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Purpose: Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, such as ChatGPT and GPT-4, developed by OpenAI, have the potential to revolutionize education. This study explores the potential benefits and challenges of using ChatGPT in education (or "educative AI"). Design/Approach/Methods: This paper proposes a theoretical framework called "IDEE" for educative AI such as using ChatGPT and other generative AI in education, which includes identifying the desired outcomes, determining the appropriate level of automation, ensuring ethical considerations, and evaluating effectiveness. Findings: The benefits of using ChatGPT in education or more generally, educative AI, include a more personalized and efficient learning experience for students as well as easier and faster feedback for teachers. However, challenges such as the untested effectiveness of the technology, limitations in the quality of data, and ethical and safety concerns must also be considered. Originality/Value: This study explored the opportunities and challenges of using ChatGPT in education within the proposed theoretical framework.

Background: Computational thinking (CT) has become a crucial skill for individuals in the 21st century, and while more educators are starting to recognize the importance of CT education, there is still a lack of research on how to teach young children CT, particularly outside of traditional school settings. Objectives: To fill the gap in knowledge, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a web-based parent education program on improving children's CT skills. Additionally, we sought to determine if children's age, gender and family socioeconomic status had any impact on the development of CT skills. Methods: We selected 86 adult-child pairs in the K3 age group to participate in a 4-week intervention program using a quasi-experimental approach. Results: After 4 weeks, children in the intervention group had improved their CT skills more than their peers in the control group. This shows that the intervention was successful in enhancing children's CT skills. Age had a moderating effect on CT enhancement, with older children showing a more significant improvement than younger children. However, children's gender and family socioeconomic status did not have any moderating effects. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that CT education can be effectively implemented in the home setting through web-mediated parent education. Encouraging the use of unplugged CT activities at home can aid children in acquiring CT skills.

Previous evidence has revealed that mindful individuals tend to pay more attention to specific tasks and demonstrate better work engagement. However, prior investigations commonly used cross-sectional designs to examinine the link of mindfulness to engagement in Western societies. This research explores the association of mindfulness with cognitive reappraisal and academic engagement via a two-wave longitudinal design in 381 Filipino high school students from Quezon City, Philippines joined this research. Cross-lagged panel structural equation modeling demonstrated that mindfulness had positive concurrent associations with cognitive reappraisal and engagement. Academic engagement was linked to increased subsequent cognitive reappraisal. Mindfulness is linked to increased concurrent cognitive reappraisal and academic engagement. This research contributes to existing evidence regarding the inconclusive links of mindfulness to learning outcomes.

Purpose: This article presents a scoping review of the internationally published research on the early childhood curriculum (ECC) reforms, policies, measures, and effectiveness in China and Singapore, to explore the joint and interactive effects of globalization and localization in ECC in two different contexts. Design/Approach/Methods: We reviewed and analyzed the chosen studies with a multilevel curriculum framework--formal curriculum, perceived curriculum, operational curriculum, and curriculum ideology. Findings: The synthesis of evidence indicated that in both China and Singapore (1) a constructivist orientation is relied upon to construct the formal curricula; (2) the perceived curricula have been heavily influenced by the indigenous values and contextual realities; and (3) the Western ideology embedded in the formal curricula has not been realized, as reflected in the operational curricula. Originality/Value: The phenomenon of curriculum hybridization has been scrutinized to explain these findings regarding curriculum ideologies and practices. As confirmed by the findings and theoretical explanations, the 3CAPs framework (culturally, contextually, and child-individually appropriate practices) can be employed to guide the development of ECC in policies and practices.

This article presents findings from a representative case study of a typical childcare centre in Singapore that achieved an emerging level of quality certification despite being under-resourced as a non-profit centre. Like other centres, it was navigating a climate of early childhood care and education (ECCE) policy reforms and teacher shortage. Given that quality rating has existed for a few years, the study aimed to explore centre-based conditions that could hinder or facilitate teachers' distributed pedagogical leadership and the development of a community of practice--both assumed to be necessary for teachers' continued learning and improvement of centres' practices. Qualitative data were generated across 10 months through observations, individual interviews and focus group discussions to journey with the teaching team as they negotiated relationships and built a shared vision for their practices. Results are presented here as three overarching themes that explicate: (a) the inevitable influences of the national context of the sector's workforce; (b) organisational culture and power relations; and (c) pedagogical vision. These illustrate the intricacies involved in centre-based quality improvement work, signalling the need for more investigations into the everyday realities of ECCE reforms as experienced by teachers-as-learners and leaders.

