Abstract:
The needs of qualified Putonghua kindergarten teachers were increasing in Hong Kong (Zhang & Zhang, 2006; Hu, 2009). However, few studies or projects had focused on preparing Putonghua teacher’s education for pre-primary institutions. The results of a pre-survey in a course of Early Experience in Putonghua indicated four main challenges that pre-service teachers have encountered:
a lack of confident in Putonghua speaking;
insufficient Putonghua teaching strategies;
a lack of appropriate Putonghua teaching and learning materials for young children (Hu, 2009; Hu, in press).
In order to deal with the above challenges, this project specifically aims to design a blended learning approach to improve
1) pre-service teachers’ self-learning in Putonghua classroom language; and
2) competence of teaching Putonghua in early childhood settings.
Blended learning offers the effective integration of the face-to-face and Internet technology learning for engaging and meaningful experience (Garrison & Vaughan, 2007). The outcomes of this project included a web platform, which integrated to facilitate pre-service teachers’ Putonghua instructional design. Multiple web-based learning and teaching materials were also designed and uploaded, and the materials included Putonghua self-learning classroom language materials, Putonghua songs, Putonghua electric stories, and animations. In addition, exemplars of Putonghua activities were collected from local kindergartens. Pre-service teachers and in-service teachers were invited to participate in the collaborative work of developing Putonghua teaching materials, which would equip teachers with various instructional strategies when teaching Putonghua in the classroom context.
Code:
3332
Principal Project Supervisors:
Subjects:
- Mandarin dialects -- Study and teaching
- Competency-based education
- Competency-based education. Blended learning
Start Date:
29 Jul 2009
End Date:
31 Dec 2010
Status:
Completed
Result:
It was an explorative design process to apply an Outcome Based Learning (OBL) approach and blended learning approaches in this project. This project encouraged students in using online self-learning resources to practice their Putonghua pronunciation. Students felt more confident and comfortable thereafter using Putonghua to teach. The multiple technology-based teaching materials enhanced students’ learning motivation in exploring/ demonstrating different learning strategies in Putonghua activities.
Impact:
This project induced the course team to update the learning objectives learning strategies, and learning assessment based on the OBL approach and blended learning approach. The learning objectives were clearly identified during the project process. The learning resources were updated, more multi-model learning opportunities were provided for students’ self-learning.
Students provided positive feedback about the learning process. The positive feedback was collected about the technology-based website and the blended learning approaches. This project also provided valuable chances to practice some innovated learning approaches for both students and instructors. The course would continuously update and apply those digital learning resources in the coming semesters.
Deliverables:
A seminar on “Design & implement: The exploration of applying technologies to Early Experience in Putonghua module” presented by Dr HU, Xinyun at The Hong Kong Institute of Education on 21 April 2010. (No. of participants: 17)
胡馨允（2012）：運用繪本支持幼兒學習普通話，輯於劉慧中、戴燕儀主編，《幼兒教育面面觀: 研究與實務結集本 (四)》，香港，香港教育學院。https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/c9b98215-f1f5-421e-9b8b-e9b8...
Financial Year:
2008-09
Type:
TDG