CIHE enhances environmental education training for pre-schools teachers

13 Jul 2023
To fit with the latest development in education, higher education institutions are bearing significant duties in promoting continuous education. The Education Bureau (EDB) 's Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guide (2017) emphasises developing and sustaining children's curiosity and exploratory spirit to help them learn how to acquire knowledge and to instil in them the values and attitudes to respect, appreciate and cherish the environment and nature. Therefore, the environmental education literacy for early childhood education is pending for an imminent enhancement despite a number of pre-schools having initiated the related environmental education to their curriculums in answering the call from the EDB.

In line with this, the Caritas Institute of Higher Education (CIHE) had taken various advanced steps in stepping up its curriculums for early childhood education programmes since 2018.

Dr NGAN So Fong, Programme Leader of Higher Diploma in Early Childhood Education from Ip Ying To Lee Yu Yee School of Humanities and Languages of CIHE, initiated research in 2021 and found out there is a general trend of insufficiency of knowledge the pre-employed early childhood educators.

In response to the issue, Dr NGAN and her team organised a series of environmental education pilot training programmes for the students of the Higher Diploma in Early Childhood Education programme since July 2022. These activities, aim to integrate environmental education into the training of early childhood educators. The training included field observations of both the nature environment, and children's interactions with the environment, and observe to tutors' demonstrations, design of interdisciplinary curriculums as well as hands-on teaching.

The pilot programmes came into a success which fruitful feedback including strengthening of foundation knowledge of environment education, and enhancement in practicability in environmental education to early childhood education settings. To extend the fruitful result, CIHE thus will adapt the enhanced environment education training into the early children education programmes.

Media Enquires:

Dr NGAN So Fong:
3702 4321 (sfngan@cihe.edu.hk)

Public Affairs Office:
3653 6745 / 6045 0594
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