The Lincoln University Early Childhood Centre had a visit from a group of 16 Chinese delegates this week eager to learn more about New Zealand education.
They were here to view the schooling system, school management, teaching methods (localised curriculum), as well as digital technology usage and application in schools.
Hosted by the International Education and Technology Corporation (IETC) and CORE Education, the delegates spent some time at the Centre observing play based learning in action, alongside exploring how child lead emergent learning is recognised, planned for, documented and evaluated.
Their research also included a visit to Lincoln University’s Arboretum and Brandenburg Coppice to gain insight into the preschools nature immersion program ‘Arboretum Adventures’, where the physical, cognitive, social and emotional developmental benefits of spending quality time in nature were outlined.
Alongside exploring the beehives and Magnolia collection, Greg from ReKindle was on hand to demonstrate some traditional woodcraft and surprised the delegates with his fluent Mandarin.
The delegates reported back that they had observed happy, confident and independent children that led their own learning. More broadly, they will take back to China their recognition of how New Zealand schools are strongly connected with their local communities and the environment.