Being brought up in a foreign, South-East Asian country, Malaysia, for practically all my life (I only moved to Australia about a year and a half ago), I have noted that there are significant differences between the way education is presented in Australia and my home country. In general, it can be said that the Asian education system is an entirely different world from the Australian education system. As a result, I wanted to investigate the way early childhood education is presented in different cultures and how these different forms of early childhood education have produced different results.
Building on my own personal experience, I can briefly tell you that the early childhood education system in most Asian countries places a high emphasis on academics even from an early age. Children are expected to write well by the age of four, children should be able to spell and perform basic mathematic skills such as addition and subtraction by the age of five and in Malaysia particularly, we are expected to pick up at least two languages at a young age. These languages being English, Malay and an optional 'mother tongue' language such as Chinese or Tamil (Indian, similiar to Hindi). Speaking from my experiences in kindergarten, there was little time for play and in those five hours at Kindy, we were mainly exposed to books and writing activities and mathematics exercises. This is of course entirely different from the early childhood setting here in Australia whereby children are allowed to play and discover, and develop an understanding of concepts mostly by themselves with some guidance from educators. Children are allowed to form relationships and question their thoughts, beliefs and respond to their curiosity. Please do not get me wrong, I am not saying that one is better than the other. Both settings produce extremely positive results, but the only difference is that one setting is teacher-driven whereas the other is child-driven.
To investigate the main differences between the Asian and Australian or 'Western' early childhood setting, I will look through books or online articles that describe the early childhood setting of both places in detail. I will also try to search for interviews with people that have taught overseas and locally in Australia or a 'western' country. As I do intend for this action plan to be a relatively long process, I plan on comparing observations of children at my current placement and children that I work with when I return to my home country for the summer holidays. I also intend to conduct interviews or surveys with people who have experienced both education settings or discuss with Asian parents why they decide to send their children to study in Australia. In the long run, my ultimate goal is to be able to form lesson plans that merge the advantages of both education settings into one lesson plan that benefits different children. I strongly believe that there is much to learn from both settings and if worked hand-in-hand, there just might be a teaching strategy that produces very positive results.
One of my strengths in taking observations and comparing observations is my ability to understand both English and Malay very fluently, which will allow me to communicate and understand the Asian children better. Also, being exposed to both education settings has made me pick up on the differing literacy and numeracy skills of children at different ages. However, it might work as a disadvantage for me as I may be bias towards one or the other. While it is a definite strength for me that I am able to travel between both countries to undertake research, I do acknowledge that without any formal procedures, any observation comparisons that I conduct will not actually be a formal generalisation of children in both cultures. Exposure to different kinds of media and different kinds of stimuli (toys, music, climate etc.) may have an effect on the comparison results. I also note that each individual child, even within the same culture, has a different family upbringing which has a big impact on the way a child learns and develops. For example, a child that is often spoken to by his or her parents, is bound to have better communication and verbal skills than a child that is constantly 'babied' or rarely spoken to. The differing expectations of children at different ages may also be a limitation for me in making lesson plans.
Here, I leave you with a short self-directed documentary and another independent-directed discussion on different education systems for your thoughts!
Here, I leave you with a short self-directed documentary and another independent-directed discussion on different education systems for your thoughts!
Some of the other resources I have found so far are as follows:
Boocock, S. S. (1995). Early childhood programs in other nations: goals and outcomes. The future of children, 94-114.
Boocock, S. S. (1995). Early childhood programs in other nations: goals and outcomes. The future of children, 94-114.
Cheng, K. M., & Wong, K. C. (1996). School effectiveness in East Asia: concepts, origins and implications. Journal of Educational Administration,34(5), 32-49.
Kaya, S. (2008). The effects of student-level and classroom-level factors on elementary students' science achievement in five countries. (Order No. 3348503, The Florida State University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 132-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304641998?accountid=10910
Leung, K. S. F. (2006). Mathematics education in East Asia and the West: Does culture matter?. In Mathematics education in different cultural traditions-a comparative study of east asia and the west (pp. 21-46). Springer US.
Makin, L., Hayden, J., & Criss, J. D. (2000). High-quality literacy programs in early childhood classrooms: An australian case study.Childhood Education, 76(6), 368-373. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/210380839?accountid=10910
Miyahara, J., & Meyers, C. (2008). EARLY LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS IN EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC: EXPERIENCES FROM EIGHT COUNTRIES. International Journal of Early Childhood, 40(2), 17-31. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/194777840?accountid=10910
Wow! Such a great post, thanks Rachael. I think this should really open our eyes to the cultural barriers that we may come across working in Early Childhood settings in Australia. There must be some parents who aren't completely aware of the broad differences so it is important that we do what we can as educators to provide the best education we can.
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