This study investigated the measurement invariance of school and teacher Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) readiness among 57 countries that participated in the Program in International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 assessment. School and teacher ICT readiness scale is 11-item scale with two subfactors: school ICT readiness and teacher ICT readiness subscales (Bozkus, "International Online Journal of Education and Teaching," 8(3), 1560-1579, 2021). With the novel alignment optimization method, we revealed that the school ICT readiness subscale was invariant for unbiased country comparisons but overall noninvariance was identified for the teacher ICT readiness subscale. Additionally, the rank of the school ICT readiness factor means indicated that Singapore, Sweden, B-S-J-Z (regions of China), United Arab Emirates and United States were among the top league, while countries like Indonesia, Poland, Ireland in between, and Japan, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil ranked comparatively the lowest. Measures of school location, school type and class size further confirmed the validity of the school ICT readiness subscale. It was expected that the study would enhance our understanding of school and teacher ICT readiness across countries with the application of an alternative alignment optimization approach in examining ICT related scales.

Coding (or computer programming) helps equip children with an intellectual structure that is valuable for their lifelong learning and development. The proliferation of innovative coding platforms, especially screen-free programmable robotics, has made it possible for coding to be integrated into early childhood education (ECE). However, how the coding curriculum has been designed and used in ECE settings, as well as its effectiveness, is understudied. This scoping review evaluates, synthesizes, and displays 20 studies on coding curriculum in early childhood published in 2012--2021, involving curriculum design, coding platforms, pedagogical approaches, research methods, and research findings. The review contributes to a mapping of existing work focusing on coding curricula in early childhood, thus demystifying and clarifying the characteristics and effectiveness of these intervention programs. Its findings also shed light on the improvement mechanism and solutions of early computing education in both quantity and quality.

Research Findings: This review focuses on the use of robotics in early childhood education (ECE), addressing gender and socioeconomic status (SES) differences in young children's robotics learning. This review systematically evaluates, synthesizes, and displays the research designs, robotic toys, data collection instruments, research methods, and research findings of 15 studies related to this critical issue published from 1984 to 2021. The findings of the review indicate that children's robotics-based learning is impacted by gender and their socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Boys had a considerably higher level of enjoyment in interacting with robotics than girls. Furthermore, low-income families and low parental education resulted in poor robotics-based learning experiences and outcomes for children. Practice or Policy: It is significant to devote attention to developing effective and inclusive robotics education programs for girls and children from less advantaged backgrounds. More robotics education interventions should be conducted in broader contexts to benefit a wider range of children, especially those from a lower-SES background.

Computational thinking (CT) is a new literacy of 21st century that can be transferred to and applied in different real-world situations, although being derived from the discipline of computer science. Tangible robots or child-friendly digital apps are used to implement coding education with the goal of promoting young children's CT. However, there are still controversies on the validity and applicability of CT in early childhood, mainly due to the vagueness of the learning mechanism underlying young children's CT. This cross-sectional study examined the associations among sequencing ability, self-regulation and CT among Chinses preschoolers (N = 101, M[subscript age] = 5.25 years, SD = 0.73). Results showed that sequencing ability and self-regulation have positive and significant associations with CT, and the relationship between sequencing ability and CT was fully mediated by self-regulation, even after controlling for child gender, age, and family socioeconomic status (SES). This implies CT in early childhood as a combination of sequencing ability and self-regulation. Findings of this study have implications for early childhood CT education programs, suggesting the need to assist children in learning sequencing and how to self-regulate in coding (both plugged and unplugged) and STEM activities.

