Learning through play in Hong Kong: Policy or practice?

The significance of play as a vehicle for young children’s development and learning is widely recognized, exemplified in a long history of ideas from pioneer educators and theorists such as Froebel, Freud, Erikson and Piaget alongside a vast research literature. More recently, the significance of play has been endorsed in a number of influential reports, including one issued by the American Academy of Paediatrics which concluded that play helps children develop new competencies that lead to enhanced confidence and the resilience they will need to face future challenges (Ginsburg, K. R., the Committee on Communications, and the Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health, 2007). In addition, a cross-national study of more than 1,500 young children in ten countries found that children’s language performance at age seven improved when teachers let children choose their activities, rather than adopt a purely didactic approach (Miller and Almon, 2009). Play pedagogy is further endorsed in a number of international official reports for the education of young children; for example, Developmental Appropriate Practice (DAP) (Bredekamp and Copple, 1997), the English Early Years Foundation Stage framework (Department for Education and Skills, [DfES], 2007), the Japanese Ministry of Education Preschool Guidelines (Lewis, 1995), and the guidelines issued by the Swedish Ministry of Education and Science (1998). Moreover, a review of early childhood curriculum and pedagogy carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2002) noted that play is widely perceived to be the central pedagogy for young children’s learning and teaching in many Western countries. In 1982, in Hong Kong an overseas group called the Llewellyn Visiting Panel, made strong recommendations to the government to adopt the central tenet of ‘learning through play’ in pre-primary pedagogy which had traditionally been based on formal and highly didactic methods of teaching and learning (Llewellyn et al., 1982).