ECE6071 Critical Issues in Early Childhood Education
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · ECE6071 Overview
- The Education University of Hong Kong
- Semester 1, 2026/27
- Postgraduate course
- Education
- Group presentation and mini curriculum
What this course asks you to do
This is a postgraduate course on the issues that matter most to early childhood education right now, and on how to analyse them properly. It treats an issue as critical when it is fundamental to the field and is examined with up-to-date theory and ideas that bear on present conditions.
- Assessed by An individual mini curriculum worth sixty per cent, a group critical review presentation worth thirty, and class participation worth ten.
- The skill being tested Moving from a critical issue, through a named theoretical lens, to a decision a kindergarten could actually carry out.
- Hardest step Choosing an issue narrow enough that three to five lesson plans can show it in action within four thousand words.
- Where to confirm Dates, submission settings and any AI declaration requirements are controlled by the course Moodle page.
How ECE6071 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Class participation | 10% | Taking part in online discussions, readings, individual reflections and class activities, and contributing to discussion in class |
| Individual | 60% | A mini curriculum on a critical early childhood issue of your choice, 4,000 words including references and appendixes, submitted on Moodle through Turnitin |
| Group | 30% | A critical review of recent studies on an issue in the digital transformation of early childhood education: a presentation of about 15 slides and 15 to 20 minutes, a led classroom activity, a whole-class discussion and a video under 5 minutes; 55 to 60 minutes in total |
The first-session slides list these three components and they total 100%. The individual mini curriculum is due on 11 December 2026 at 23:59 and is submitted through Turnitin; group slides and the video are uploaded to Moodle at least one day before the group’s session. The slides also give letter-grade bands and a zero tolerance policy on plagiarism. A hurdle, pass mark or attendance threshold is not stated in the course materials, so check the course Moodle page for any rule on whether a component must be passed and for the live submission settings.
Assessment structure
Segment widths reproduce the published percentage weights and total 100%.
Current ECE6071 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| 22 September 2026 | First compulsory online discussion closes | On what makes an issue critical in early childhood today; shown on the course page. |
| 5 October 2026 | Second compulsory online discussion closes | On whether coding is valuable to young children; shown on the course page. |
| 20 October 2026 | Third compulsory online discussion closes | On whether AI could reshape early childhood education; shown on the course page. |
| Tuesday before your session, 18:30 | Group slides and video upload | At least one day before the group presents; the week depends on the group number. |
| 11 December 2026 | Individual mini curriculum due | 23:59, on Moodle through Turnitin, as stated on the first-session slides. |
Dates are as published in the course page and the first-session slides for this offering. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What ECE6071 covers
Ten chapters follow the taught weeks, from what makes an issue critical and the theories used to read it, through equity, coding and computational thinking, to AI literacy, AI curriculum design and generative AI in kindergartens.
What Makes an Issue Critical in Early Childhood
basic against critical issues · new contexts, new issues and new theories · the nine named issues · glocalisation, digitalisation and decolonisationCritical is not the same as important
The course opens by setting critical issues against basic issues, and the distinction is the foundation for everything you will be assessed on.
- Critical issues set against basic issues
- How young children learn as the question the field keeps reopening
- New contexts driving change in early childhood
- Glocalisation, digitalisation and decolonisation
- The nine issues the course names
- What the invited talks add
Learning Theories for Reading an Early Years Issue
constructivism and constructionism · sociocultural and critical lenses · has this child learned · multiple intelligences and its limitsFour lenses, not four labels
The course expects you to analyse issues using a range of theoretical perspectives, and it names four: constructivism, constructionism, sociocultural theories and critical theories.
- Constructivism and constructionism compared
- Sociocultural theory and the role of interaction
- Critical theories and questions of power and access
- Two classroom moments read through four lenses
- Developmental theory as necessary but not sufficient
- Gardner’s multiple intelligences and its limits
Equity, Diversity and Sustainable Development
the course commitment · three edited books compared · the digital divide in AI · gender in robotics · development goals for early years innovationA commitment with a bracket
The course states its commitment in the words of its first textbook’s editors: to bring about social change and improve the lives of young children, to make early childhood education more relevant and inclusive, and to promote social justice, equity and diversity, with sustainable development added for the present decade.
- The course’s commitment to social justice, equity and diversity
- Sustainable development and the goals most relevant to early childhood
- Three edited books compared by their equity question
- The digital divide extended to AI
- Gender and participation in robotics
- Access, participation and outcome as separate claims
Coding and the Powerful Ideas of Computer Science
seven powerful ideas of computer science · playground against playpen · floor robots and tablet coding apps · plugged and unplugged coding · curriculum standardsWhy code at four
The coding session’s answer is not that children need to become programmers. It is that coding carries powerful ideas from computer science that early childhood already values.
