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Twenty-one in-service early childhood students participated in a teaching practicum in Australia as part of the final year of a Bachelor of Arts in Hong Kong. Students spent two weeks visiting a university and early childhood settings in Australia. The university based component of the program included workshops and discussions with lecturing staff located in both the Australian and Hong Kong universities. Students were asked to complete written statements about "What is children's learning?" before and after their practicum experience. An inductive analysis of students' written statements and practicum evaluations revealed an increase in beliefs about children's learning as "active understanding" over the two-week period. Implications for teacher education programs are discussed. (Contains 2 tables and 1 footnote.)

Children's interest in exploration is the hallmark of their curiosity. As people who are significant in organising children's environment, how teachers and parents respond to children's exploratory behaviours may promote or hinder the child's desire for further investigation. With reference to Kurt Lewin's concept of "total situation", various hypothetical scenarios on children's exploratory behaviours in different contexts were designed to solicit teachers' and parents' interpretation of the behaviour, how they might respond in the situation and the rationale behind their response. The findings indicated that the decision of adults in allowing children to explore is influenced by a combination of child, adult and situational factors. (Contains 4 notes and 3 tables.)

Although curiosity is a characteristic often observed in young children, it has not received much academic interest in recent years. Among its many dimensions, the epistemic nature of curiosity, or the quest for knowledge, deserves attention. To explore the potential application of "epistemic curiosity", it is important to understand how lay conceptions complement theoretical conceptualizations. As people who are significant in organizing children's environment, how teachers and parents view curiosity is essential to how they will respond to the manifestation of this characteristic in children. A questionnaire was developed to examine teachers' and parents' conception of children's curiosity and exploratory behavior and whether they value this characteristic. The participants of this study were preschool teachers and parents with a preschool-age child. The findings indicated that the participants have a positive view toward curiosity and exploration and that teachers are more willing than parents to encourage this characteristic in young children. A factor analysis indicated that teachers' and parents' conceptualization of curiosity is multi-dimensional, showing some similarities with theoretical conceptualization. (Contains 4 tables and 3 notes.)

Uses Lewin's field theory as a framework to appraise children's momentary state of curiosity and exploratory behavior. Discusses two levels of analysis: child-stimulus situation and child-stimulus-adult situation. Argues that a parent can be a barrier hindering a child's exploration, or a facilitator to remove barriers. (Author/SD)

The identification of a problem is often assumed to be the starting point of the process of reflection. If reflection only began with the recognition of a problem, would there be situations where ‘problems’ are not recognized but reflection is still called for? This is especially pertinent to issues related to the self, where problems caused by one’s biases are unlikely to surface. The self is so integrated into teacher–student interactions that one is less conscious of how it shapes one’s thoughts, emotions and action; and often goes unexamined. Self-awareness and self-observation are proposed to be an essential part of the process of reflection. Illustrated with case examples from the author’s personal exploration, strategies such as ‘distancing’ and attention to one’s ‘automatic thoughts’ are discussed to facilitate self-reflection. Conditions such as open-mindedness and peer support are also considered as essential in the process of engaging in self-reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflection and reflective practice are vast areas for scholastic discussion and the author’s paper ‘Reflecting on the self: an experience in a preschool’ concentrates on a specific aspect of these two themes. Using personal experiences, this paper highlights the importance of the ‘spiritual self’ as a focus for reflection. ‘Self’ is a complex construct, even among the various forms of self defined by James. Being the most private, the ‘spiritual self’ is perhaps the most challenging for teachers to confront. The author has thus proposed some strategies, such as distancing and self-observation, to aid in bringing issues to one’s attention before the reflective process can take place. Conditions that facilitate self-reflection, such as open attitude and peer support, are also discussed. In ‘A response to “Reflecting on the self”’ Loughran has further developed several ideas in the author’s paper. The notion of ‘problem’ often carries a misconception of something gone wrong; Loughran provides a balanced perspective of its conceptualization. The discussion on self-study provides further thoughts on the task of self-reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]