Teacher’s and parent’s conceptualization of early childhood play and learning: A comparison of Hong Kong and Tokyo

Abstract

Play has been widely-acknowledged as a means to promote children’s learning. Although the concept “learning through play” was originated in Western cultures, with government support, this concept is not alien to Asian early childhood educators. Despite the explicit support, play was frequently observed in kindergartens in some Asian societies like Japan, but seldom in others, for instance, Hong Kong. Some researchers attributed the theory-practice dissonances to the low qualification of teachers. Yet, the lack of clear definition for this concept has been a long-existing issue in both research and practice. “Learning through play” composes of the concepts “learning” and “play”, which have already been considered “fuzzy terms” on their own. Without clear articulation of terms, it is inappropriate to assume that early childhood stakeholders have shared understanding about these concepts. In view of this, the current study aims to investigate and compare the conceptualization of “play” and “learning” by teachers and parents in Hong Kong and Tokyo. Three kindergartens, one from Hong Kong and two from Tokyo, were selected according to their types and typicality. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were used to tap the conceptualizations of teachers and parents respectively. Nine class teachers from the three kindergartens were involved in this study. In total, 82 responses about “play” and 94 responses about “learning” were produced by 49 Hong Kong parents, while 154 responses about “play” and 191 responses about “learning” were produced by 130 Japanese parents. Results indicated that both Hong Kong and Japanese parents regarded elements like “happiness” and “social interaction” as essential to play. However, while Japanese parents considered “play” and “friends” as important to children’s learning, Hong Kong parents considered “books” and 'knowledge' as more relevant. These results echoed with teachers' responses. Implications of these results will be discussed.