- A role play about how smart objects work
- Seven powerful ideas of computer science
- Coding as a playground rather than a playpen
- Floor robots and tablet coding apps
- Plugged and unplugged coding
- Curriculum guides and standards for alignment
Computational Thinking in Everyday Routines
six aspects of computational thinking · data in every step · home activity cards for patterns, algorithms, decomposition, abstraction and modellingA definition with three parts and six aspects
The course defines computational thinking as creative skills: designing systems with concepts fundamental to computer science, solving problems at several levels of abstraction, and thinking algorithmically to develop efficient solutions.
- Computational thinking defined as creative skills
- Decomposition, pattern recognition and abstraction
- Modelling and simulation, algorithms and evaluation
- Data as part of every step
- Home activity cards for the first years of school
- Designing one card for one aspect
Designing Playful Coding Activities
the positive technological development framework and its six Cs · a six-part coding session · story-inspired coding · four curriculum spaces from kindergarten to cultureFrom why to how
The coding session moves from the case for coding to the craft of planning it, and it frames the move with a question about playful learning and children’s digital lives, introduced through the work of Mitch Resnick at the MIT Media Lab.
- Playful learning and children’s digital lives
- The six Cs of positive technological development
- Assets, behaviours and classroom practices
- The six-part coding session
- Story-inspired coding from a picture book
- Curriculum spaces from kindergarten to culture
AI Literacy for Young Children
why start early · AI literacy defined · concepts, practices and perspectives · how child-friendly agents learnWhy, what and how
The AI week’s curriculum reading, written from the early childhood field, organises AI education around three questions borrowed from curriculum development for children aged three to eight: why it is needed, what subset of AI ideas children can learn, and how they should learn it.
- AI in children’s everyday lives
- Why AI education belongs in the early years
- The equity argument and the digital divide
- AI literacy defined
- Concepts, practices and perspectives
- The core knowledge statement and its limitation clause
Teaching AI Concepts Through a Social Robot
a social robot toolkit for four to seven year olds · knowledge-based systems, supervised learning and generative music · what children got wrong and whyA study the course relies on
The PopBots paper describes a toolkit and curriculum in which four to seven year olds build, program, train and interact with a social robot made from a smartphone, LEGO parts, motors and sensors.
- A social robot toolkit for four to seven year olds
- Four design principles from constructionism
- Knowledge-based systems through a rules game
- Supervised learning through food sorting
- Generative AI through music remixing
- Age and classroom differences in results
Embodied and Culturally Responsive AI Curriculum
embodied instruction and situative storylines · four conditions for culturally responsive AI learning · the ocean protection project in a Hong Kong kindergartenThe how question
The AI curriculum reading answers its third question, how young children should learn about AI, with two commitments: the curriculum should be embodied, and it should be culturally responsive.
- Embodied learning and situative storylines
- Three principles for helping children learn AI
- Cultural responsiveness as a strength-based approach
- Four conditions from inclusion to competence
- The ocean protection project and its goals
- Evaluating children’s AI learning
Generative AI in Early Childhood Settings
friend or foe · AI as tools, buddies, tutors and literacies · an educator aide and a birthday song project · human and networked learning modelsThe question the older readings could not ask
The AI session opens by asking how using generative AI affects children, and then stages a debate on whether AI is a friend or a foe for children, with acceptance and resistance as the two sides.
- How generative AI use affects children
- Friend or foe: acceptance and resistance
- AI as tools, buddies, tutors and literacies
- An educator’s aide and the child indirectly affected
- A child-led birthday song project
- Human and networked learning models
You are expected to review and analyse those issues through several theoretical perspectives, to think about what they mean in different early childhood contexts, and to develop insight into innovations a kindergarten could actually make.
The assessed work follows from that: a group critical review presentation you lead for your classmates, and an individual mini curriculum that turns an issue into lessons for young children.
What Makes an Issue Critical in Early Childhood
The opening session contrasts critical issues with basic ones and starts from the most basic question available, how young children learn.
A critical issue is usually that basic question reopened by something new: digital technologies, globalisation, climate change, structural inequality, marketisation, schoolification, the pandemic, war or AI.
The chapter builds a three-part test, fundamental, current and theorised, and applies it to the nine issues the course names.
Learning Theories for Reading an Early Years Issue
The course names four lenses, constructivism, constructionism, sociocultural theories and critical theories, and this chapter shows how each changes what counts as evidence of learning.
Two short classroom moments from the first session are re-read through all four, and Gardner’s multiple intelligences is placed as a useful older net that cannot, on its own, explain a child learning from a system that answers back.
Equity, Diversity and Sustainable Development
The course commits to social change, inclusion, social justice and diversity, with sustainable development added for the present decade.
The chapter compares the three edited books on the reading list by the equity question each foregrounds, follows the argument that the digital divide has moved into AI, and separates access, participation and outcome so that inclusion claims can be tested.
