The child as an active learner: views, practices, and barriers in Chinese early childhood education.

Broadly speaking, the Chinese view of the child has experienced three stages. The first stage, the traditional view of the child, considers children as private property attached to the family and as the means to extend family development (Liu, 1999). As Confucius (551-479 B.C.), the great Chinese educationist and philosopher, said, "The son can be called a loyal son if he sticks to doing what his father expected him to do three years after his father's death" (Cheng, 2001, p. 6). This view is also reflected in the ancient Chinese classical work Di Zi Gui (Regulations for Pupils): "The first principle for pupils is filial piety.... The child should not move slowly when hearing parents call him; the child should not behave with any laziness when parents ask him to do something" (Li, 2001, pp. 153-154). Children were required to listen carefully to their parents and accept what parents said without any debate or hesitation. San Zi Jing (Three Word Poem), another classical work for children, stresses the importance of adults' instruction and education of children. For example, "It is the fault of the father not to instruct his children; it is the laziness of the teacher not to strictly teach children" (Wang, 2001, p. 67). Therefore, we can see that the Chinese traditional perspective of the child is as a small adult who should behave according to the criteria of the adult world. It was equivalent to non-existence of the real child.

The modern view of the child developed during the new cultural movement in the 1920-30s and was influenced by the Western progressive education led by John Dewey (Xiong & Zhou, 2000). This view stressed the importance of treating children as real children rather than as small adults. Chen Heqin (1892-1982), the Chinese kindergarten forefather, once claimed that we should let children do whatever they were able to do on their own and let them think whatever they were able to think alone (Chen, 1989). This view was represented in the Nanjing Gulou Kindergarten, which was opened by Chen Heqin in 1923 and addressed the importance of organizing different activities according to children's developmental features, including curiosity, short attention span, and fragmented thinking style. In the 1950-60s, the views of the child were greatly influenced by the Soviet Union's early childhood practices (Yu, 2000), in which young children were required to be obedient students subordinate to teachers, teaching, and textbook. Thus, the interests and potentials of children in learning were inhibited to a large extent in this period. During the period of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the activities at kindergartens were highly politicized and young children became one of the tools for this politicization (Yu, 2000).

The contemporary view of the child in China recognizes the rights of children, the values of childhood as an important phase for children, and the potentials of children in learning and development (Ministry of Education, 2001a). For example, the Ministry of Education's draft guidelines of the Kindergarten Education Guidance Outlines (Ministry of Education, 2001a) emphasize the importance of respecting children's personalities and rights in order to promote each child's individual development. This view is consistent with the concept of the child in the contemporary Western world, where the view of the child has been transferred from "naive, innocent, incompetent, and redemptive," largely dependent on adults, to "rich [in] potential, competent, and independent," with his/her own rights to live, play, learn, and develop (Moss & Petrie, 2002).

The contemporary view of the child as an active learner is underpinned by the principle for Chinese education that was proposed by Deng Xiaoping (1904-97), the second-generation Chinese leader, who said, "Education should face the modernization, face the world, and face the future" (Ministry of Education, 2001b, p. 5). Meanwhile, the Four Learning Principles--"learning to be a human," "learning to do things," "learning to cooperate," and "learning to learn"--have become the commonly accepted requirements for young people (Ministry of Education, 2001b). These principles have affected both the views and practices in Chinese early childhood education. In addition, the national documents Kindergarten Work Regulations (1996) and Kindergarten Education Guidance Outlines (Ministry of Education, 2001a) strongly support the contemporary view of the child. For example,

According to the characteristics of physical and spiritual development of young children at different ages, early childhood educationists should pay attention to the individual differences and guide the young children to develop their personality healthily. (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 423)

Kindergarten should provide [a] healthy, colourful environment for young children's activities and lives in order to meet the overall developmental needs of young children and make them gain good experience in their happy childhood. Kindergarten education should respect children's self-esteem and rights, respect the law of development and the features of learning, see play as the basic activity, combine education and care, and take into account the individual differences so as to promote children's individuality. (Kindergarten Education Guidance Outlines, Ministry of Education, 2001a, p. 4)

In the meantime, the impact of Western philosophy upon Chinese early childhood education cannot be neglected, as the process of transplanting and adapting the advanced Western theories and practices into China continues (Wang, 2004). Thus, the notion of the child as an active learner has been supported by contemporary Chinese early childhood educators, as they focus on the cultivation of children's subjectivity and promotion of their learning potential.

Recognizing the Child As an Active Learner Through the Project Approach

The project approach is one of the most distinctive features of the Reggio Emilia approach; its underlying philosophy is that children are the constructors of learning, with great potential toward creativity and development (Edwards, Gandini, & Forman, 1998). The project approach has, since the mid-1990s, become one of the most popular teaching approaches in the contemporary Chinese kindergarten (Cao, 2003). The project approach seems to resonate with Chinese early childhood educators in terms of dealing with the relationships between children's emergent activities and teachers' prescribed activities and extending children's learning into different areas according to children's individual interests. In the following section, I shall highlight how the project approach is implemented in kindergartens in the coastal cities of Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Xiamen, in order to illustrate and analyze how the child is recognized as an active learner.

