para comunicar a sus padres lo que necesitaban y de qué forma ellos podrían ayudarlos. El objetivo del articulo es estudiar como los padres y los maestros evaluaron el proyecto; y de qué forma concebían la colaboración escuela-hogar y el aprendizaje de los niños.
Working within the context of a school improvement project, a kindergarten moved from its use of a theme approach in the classroom to a project-based learning approach in which the children were asked to seek relevant information and materials based on their daily interests and exploration. The children were encouraged to integrate drawing and writing daily newsletters to communicate to their parents what they need and how their parents could help them. This paper is presented in two parts. The first part is a description of how a project on shoes undertaken by a kindergarten class might unfold. The second part discusses the parents' and teachers' reflections on the project.
Kindergarten and Student Background InformationThe project venue was a Hong Kong kindergarten organized by a Christian church. The kindergarten was situated in the center of Hong Kong Island near the district's most populated area. It had 400 children enrolled in the kindergarten, about half of whom attended in the morning and the rest in the afternoon. The children came from middleor upper middle-class families.The children who worked on the 6 week project belonged to two different classes in the school. There were thirty children who were 4-5 years of age in each class.There were three teachers in each class: two class teachers and one teacher assistant.
Project BackgroundWorking within the context of a school improvement project in kindergarten, the researcher responded to the parents' and teachers' concerns about the children's growth and learning, as well as conducted a case study of a schoolbased initiative to engage parents in supporting their children's learning. In the past, the kindergarten used a thematic approach in which the teachers planned the curriculum, and the teaching process was more teacherdirected. As a result of a discussion between parents and teachers, it was determined that the teachers hoped to strengthen the children's motivation in learning and their abilities to solve problems, whereas the parents wanted their children to share their school lives with them. Thus, both parents and teachers agreed to try a project-based learning approach (PBL) wherein the children would direct their learning based on their daily interests and where they might need to search for relevant information and materials based on their daily interests and exploration. In addition, the children were encouraged to integrate drawing and writing daily newsletters to communicate to their parents what they need and how their parents could help them. Thus, the classroom activities shifted away from teachercentered lessons towards an emphasis on learning activities that were interdisciplinary, student-centered, and integrated with real-world issues and practices.In PBL, the children constructed meaning and practical skills through a process of inquiry that involved challenging and critical issues (Harada et al. 2008). Researchers have studied the effect of PBL on a range of educational
Continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers must be situated within the context of the practice of teachers and be relevant to their teaching and learning needs. A CPD project was conducted in a Hong Kong kindergarten class. For five years prior to the CPD project, the class had used a mixed curriculum of project approach topics and thematic units. The novice teachers, however, repeatedly expressed their concerns regarding the project work, including their lack of control over its direction. The author (the school consultant) offered to conduct a school-based CPD project at the kindergarten in order to enhance the teachers' professional development using the project approach. This paper tracks a novice teacher's professional growth and development through her experience in the CPD project. Specifically, the paper discusses how a project involving kindergarten children evolved in the classroom, as well as the reflections of a novice teacher regarding the project approach and CPD.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.