Purpose: Learning to do research has been understudied in the context of professional development in postgraduate programs. This exploratory study investigated the agency and experiences of five Chinese students who learned to design their research project in a Master of Education program at an English-medium university in Hong Kong SAR. Design/Approach/Methods: We obtained the data from semi-structured interviews and documents to establish data triangulation. Findings: The findings revealed that (1) the students' agency in research design and proposal writing was associated with their personal/professional backgrounds, (2) their English proficiency affected their agency in the proposal writing, (3) the supervisors' feedback would stimulate students' agency in changing/refining their research design, and (4) ineffective supervision and learning resources would impede students' achievement of agency on their way to creating a robust research design. Originality/Value: This study adds empirical evidence to the field of research training through the lens of learner agency. It demonstrates the applicability of using the ecological framework of agency in theoretically interpreting the contextual facilitators and constraints in making postgraduate students active agents.

Programmable robotics is recently used in early childhood education (ECE) to introduce programming and computational thinking (CT) skills. However, there is a further need for research to contrast the efficacy of children's participation in robot programming and traditionally beneficial ECE activities. The present study thus investigated the effects of a robot programming intervention versus a block play program on kindergarteners' CT, sequencing ability, and self-regulation. The experiment (robot programming) versus comparison (block play) condition was randomly assigned to four kindergarten classes, which included 101 kindergarteners (M = 64.78 months, SD = 7.64). Statistical analyses revealed that the robot programming group (N = 54) had experienced greater gains over time in sequencing ability relative to those in the block play group (N = 47; F = 5.09, p < 0.05). Children in the robot programming group with lower level of self-regulation at baseline showed larger improvements in sequencing ability over time relative to the block play group (F = 2.37, p = 0.01). Also, children in the robot programming group with older age showed larger improvements in CT over time relative to the block play group (F = 2.40, p < 0.01). The study demonstrates the positive benefits of robot programming to early childhood development in terms of CT and sequencing ability, compared to a traditional curriculum activity in ECE-block play.

The proliferation of screen-free programmable robotics allows teachers to implement age-appropriate integrated activities that can promote child learning and development. However, very scarce is known about the challenges of using programmable robots as a tool to empower children in minority communities. This mixed-methods case study examined a Free Quality Kindergarten situated in a low-income public housing estate in Hong Kong to explore the affordances and challenges of robot programming (RP) in early childhood education (ECE). Both quantitative and qualitative data were generated through videotaped observations, child assessments and teacher interviews to journey with the teaching team as they managed to implement the newly introduced RP curriculum. Child assessment evidence revealed that there was a statistically significant improvement in CT scores over 6 weeks of RP activities, while the pretest-posttest change of child self-regulation scores was nonsignificant. Video analysis results further revealed that children's interaction level with the robot kit significantly predicted the change of self-regulation over time. Qualitative results are presented to explicate the micro, meso and macro conditions that constrain the implementation of RP curriculum, including the following: (a) teachers' limited TPACK in RP education, (b) a disconnect between the RP curriculum and the school-based curriculum, (c) limited resources and (d) the Confucian tradition and cultural barriers. These illustrate the intricacies involved in the implementation of RP education to empower marginalized children in under-resourced ECE settings. This study will help bring systemic change to the ECE field by uncovering ecological difficulties in integrating new technologies to promote inclusiveness and sustainability for the future.

Coaching is proven to be an effective strategy of professional development; however, rare research has documented the nuances of coaching effects and the enablers in early childhood education. This study presents a systematic review of 33 randomised controlled trials or (quasi-)experiments to investigate the effects of coaching as a professional development tool on early childhood teachers' instruction and young children's developmental outcomes. The synthesis of evidence revealed positive effects of coaching on teachers' knowledge gains and instructional competencies and a range of children's developmental outcomes (language and literacy, social-emotional development, and academic skills). We analysed the 'who', 'what' and 'how' components of coaching to explain the enabling factors surrounding the effects of coaching. Empirical evidence synthesised in this review supports the theoretical notions of situated learning derived from anthropological studies of apprenticeship, suggesting that coaching should be situated in the real teaching context for promoting its effects. This systematic review is the first to apply situated learning theory in discussing how coaching works and reveals a robust positive effect of coaching on teachers' knowledge gains and instructional abilities, and children's developmental outcomes. Guidelines that could help understand the application of coaching are provided to inform the scaling up of coaching-focused professional development programmes in early childhood settings. Implications of this research synthesis are also discussed for future research.

