On Monday 5th August, Neil attended a research workshop hosted by Beijing Normal University (BNU) with UCL IOE at Sanjiaoshi Kindergarten in Beijing’s Xincheng District.
Dr Clare Brooks from UCL IOE and Dr Heyi Zhang from BNU shared the literature review findings conducted by IOE and BNU, regarding Early Years education in China. The Speakers asked what their colleagues would like to see in Early Years education in China, to which attendees gave feedback, and exchange of ideas followed.
Later, three Beijing kindergartens’ headteachers introduced their kindergartens and certain features of their schools. This led to another exchange of views and ideas with colleagues from the UK. The Speakers were from Sanjiaoshi Kindergarten (Headteacher Lan Wang), Mingtian Kindergarten (Headteacher Haihuan Lei) and Fengtai No.1 Kingergarten (Headteacher Jiwen Zhu).
Lunch was served, followed by a tour of Sanjiaoshi Kindergarten.
Dr Clare Brooks then led the group to discuss developing Research Practice Partnerships. A detailed list of what interventions are needed and some ideas of how that could be achieved was generated from this session. There was group discussion of potential research collaborations, including a series of priorities for work and development for the Research Practice Partnership and some ideas for initial projects.
The workshop concluded at 3:30pm.
Attendees list:
- Dr Clare Brooks – Director of Centre for Teacher and Early Years Education, Head of Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment, UCL IOE
- Dr Eleanor Kitto – Early Years Education Expert, UCL IOE
- Yannan Yu – Centre Manager for the UCL IOE Centre for Teacher and Early Years Education, UCL IOE
- Wang Lan – Head of Sanjiaoshi Kindergarten
- Lei Haihuan – Head of Mingtian Kindergarten Group
- Zhu Jiwen – Head of Fengtai No.1 Kindergarten
- Professor Xiumin Hong – Head of department of Early Years Education; Deputy Director of Institute for Children Development and Family Education, BNU
- Lisa Haoying Li – Deputy Director of Institute for Children Development and Family Education
- Professor Xinghua Wang – Deputy Director of Research Centre for EYs Education, BNU
- Professor Wanzhen Feng – Research Centre for EYs Education, BNU
- Dr Heyi Zhang – Lecturer, Research Centre for EYs Education, BNU
- Wenting Zhu – PhD student, Research Centre for EYs Education, BNU
- Jia Song – MA student, assistant at Institute for Children Development and Family Education, BNU
- Shihan Hua – MA student, assistant at Institute for Children Development and Family Education, BNU
- Zhaoxuan Wang – MA student, assistant at Institute for Children Development and Family Education, BNU
- Yiting Wang – Researcher, Institute for Children Development and Family Education, BNU
- Jing Li – Researcher, Institute for Children Development and Family Education, BNU