Exploring Hong Kong student teachers' perspectives on children's play and learning

The concepts of learning through play and a play-based curriculum have gained widespread recognition and popularity in the 21st century. However, in Hong Kong (HK), parents, teachers, and other stakeholders still exhibit limited confidence and capacity in applying these notions to the field of early childhood education (ECE). Moreover, how ECE student teachers perceive and understand these concepts remains largely unknown. To address these issues, this research adopted the ecological system theory as a theoretical framework to 1) investigate HK ECE student teachers' views on implementing a play-based curriculum and 2) understand the associated difficulties they encounter in the HK context. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, including a Play Belief Survey and a qualitative focus group interview. In total, 200 survey responses and 100 minutes of interview data were collected from a group of ECE student teachers from teacher education institutes in HK. The findings revealed a salient contradiction and concern among student teachers, who expressed positive beliefs about a play-based curriculum yet faced insufficient support in terms of its practical implementation in local ECE settings. This finding underscores the need to closely scrutinise a play-based curriculum in terms of the uniqueness of the HK ECE context. In addition, the implications of this research for the wider Asia-Pacific region are discussed.