Highlights

News & Events

News & Events

MA student publishes in international journal

2018-06-04

The Department of Early Childhood Education (ECE) has been offering the programme of Master of Art in Child and Family Education (MA(CFE)), dedicated to training practitioners who can conduct rigorous research and transfer knowledge to the community. Recently, a former student of MA(CFE), Ms. Michelle Chiu, has published her thesis in the international journal Children and Youth Service Review. Her thesis, titled “Extracurricular participation and young children’s outcomes in Hong Kong: Maternal involvement as a moderator,” examined the implications of extracurricular participation for child adjustment. The results indicated that extracurricular participation was associated with better school readiness and social skills. Moreover, children seemed to benefit more from extracurricular participation when their parents had less time for child engagement.

When asked about her experiences of conducting her research, Ms. Chiu immediately thanked her supervisor, Dr. Eva Lau, Assistant Professor from ECE and Programme Coordinator of MA(CFE): “Eva walked me through the whole process. I remember her going to a kindergarten with me to collect data from children. She first let me try doing the interview, and then discussed with me my performance and ways to improve. She then demonstrated how things should be done by doing the interview once by herself—I really feel that she has been scaffolding my learning!”

MA(CFE) is the only programme in Hong Kong that combines both child development and family education. Ms. Chiu’s achievement indicates the international standard of the training of the programme.

Want to learn more about their work? Please visit: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740917309593