs, (3) instructing children directly due to normative beliefs and (4) delivering subject knowledge in studio teaching due to control beliefs. In the study, the TPB model could explain the teachers' beliefs and practices well, especially regarding how their behavioural, normative, and control beliefs affected their behavioural intentions in early visual arts teaching. In January 2022, my collaborators and I conducted another explanatory study for my ECS project. The study highlighted kindergarten teachers' teaching behaviours in their kindergarten classrooms. The study used a mixture of direct observations and post-observation interviews to investigate kindergarten teachers' knowledge of and pedagogical approaches to visual arts. In an observation study, 18 classrooms with 76 children in two local kindergartens in Hong Kong were observed during a 30-minute visual arts activity. Altogether, 540 minutes of video data were recorded and analysed using field notes and a time sampling strategy. In addition, 18 class teachers from the observed classrooms were invited to give post-observation interviews, and 810 minutes of data were recorded. The interview participants supported the importance of non-directive early childhood arts. However, the observation findings revealed that they still relied heavily on directive teaching in implementing early visual arts teaching. The study uncovered a discrepancy between integrating pedagogies and the subject knowledge of kindergarten teachers’ visual arts education. In September 2022, my collaborators and I conducted another mixed-methods study investigate kindergarten teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in early visual arts education (EVAE) and to identify the challenges they face in teaching visual arts to children. The study surveyed 342 in-service kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong and conducted individual interviews with 12 participants, collecting a total of 480 minutes of data. The findings revealed that: (1) kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong generally performed well in terms of their pedagogical content knowledge; (2) they lacked content knowledge in various forms of early visual arts (EVA); (3) they faced challenges in teaching visual arts effectively. This study can potentially change how early childhood visual arts teaching is conceptualized and taught in Hong Kong and other Asian regions. Finally, 100% of the research has been achieved for each objective at the final stage. The first study used the theory of planned behaviour further to explain the gap between teachers' beliefs and practices. The study's preliminary findings have been translated into Chinese to disseminate to all local kindergartens in Hong Kong through emails in April 2022 during the pandemic. The second study, a continuation of the ECS project, observed kindergarten teachers' teaching and behaviours in their visual arts classrooms through observations and post-observation interviews. The adapted observation framework in this paper was shared in a professional development workshop for HKEC Elite Kindergarten in July 2022, and the school adopted the framework for peer observation of teaching early visual arts. The third study is currently under review (Title of the manuscript: Early Childhood Visual Arts Education: Teachers’ Content Knowledge, Pedagogical Content Knowledge, and Challenges), by a top-tier journal in the field of teacher education. | ||||||||||||||||
| Summary of objectives addressed: |
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| Research Outcome | |||||||||||||||||
| Major findings and research outcome: | Leung, S. K. Y., Wu, J. & Li, H. (2023). Explaining kindergarten teachers' beliefs and practices regarding early visual arts education: A perspective from the theory of planned behaviour. Journal for the Study of Education and Development, 46(1), 190–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/02103702.2022.2133400 [Percentage of contribution: 90% SSCI; Taylor & Francis; 58/58 in Psychology & Educational Research; 2022 JIF=0.8; Citations: 2; Views: 1,195] This output, funded by an ECS grant, used the theory of planned behaviour further to explain the gap between teachers' beliefs and practices. This study's preliminary findings have been translated into Chinese to disseminate to all local kindergartens in Hong Kong through emails in April 2022 during the pandemic. A focus-group interview study was conducted in Phase 1 to explore Hong Kong kindergarten teachers’ beliefs regarding early visual arts education and establish a conceptual structure based on the TPB model. The interview data were the basis for developing the questionnaire used in Phase 2, a large-scale survey to examine how far teachers' practices aligned with the TPB model suggested in Phase 1. In this study, the TPB model could explain the teachers' beliefs and practices well, especially in terms of how their behavioural beliefs, normative beliefs and control beliefs affected their behavioural intentions in early visual arts teaching. Leung, S. K. Y., Wu, J., Lam, Y. & Ho, H. T. (2023). An explanatory study of kindergarten teachers' teaching behaviours in their visual arts classrooms. Teaching and Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104018 [Percentage of contribution: 80% SSCI; 49/269 in Education & Educational Research; Elsevier; 2022 JIF= 3.9; Citations: 3] This output, a continuation of the ECS project, observed kindergarten teachers' teaching and behaviours in their visual arts classrooms through observations and post-observation interviews. The adapted observation framework in this paper was shared in a professional development workshop for HKEC Elite Kindergarten in July 2022, and the school adopted the framework for peer observation of teaching early visual arts. The observation findings revealed that they still relied heavily on directive teaching in implementing early visual arts lessons. Meanwhile, the interview participants explained how their current behaviours were due to three reasons: (1) the early childhood curriculum’s neglect of visual arts, (2) the restrictions that the teachers faced when attempting to deliver creative experiences to children and (3) their lack of artistic knowledge and pedagogies for teaching visual arts. | ||||||||||||||||
| Potential for further development of the research and the proposed course of action: |
The first output applied the TPB model to identify a significant belief–practice gap in implementing early visual arts activities based on various factors and constraints. The findings could be used to design and implement a responsive teacher education programme in visual arts, in partnership with existing teacher education institutes and kindergartens in Hong Kong. Given Hong Kong's location in Asia, the insights gained from examining early visual arts in this study may be relevant to other parts of the Asia-Pacific region, and they may even hold lessons for worldwide educators, policymakers and researchers. The second output used a mixture of direct observations and post-observation interviews to investigate kindergarten teachers' knowledge of and pedagogical approaches to visual arts. This study uncovered a discrepancy between integrating pedagogies and the subject knowledge of kindergarten teachers’ visual arts education. This study adapted the Early Childhood Teacher Behaviour Observation (ECTBO) instrument as a visual arts–specific rather than a general tool. The newly adapted ECTBO version will be helpful for worldwide researchers and educators seeking to investigate kindergarten teachers’ pedagogical knowledge of and approaches to visual arts education in the future. | ||||||||||||||||
| Layman's Summary of Completion Report: | This study aimed to examine the level of content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge that local kindergarten teachers possess in the field of visual arts and to identify areas where further development is needed. In the past, visual arts teaching was not considered a central aspect of early childhood education, but this study aimed to fill in the gaps in research in this area. The proposed study took a teacher education and development perspective to investigate the kindergarten teachers' views and competence in visual arts education in Hong Kong, how they deliver their knowledge and teaching techniques, and the areas where they need improvement to teach visual arts more effectively. The study utilized a mixed-method approach. The findings of this research had the potential to impact the way early childhood visual arts teaching is perceived and conducted in Hong Kong. On a practical level, the results could be used to design and implement a teacher training program in visual arts in collaboration with existing teacher education institutes and kindergartens in Hong Kong. Ultimately, the findings may improve the quality of visual arts teaching by local kindergarten teachers and contribute to future educational policymaking in Hong Kong. | ||||||||||||||||
| Research Output | |||||||||||||||||
| Peer-reviewed journal publication(s) arising directly from this research project : (* denotes the corresponding author) |
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| Recognized international conference(s) in which paper(s) related to this research project was/were delivered : |
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| Other impact (e.g. award of patents or prizes, collaboration with other research institutions, technology transfer, etc.): |
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| Realisation of the education plan: | |||||||||||||||||
| SCREEN ID: SCRRM00542 |