Coding and the Powerful Ideas of Computer Science
Coding earns its place in a kindergarten by the ideas it carries: algorithms, modularity, control structures, representation, hardware and software, the design process and debugging, each tied to a skill early childhood already values.
The chapter covers the playground approach, floor robots and tablet coding apps, and the range from unplugged making to screen-based coding.
Computational Thinking in Everyday Routines
Six aspects, decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, modelling and simulation, algorithms and evaluation, with data running through all of them.
Home activity cards written for the first years of school show each aspect hiding in a recipe, a morning routine, a game or a birthday song.
Designing Playful Coding Activities
The planning chapter.
It sets out the six Cs of positive technological development, a six-part coding session running from warm-up game to closing technology circle, a design flow that starts from a picture book’s problem, and four curriculum spaces from the kindergarten room out to Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area and local culture.
AI Literacy for Young Children
Why AI education belongs in the early years, according to the AI curriculum reading: equity, the need for guidance, and children’s demonstrated capability.
What AI literacy means at four: concepts, practices and perspectives, pitched as sorting, training and deciding together when to trust a machine.
Teaching AI Concepts Through a Social Robot
A classroom study in which four to six year olds taught a social robot game rules, sorted foods to train it, and heard it remix their music.
The chapter is organised around what the children got wrong and why, including an activity that taught the opposite of its intended idea.
Embodied and Culturally Responsive AI Curriculum
How young children should learn about AI: through storylines tied to their lives, bodily experience, and technology introduced as a tool for a problem they already care about.
The chapter follows an ocean protection project in a Hong Kong kindergarten and the four conditions for culturally responsive learning behind it.
Generative AI in Early Childhood Settings
The friend or foe debate, four roles for AI in early childhood, and two cases: an assessment aide for teachers and a kindergarten song project.
The chapter closes on the question the session leaves open, whether older learning theories can explain learning from a network that never stops giving feedback.
How to use this guide
Read Chapters 1 to 3 before choosing an issue for either task, because they decide what a good choice looks like. Then work the chapters that match your issue.
The practice section plans a complete mini curriculum on the course’s own template and lays out a group session minute by minute, and the closing section is a checklist for the days before submission.
Evidence and assessment control
Assessment labels, weights and dates follow the first-session slides and the course page for this offering.
Teaching explanations, worked examples and practice items are independently authored and are not University assessment material; any marks shown on them are an AskSia study allocation. Moodle controls the live settings, so confirm every date and submission requirement there.
Worked example · free
Turn a broad interest into a mini curriculum issue
- 2Explain why technology in early childhood is too broad to plan lessons around.
- 3Restate it as one issue with a new context, a basic question and a setting.
- 4Name the lens and write one observable goal that follows from it.
Key terms
- Critical Issue
- A question fundamental to early childhood education that a new context has reopened, analysed with current theory rather than settled by habit.
- Mini Curriculum
- A short planned unit for young children built around one issue, with a theme, goals, integrated subjects, a final project, three to five lesson plans and assessments.
- Powerful Idea
- A central concept from a discipline that is worth teaching because it transfers to other learning, such as sequencing or debugging in coding.
- Computational Thinking
- A set of problem-solving skills drawn from computer science, taught in this course as decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, modelling, algorithms and evaluation.
- AI Literacy
- Understanding what AI basically does and being able to use AI tools ethically in daily life.
- Constructionism
- A learning theory holding that children build understanding especially well while making a shareable artefact that others can see and test.
- Cultural Responsiveness
- An approach that treats learners’ cultural tools, resources and experiences as strengths to build learning on.
- Digital Divide
- Unequal access to, and experience with, digital technologies between groups of children, which the course argues now extends to AI.
- Unplugged Coding
- Activities that teach programming ideas without a screen or device, such as building gear machines or following spoken commands.
- Technology Circle
- A closing group discussion in a coding session where children share what they made and reflect on the concepts used.
- Schoolification
- The pressure to push school-style content and methods down into early childhood settings, named in the course as a new context.
ECE6071 FAQ
How is this course assessed?
The first-session slides list three components: an individual mini curriculum worth sixty per cent, a group critical review presentation worth thirty per cent, and class participation worth ten per cent. All three reward designing, leading and defending practice, so preparation should go into planning lessons and sessions rather than memorising the readings.
What goes into the individual mini curriculum?
The slides say it may include a curriculum title and materials related to your issue, the powerful ideas underneath it, an overview, three to five lesson plans, a personal reflection of no more than one page in APA 7th format, and references and appendixes. The whole piece is limited to four thousand words including references and appendixes, and a planning template is provided on Moodle for reference.
What does the group presentation involve?
