Our Assistant Professor Dr Carly Ng Ka-yee, recipient of the Young Scholar Award at the 22nd International Annual Conferences of PECERA, delivered a talk on “Early Childhood Teachers’ Personality in Their Play Perceptions and Involvement in Children’s Play” at the PECERA-Hong Kong 2023-24 Annual Meeting cum Seminar on 12 January 2024.

Dr. Ng shared her winning paper titled “Professional competence of early childhood teachers in facilitating children’s play”. This study examined the influences of professional competence on teachers’ practice in children’s play. A total of 714 early childhood teachers participated in the questionnaire survey, and 15 of them were interviewed. The quantitative results revealed that both cognitive and affective-motivational aspects of competence significantly predicted play practice, while the affective-motivational aspect exerted a slightly higher degree of influence on it. The qualitative results revealed that the two aspects dynamically shaped teachers’ play practice. From the results, attention is called for a balanced professional development of cognitive and affective-motivational aspects for early childhood teachers.

During the conference, the Founding President of PECERA (Hong Kong) Dr. Betty Chan and the President of PECERA (Hong Kong) Dr. Maria Lee co-presented certificates of appreciation to PECERA’s strategic partners, including YCCECE, University of Hong Kong, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, CNOPE, HKMU LiPace and Tung Wah College. Attending representatives receiving the certificate including Dr Frank Lam of YCCECE, Prof. Nirmala Rao of the University of Hong Kong FOE, Prof. Kerry Lee and Prof. Kevin Chung of the Education University of Hong Kong, Dr. Dorothy Tong of Hong Kong Metropolitan Unversity, Ms. Cindy Pun of CNOPE, Dr. Larry Ching of HKMU LiPACE, and Prof. Alex Chan of Tung Wah College.