The preparation of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) teachers for early childhood education (ECE) has clearly become an important issue in recent years. Teacher efficacy can lead to changes in professional beliefs toward and teaching practices in STEM. In this study, we developed the STEM Teaching Self-efficacy Scale (STSS) and validated it in a sample of 225 pre-service and 193 in-service early childhood teachers in Zhejiang, China. Results indicated preliminary evidence of reliability and validity of the two factors of STSS: Pedagogy Self-efficacy and Content Self-efficacy. Items were constructed based on literature and selected through factor analysis to cover the scope of self-efficacy on the behaviors of STEM teaching and ensure the content and construct validity of the scale. Scores on the STSS subscales were positively correlated with early childhood teachers' working status, age, occupational commitment, and interest in ECE, showing evidence of its criterion validity. The STSS provides a professionally and psychologically meaningful tool for evaluating early childhood teachers' efficacy beliefs about teaching STEM, which would help obtain evidence for the optimal design of STEM teacher training programs., Author(s): Weipeng Yang [sup.1] , Rongxiu Wu [sup.2] [sup.3] , Juan Li [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.419993.f, 0000 0004 1799 6254, Department of Early Childhood Education, The Education University of [...]

This study employed an inductive qualitative approach to understanding the effects of local culture on early childhood curriculum development in two Hong Kong kindergartens. A triangulation of interviews, observations and documents was established, and cultural-historical activity theory was employed as the theoretical framework. The results indicated that local culture played an important role in early childhood curriculum development. First, the two cases learned from diverse models and approaches during the transformation of their curricula, resulting in contradictory demands and motives. Then, these contradictions were, in turn, resolved by the local culture to achieve curriculum hybridisation and innovation, as well as inherit the culture. Such findings provide valuable implications for early childhood professionals to integrate social and cultural diversity into curriculum development and to localise imported curricular practices so as to ensure a good fit between the curriculum and the local context.

This paper explores the relationship between workforce competence, migration, and quality improvement in the Asia-Pacific through analysis of Early Childhood Education (ECE) policy texts from three East Asia Summit countries. Content (word level) analysis of salient policy texts was undertaken to address two questions: How are culture and diversity "conceptualized" in these texts? How are diverse educators "positioned" in these texts? We show that, despite differing historical trajectories of ECE, policy frameworks in all three countries fail to sufficiently acknowledge the potential contribution of migrant educators to quality improvement initiatives. We conclude by calling for greater attention to workforce mobility and diversity in ECE policies, and for further research into the untapped competence of migrant educators.

Teachers' professional identities, or the professional images teachers have of themselves, play an essential role in teachers' pedagogical knowledge and their propensity to stay in the profession. Even though with a shared recognition of the importance of professional identities among teachers, research is limited in terms of examining preservice teachers' professional identities in early childhood education (ECE). This study, thus, investigated Chinese ECE undergraduate students' perception of their identities as future teachers and the factors perceived to influence their professional identities. Altogether 182 preservice early childhood (EC) teachers were surveyed, and six graduates from the teacher training programmes were interviewed. Latent profile analyses generated three profiles of professional identity: low, medium, and high profiles. Regression analyses revealed that the year of study negatively predicted preservice teachers' profile of professional identity, while the academic competency positively predicted the profile. Further interviews indicated that the social images of EC teachers, professional learning in universities, and requirements in kindergartens were perceived as the main obstacles to achieving a high identity, which refers to a strong, emotional recognition of ECE, satisfaction with the teacher education programme, and positive career prospects.

