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This study examined the test-retest reliability and predictive validity of the East Asia-Pacific Early Child Development Scales (EAP-ECDS) Short Form. In China, preschools typically provide children with educational activities in age-segregated classrooms – Kindergarten Level 1 (K1) (3 to 4 years), Kindergarten Level 2 (K2) (4 to 5 years), and Kindergarten Level 3 (K3) (5 to 6 years). A total of 709 children in K2 (Mage = 57.85 months, SD = 4.77) were randomly selected from 29 kindergartens in Shanghai municipality and Guizhou province of China. Children were assessed using the EAP-ECDS in K2 and K3. School readiness was assessed in K3, and literacy and mathematics achievement were assessed in Grade 2. Pearson’s correlation coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC = 0.73) indicated that the tool had good test-retest reliability across K2 and K3. Regarding predictive validity, K2 EAP-ECDS predicted K3 school readiness (β = 0.26), Grade 2 language and literacy (β = 0.18) and mathematics (β = 0.22) after adjusting for age, gender, socioeconomic status, and region. Findings support using the tool to measure the holistic development of preschool-aged children in China and the region.

Assessment of progress toward UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 requires measurement of the proportion of children aged 24 to 59 months developmentally on track in health, learning, and psychosocia...

Previous research findings indicate that young children from East Asia outperform their counterparts from Europe and North America on executive function (EF) tasks. However, very few cross-national studies have focused on EF development during middle childhood. The current study assessed the EF performance of 170 children in grades 2 and 4 from Hong Kong (n = 80) and Germany (n = 90) in a cross-sectional design. Children completed tasks assessing the main components of EF, namely inhibition (child-friendly Stroop task), updating (Object Span task), and shifting (Contingency Naming task). Results of multilevel models showed that all three EF measures differentiated well between younger and older children across the full sample. However, contrary to our hypothesis and previous research, we did not find any significant differences in EF performance between children from Hong Kong and Germany at primary school age. Our findings highlight the possibility that issues related to the measurement of EF and features specific to Hong Kong and Germany underlie our results.

Demand for second-language (L2) Chinese education for kindergarteners has grown rapidly, but little is known about these kindergarteners’ L2 skills, with existing studies focusing on school-age populations and alphabetic languages. Accordingly, we developed a six-subtest Chinese character acquisition assessment to measure L2 kindergarteners’ abilities to make associations among the forms, sounds, and meanings of 40 Chinese characters, and administered it to 173 five- and six-year-old L2 kindergarteners in Hong Kong. We found a high model-to-data fit using the two-parameter logistic item response theory model ( MSinfit= .87 to 1.07, ps > .41). Of the 40 items, 36 exhibited a range of difficulty and good discrimination. Internal consistency reliability and inter-rater reliability were also high. The children scored highest in the category of meaning-sound associations, followed by mapping from meaning to form. The results demonstrate that the instrument is adequately valid and reliable for assessing L2 kindergarteners’ character acquisition and imply that child L2 learners may develop abilities to map meanings and sounds prior to their development of form-related mapping. With minor modifications, the developed instrument can be used in various child Chinese L2 programs around the world.

The Learning study and the Educational Action Research approaches to educational research are compared, not from a third, neutral point of view, but from the perspective of the former. Hence, the c...

The Royal Government of Bhutan has increasingly emphasised Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD). The Ministries of Education and Health provide services to support child development, including health care, Care for Child Development (C4CD) and centre-based ECCD programmes. C4CD is an evidence-based parenting programme for children younger than 36 months, while centre-based programmes are provided for children aged 3–5 years. This study examined the association of participation in C4CD and ECCD programmes with child development. A list of 54 randomly selected ECCD centres from nine districts in Bhutan was generated. We surveyed 232 parents of 3–5-year-olds from the 54 centres and another 245 parents from nearby areas whose 3–5-year-old children were not attending ECCD programmes. Parents reported on home-based activities and early childhood development. Controlling for sociodemographic variables, we found that both ECCD attendance and C4CD participation were positively associated with child developmental outcomes, particularly in the Learning and Psychosocial Well-being domains. Children who were attending ECCD programmes had higher developmental outcomes than non-attenders, and the gap between the two groups was greatest among older children. Parents who participated in C4CD provided more stimulating home learning environments than other parents, with most variability within home learning environments observed within subsample of parents whose children did not attend ECCD programmes. In addition, the frequency of home-based activities fully mediated the relationship between C4CD participation and child developmental outcomes. The findings support the scaling up of both ECCD and C4CD programmes.

The home questionnaire of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS-HQ 2011) was designed to gather information from parents or primary caregivers of fourth-grade pupils on their reading literacy development related to aspects of pupils’ home lives across countries/districts. The questionnaire was translated into different languages for international comparison and research purposes. This study aims to assess the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the PIRLS 2011 home questionnaire (PIRLS-HQCV 2011) and identify the underlying factor structure using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) among Chinese fourth-grade pupils in Hong Kong. A 7-factor structure model has been identified by EFA and confirmed to resemble much to the original PIRLS structure by CFA. Additional conceptually important domains have been identified which add further insights into the inconclusive results in the literature regarding the relationship between home factors and reading achievement. Implications for further studies are discussed.