Groups review recent studies on an issue in the digital transformation of early childhood education, present about fifteen slides over fifteen to twenty minutes, lead at least one classroom activity such as a debate or role play, run a whole-class discussion with prepared questions, and submit a short video. Plan the full fifty-five to sixty minutes as teaching.
Can I choose any issue for my individual work?
Eligible issues include those in the course progression, those chosen by groups for presentations, and any other relevant early childhood issue that interests you, and the slides say several students may focus on the same issue. The group topic is narrower and should be checked with the instructor before presenting.
How will AI use in my assignment be handled?
The individual work is submitted through Turnitin, and the slides name its AI detector and show how a declaration on AI-generated content is viewed. Check the settings and instructions on the Moodle submission point, follow them exactly, and read the University’s academic honesty policy, since the slides state zero tolerance for plagiarism.
Is coding really valuable for four and five year olds?
The course’s case is that coding carries powerful ideas children already need, such as sequencing, patterns, representation and persistence through debugging, and that it works best as playful, personally meaningful projects. Your job in an assignment is to show that transfer in a specific activity, not to assume it.
What can young children actually learn about AI?
According to the AI curriculum reading, children can learn that AI systems are trained on examples, that training lets them spot patterns, predict and suggest actions, and that they have limits and make mistakes. The social robot study found four to six year olds grasping these ideas when activities made the machine’s reasoning visible.
Questions students ask in each ECE6071 chapter
- How is a critical issue different from a basic issue?
- A basic issue is a question every setting must always answer, such as how children learn. It becomes critical when a new context such as AI or marketisation reopens it, competing interests appear, and current theories disagree about it. Your analysis should name all three elements rather than simply calling a topic important. Chapter 01 · What Makes an Issue Critical in Early Childhood
- Which learning theories should I use in my assignments?
- The course names constructivism, constructionism, sociocultural theories and critical theories. Choose the one that best explains your issue, say what it counts as evidence, and use a second lens where the first is blind. Using two lenses well is better than listing all four. Chapter 02 · Learning Theories for Reading an Early Years Issue
- How does equity show up in the assessed work?
- Both tasks are judged against the course’s commitment to social justice, equity and diversity. A strong review or curriculum says which children an innovation reaches, which take it up and whose learning changes, rather than assuming that making something available makes it fair. Chapter 03 · Equity, Diversity and Sustainable Development
- Is coding really appropriate for kindergarten children?
- The course argues that it is, when it carries powerful ideas such as sequencing, patterns, representation and debugging through playful, meaningful projects. The argument depends on the activity: a coding session that is only screen time does not carry those ideas and would be hard to defend. Chapter 04 · Coding and the Powerful Ideas of Computer Science
- What are the six aspects of computational thinking in this course?
- Decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, modelling and simulation, algorithms and evaluation. The course adds that data is part of every one of them. Learning to tell them apart by the question each asks makes it much easier to design an activity that targets one. Chapter 05 · Computational Thinking in Everyday Routines
- How should a coding session for young children be structured?
- The course uses six parts: a warm-up game, story time, a structured challenge on a coding platform, an expressive exploration, unplugged making, and a closing technology circle. Each part has a job, and dropping one usually loses either the reason for the code or the reflection on it. Chapter 06 · Designing Playful Coding Activities
- Why teach AI to children before they can read?
- The AI curriculum reading gives three reasons: AI is part of the digital literacy every citizen now needs, children do not understand smart devices without guidance, and even four year olds can handle ideas such as order and cause and effect. It argues that school is where children with least experience at home get a fair start. Chapter 07 · AI Literacy for Young Children
- Can four and five year olds really understand AI concepts?
- The study found that Pre-K and Kindergarten children could demonstrate understanding of knowledge-based systems and supervised learning after short hands-on activities, with older children scoring higher overall. Understanding improved when children had more time to explore and when the robot explained its reasoning. Chapter 08 · Teaching AI Concepts Through a Social Robot
- What makes an AI curriculum culturally responsive?
- It builds on children’s own cultural tools and experiences and follows four conditions: establish inclusion, develop a positive attitude, enhance meaning and engender competence. The ocean project is an example, chosen because Hong Kong children know the coast from daily life. Chapter 09 · Embodied and Culturally Responsive AI Curriculum
- Is generative AI a friend or a foe for young children?
- The course stages this as a debate rather than settling it. A defensible position depends on the role the AI plays: it is more clearly a friend when children remain the authors and learn how the tool works, and more clearly a foe when it replaces play or collects data without purpose. Chapter 10 · Generative AI in Early Childhood Settings
How to prepare for the assessments
Pick your individual issue early and keep one real kindergarten class in mind. As you read each chapter, write two lines for that class: which lens you would use and one activity you could run. By the time the planning template is in front of you, most of the powerful ideas, goals and lessons will already exist in draft, and the remaining work is making each one observable.
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