Children's Participation in the Project Approach Process

The initiation of a project usually results from children's questions and conversations. For example, one project approach was initiated by children's conversations at a kindergarten in Shanghai (Xu, 2003). A boy, Lin Lin, and his peers were playing together during the free activity time. Lin Lin opened his mouth and told the other children, "Look, my tooth is shaking." Hong Jie replied, "Not strange, I have already grown two new teeth." Cheng Wen said, "I think it is horrible to change tooth. It must be very painful?" Thereupon, the children raised a series of questions, including, "Why will our teeth drop?" and "How many times will we change our teeth in life time?" The teachers, understanding the children's interest, developed a "teeth" project. The children collected relevant materials, including teeth models, teeth protection charts, medical books on teeth, and real tooth samples in medical liquids; they asked questions concerning the color, amount, and the shape of teeth; they actively involved themselves in different ways in order to seek answers to their questions, with the help of different people; and they created drawings according to their different perceptions of the project, focusing on the importance of protecting teeth, how to brush teeth, and the differences between adults' teeth and children's teeth.

A kindergarten class in Shenzhen began a project approach on the topic of "I love small leaves," focusing on three categories--"beautiful leaves," "capable leaves," and "making friends with leaves" (Lin, Tu, & Chen, 2004). In the first process, "beautiful leaves," children looked for leaves in different places, gave names to the leaves, described the characteristics of leaves, made leaf samples, and learned about the changes in the growth of leaves. During the "capable leaves" process, children learned the functions of leaves, including serving as a wind buffer, making the environment clean and beautiful and being used in herbal medicines and teas. "Making friends with leaves" cultivated children's awareness of the importance of leaves by helping them form the habit of watering, protecting, and planting trees. This project was built upon children's perceptions of leaves based on their previous experiences, and was stimulated by a wide range of involvement from parents and adults from the greater community.

Patriotic education also can be integrated into the project approach. The publication Kindergarten Education Guidance Outlines (Ministry of Education, 2001a) includes patriotic education requirements--love for community, love for hometown, and love for motherland. A kindergarten in Xiamen conducted a project that focused on loving family members and kindergarten life through the process of learning about the contributions of some persons important to the development, customs, and cultures of their hometown--Xiamen. The children explored minority groups, traditional festivals, and places of interest (Huang, 2004). In the process, the young children fully participated in all kinds of activities: looking up references, visiting places, reporting their exploration outcomes by introducing the famous deeds of important people to tourists, and holding exhibitions to display their findings. In this way, the children were actively involved in the whole process of the patriotic project.

Looking Into Children's Language

The following passage is from a project focusing on "delicious foods," conducted by a kindergarten in Shanghai. The conversations occurred among children and teachers after the children had finished watching a movie about two kids who are in different manners.

Pan: "Sit properly when eating; our body should not be in a sloping position, otherwise, foods will fall off our mouth."

Qi: "Ahua is right, porridge should not be thrown away; the little fat boy is wrong."

Tian: "We should eat up all our food; [it's] not right to leave food."

Dong: "We should use one hand to hold our bowl, the other hand to hold spoon, and not to make noise."

Teacher: "Who did [it] in a right way, Ahua or the little fat boy? Whom should we learn from?"

Tian: "Wash our hands cleanly. If not, dirty things will come to our stomach and stomach will be painful."

Yue: "Wash hands after we use toilet."

Zhen: "Wash hands after play with toys."

Jie: "Hands should not be put into our mouth, very dirty."

Tian: "Wash hands after we touch dirty things."

Yang: "We should wash our hands cleanly in order to eat things."

(Xie & Sun, 2004, pp. 105-106)

Children here actively talked about eating habits, in which they seemed to have their own judgments about what is right and what is wrong, according to their perceptions of eating manners. We can see that children were the dominant talkers; the teacher seemed to keep in the background. In this way, these simple talks became an extension of learning and thinking, centering on what is right and wrong in terms of eating habits.

Let us look at another sample of children's language during the project of "I love small leaves."

Teacher: "What is wrong with the leaf?"

Child 1: "It is bitten by worms."

Teacher: "Does [the] leaf like worms?"

C2: "No, worms will bite it and it is painful."

C3: "It will cry."

C4: "Leaves do not like typhoon or storm. Many trees are blown down when typhoon comes. Leaves will die when trees are blown down."

C5: "Leaves like soft mud and gentle wind. When gentle wind comes, they can go to sleep and play in shaking."

C3: "Leaves do not like autumn, because leaves will leave the tree mum in autumn. And they do not like worms; worms will eat them all."

