| Te Whariki is a uniquely Aotearoa New Zealand curriculum, holistic and bi-cultural, with a sound theoretical base. Children are seen as gradually coming to know and understand the world in communication with other people, in rich cultural contexts.Te Whariki is almost twenty years that the guidelines were first published in 1996. It provides a structure and ongoing direction to guide teachers in their work. Te Whariki is a model of how children’s participation rights can be embedded in a curriculum. China is now working on its pre-school education reform. Therefore, the world known guidelines Te Whariki could be a good example for us to explore the useful experience and inspiration.This thesis adapted comparative and analytic research methods.There are six sections:In the first section, the author explains the intention for this paper, defines related terms and briefly reviews current researches. The purpose of this paper and research methods are also discussed in this section.In the second section, the author reviews the evolution of pre-school education in New Zealand.In the third section, the author reviews the background information on social political and cultural needs; and needs of pre-school education development in the New Zealand.In this section, the author mainly discusses the content of Te Whariki’s basic principles, requirements of child development. The most important goal of an early childhood curriculum is to trigger a lifelong engagement with learning, rather than to teach a set of fragmented academic skills.In this section, the author concludes the characteristics of Te Whariki.In the last section, the author suggests that Te Whariki is a reference to Chiness pre-school education. In addition, the author proposes potential ideas to improve implementing pre-school education. |
