PECERA (Hong Kong) Annual Meeting 2010 cum seminar on “How adults can support young children’s learning at home and at pre-school”.

The Pacific Early Childhood Education Research Association (Hong Kong), established since 2006, has been playing the role as an international forum facilitating dialogue and exchange among local and international professionals working for the benefit of young children. Over 200 educators, practitioners and parents attended its 2010 Annual Meeting cum Seminar on February 26, 2011 (Saturday) which was held at Yew Chung International School – Secondary. The event exhibited the strengthening of collaboration among parents, teachers, educators and professionals across different industries in the Pacific region and brought about deep discussions on important issues in early childhood education.

Professor Iram Siraj-Blatchford at the Institute of Education, University of London, gave a marvelous presentation on “How Adults can support Young Children’s Learning at Home and at Pre-school”. Being a specialist in early childhood education as well as a principal investigator of the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) Project in the UK, Professor Iram Siraj-Blatchford elaborated on the research findings achieved and suggested that young children with no pre-school experience had poorer intellectual attainment, sociability and concentration when they started school. More importantly, the quality of pre-school learning and young children’s development would excel much when supported by higher levels of adult-child (parent-child) interaction.

At the Report Back session on the 11th PECERA Annual Conference which was held in 2010 in Hangzhou, China, Dr. Betty Chan, the President of PECERA (Hong Kong), presented highlights of the major speeches and papers around the theme Preschool in Three Cultures: China, Japan and the United States. Dr. Maria Lee, the Vice-President and Treasurer of PECERA (Hong Kong) reported on the various activities held in 2010 and forecasted a series of interesting activities and events in the year 2011. A Feature Presentation session was arranged in which three reputable educators and speakers shared their invaluable insight on early childhood education from a variety of angles. Dr. C.B. Chow, Hon. Clinical Professor at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong, made an interesting presentation on “Children with special education needs”. Prof. Nirmala Rao, Professor & Developmental Psychologist at the Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong, shared her recent research results on “Preschool participation and school enrollment in Cambodia: A longitudinal study” and introduced to the audience the current state of Cambodian children and their access to early childhood programmes. Dr Patrick Ip, Clinical Associate Professor at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong, gave a presentation on “Environment, Child Health & Development”.