C6: "It doesn't like to be cut or stepped."

Teacher: "Yes, they dislike being destroyed by people."

C7: "It does not like big wind, rain, or fire. Do not smoke when playing in the trees."

C8: "Small tree doesn't like war."

(Lin et al., 2004, pp. 160-161)

The complex interactions between children and teacher above were initiated by the simple question, "What is wrong with the leaf?" and developed into an in-depth conversation about what leaves like and dislike. Children's interest, imagination, and participation fully unfolded in this conversation. The flow of children's language expression is another indicator of their active learning in the project approach, in which children themselves, rather than teachers, were playing the major role.

Support System for the Child as an Active Learner

It is commonly recognized in the three aforementioned cities that children's active learning and full participation in the project approach can be guaranteed only through a multi-layered support system. Emotional support from teachers is considered to be the most important support element for children's active learning. Teachers need to be sensitive to children's learning interests and needs, willing to listen to children, confident of children's ability to learn and explore autonomously, and able to reflect (Early Childhood Curriculum Reform New Concept, 2004). Teachers' emotional support lays a firm spiritual foundation from which children can act on their motivations and interests in learning.

Teachers' appropriate perception of their roles is also important if young children are to learn actively and participate fully in the project approach. In the project approach, teachers are perceived to be facilitators and helpers, rather than assuming the conventional role of only using textbooks to teach young children. Furthermore, teachers are participants, like the cooperative peers, in the project approach, because it is the teacher's responsibility to observe and learn about children, organize a collective discussion, and share ideas with children at appropriate times (Chen, 2002). Teachers can be thought of as pedestrians accompanying children in a running course; they observe and appreciate children's own exploration, encourage children to participate and explore, and guide and support children at appropriate times in order to extend their learning interests (Liu, 2004). Simultaneously, teachers are encouraged to be researchers, as it is commonly acknowledged that the role of researcher promotes the development of teachers' reflective abilities and improves their performance in the project approach (Early Childhood Curriculum Reform New Concept, 2004).

Cooperation among kindergartens, parents, and community is vital to supporting children's active learning in the project approach, in which the extension of the indoor kindergarten environment into the wider community provides young children with more learning resources (Early Childhood Curriculum Reform New Concept, 2004). Of course, this idea is not new in China; Chen Heqin claimed in the 1930s that nature and the society at large were bigger learning classrooms for young children. However, the project approach is the first appropriate means for implementing this idea in the 21st century.

Barriers

The biggest barrier to implementing the project approach is the teachers' attitudes towards the child and the child's learning; the traditional view of the child as dependent on adults is still dominant in the majority of Chinese kindergartens. As Chen (2002) points out, teachers do not have faith that young children can learn independently and actively, which leads to the high level of control found in the conventional discipline-based teaching and even in the project approach. For example, while children may be given different choices at the beginning, they are virtually under the control of teachers in that the whole learning process is designed and implemented according to the teacher's prescription without taking children's own initiatives into account.

Second, Chinese society is in the process of developing social support for education. A supportive environment in terms of early childhood education at the community level is only in its infancy as a large proportion of parents have not formed the habit of supporting their children's learning through cooperation with kindergartens (Li, 2004). In addition, the majority of kindergartens in China are still kept as an "isolated island" from the rest of society, as the teachers worry that parental involvement in children's learning at kindergartens will be a challenge to the teacher's authoritative position (Tang, 2003).

A third factor that holds back the practice of recognizing the child as an active learner lies in the training system for Chinese kindergarten teachers, which lacks a strategy for putting theoretical learning centering on children's subjectivity into practice at kindergartens (Research Cluster on "Improving Chinese Early Childhood Education Practitioners Qualifications," 2001). There is a gap between kindergarten teachers' knowledge about children's learning and applying that knowledge into kindergarten activities. This has led to a gulf between the concept of the child as an active learner and the practice of this concept in the kindergarten.

Looking to the Future

The view of the child is in the process of changing from the dependent child of traditional Chinese society to the child as an active learner in contemporary China. The view of the child as an active learner forces early childhood practitioners to rethink the features of the child's learning and development, individuality, and needs and rights, and of the teachers' roles in the process of children's learning in kindergarten (Lin, 2004). The multi-layer support system underpinning this practice of the view of the child as an active learner is identified as teachers' emotional support, teachers' appropriate perceptions of their roles in children's learning, and the kindergarten-family-community partnership. However, some barriers, such as the lingering traditional view of the child as dependent upon adults, the lack of broad social support for child care and early education, and the established training system for kindergarten teachers, are still present. It is promising that Chinese kindergarten practice is in a process of changing toward the direction of the view of the child as an active learner in major cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Xiamen, and that progress there may lead to broader change in the future.

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Fengling Tang is a doctoral student at Roehampton University, London, United Kingdom.