Sheri’s Hong Kong TOYBOX Research Reflection

June 9 - June 11, 2025

While in Hong Kong, student and faculty members of the TOYBOX research team profiled presentations at the Mathematics Cognition and Learning Society conference https://www.the-mcls.org/mcls-2025-hong-kong and at the Conference for Research in Early Childhood Education (CRECE 2025).  We toured two Kindergarten schools (https://www.fairchild.edu.hk/), and we were so grateful to meet so many dedicated, supportive and helpful individuals. I felt so lucky to be sharing my learning experiences and cultural journey with University of Winnipeg connected students: Mikaila Collins, Madison Young, Chy Anna Zhang, Alina Sanina, Madelyn Timmins and Jessica Shapiro.  A special heartfelt thanks goes to Chy Anna Zhang who joined us from Harbin, China and completed the poster translations and TOYBOX activities into Mandarin, so our work was accessible to many conference attendees.  I also thank the TOYBOX student project team who got us ready for this big trip, and kept things going while some of us were away. 

In Hong Kong, I was connected with two very special educators, Rafaella Tung and Betty Yau who took the time to welcome us to two Canadian inspired preschool programs. The child attendees (aged 8 months to 6 years) looked so happy and curious in these settings with so many rich opportunities for learning. These educators also shared books they had authored, materials developed, and stories of their work, followed by my very first Dim Sum lunch!  (Sorry now that I passed on trying the pigeon dish though.) I look forward to connecting these educators with our local early childhood team on my return to Canada, to continue our learning journey, and share more collaborations with the TOYBOX project.

My conference takeaways are that early childhood is still a much growing field worldwide, across languages and settings. Eastern educators are encouraging opportunities for high quality playful learning in place of traditional teaching methods in preschool; Australian educators highlight the importance of educator “attunement” (i.e., noticing what children are doing and providing learning scaffolding); while projects like the TOYBOX are encouraging purposeful play through meaningful exposure to numeracy, literacy and wellness content. I felt encouraged by talking to international numeracy experts: Elida Laski, David Purpura, Sarah Powell, Alberto Bautista, Caroline Hornburg, Winnie Chan, Vic Simms and Mané Susperreguy (all famous researchers published in early childhood journal articles), and others. Caroline Ziying Zhang helped me to understand the current early learning situation in China. These conversations reminded me about continuing intervention work albeit challenging and painful, because if we do not continue with our research expertise, “someone else will, and not in a good way.”  Thank you all especially for meeting and encouraging our TOYBOX students. We are all making progress together, one child and one family at a time.  Watch for our Hong Kong inspired TOYBOX activities coming soon!