Anti-bias in early education is gaining importance, especially given the volatile social climate amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, Singapore preschools lack focus on anti-bias education despite being a multi-ethnic society. Set in the COVID-19 context, this teacher research developed and examined a curriculum to educate young children on anti-bias through play. The Mosaic Approach was adopted as the research methodology. Children's photography and drawing, interviews, child observations, and teacher journals were utilised to collect qualitative data for in-depth analysis. Evidence suggested that (1) supportive anti-bias curriculum and environment reflect authentic representations and active, developmentally appropriate involvement of all children, (2) anti-bias education is promoted through perspective-taking and reasoning in purposefully framed play-based experiences, and (3) anti-bias should permeate all areas of the preschool programme, including the physical classroom, curriculum, and teaching practices through collaborative efforts. This research also saw the Mosaic Approach's usability as an educational tool for anti-bias education. Other interpretations and implications of the results were discussed.

Visual pedagogy and social stories have been widely used to assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in learning various skills. A toothbrushing visual pedagogy (TBVP) was developed adapting existing toothbrushing social stories for children with ASD. This TBVP consists of 13 toothbrushing steps with scripts describing the toothbrushing technique. To evaluate its feasibility, a review panel was formed to provide feedback on the TBVP and three other published toothbrushing social stories. Effectiveness of the TBVP was further evaluated among 119 preschool children with ASD with significant improvements in toothbrushing skills observed at 3-month and 6-month follow-ups. It is concluded that TBVP is a feasible and an effective educational means that assists children with ASD in learning toothbrushing skills.

Many governments have launched the top-down early childhood curriculum (ECC) reforms to enhance the accountability of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. The present discourse analysis of latest ECC policies across four diverse but representative countries -- Australia, China, New Zealand, and Singapore -- aims to examine the effects of neoliberalism and contextualization through within- and cross-case analyses. Our findings revealed that despite the mutual interactions and similarities, neoliberal ECC policies had been developed in context-specific ways across countries. Children's agency had been commonly valued to recognize its essential role in effective learning, which was constructed in play, social interaction, and community participation. Moreover, Australia and New Zealand emphasized the development of the culturally competent child on top of children's holistic development, without segregating children's learning into domains. These findings demonstrate the confounding effect produced by the diverse shaping forces in terms of defining the ideal ECC across countries -- 'curriculum hybridization'.

The Singapore government has laid out a regulation for daily minimum time spent outdoors and the Outdoor Learning Guide (OLG) to support children's outdoor experiences in full-day childcare programmes. However, there is scarce research on young children's outdoor learning experiences from children's and teachers' perspectives. This study aims to make sense of children's outdoor learning using the child-sensitive tool -- pedagogical documentation -- in a Singapore childcare centre. It highlights the value of outdoor learning experiences for children as well as teachers' views of outdoor learning through the implementation of pedagogical documentation. Pedagogical documentation as an in-depth, qualitative research approach has allowed us to generate two learning stories, revealing the impact of children's outdoor learning experiences on their social-emotional development and learning dispositions. Additionally, the reflective discussions with teachers uncovered their perspectives of outdoor learning and pedagogical knowledge. Pedagogical documentation made children's outdoor learning visible while keeping a balance between children's and teachers' voices.

Collective academic supervision (CAS) is a collective model for students' academic supervision to reduce their isolation and as a measure to establish a congenial culture and to develop networks with their peers. Most studies focus on the benefits of online CAS, leaving the pedagogical process and students' learning experiences understudied. This research examines the participation and learning experience of a cohort of Master of Education (MEd) students in online supervision that took place on a Moodle platform. This article reports a case study of Moodle-based CAS in Hong Kong that aims to train postgraduate students into teacher-researchers. A class of MEd students and their supervisors were observed, and their online dialogues were analysed. The bio-ecological student engagement model was used to explain the online supervision process. The results indicated that the students' learning was situated and embodied in the online social processes facilitated by peers' and supervisors' replies. The online interaction behaviours mainly included proposing questions or problems, providing information or solutions, and making comments. The findings have provided an exemplary case regarding the application of the online learning environment in supporting CAS and active research-based learning. The productive online CAS seems to benefit both teacher candidates and their supervisors by promoting the co-construction of the knowledge and skills of educational research, although more evidence is needed.