Recently, over 30 high potential early childhood teachers and educators had the rare opportunity to hear one of China’s top scientists in developmental psychology speak on the “Holistic Development of Children’s Character and Personality” on 24 August 2019.

The special occasion was KLCII’s 2019 International Visiting Professor Seminar held at the Lifelong Learning Institute featuring Dr Yang Li Zhu, a lecturer at the Liaoning Normal University, Ph.D. supervisor, postdoctoral supervisor and well-known educational psychologist in China.

Helping children develop character has been a big challenge for philosophers and psychologists as the young are are born with unique temperaments, needs and talents.

Personality development is also an important part of early childhood education.

At this continuing professional development session, Dr Yang delved into the necessity to identify the differences in children’s personality through scientific and structural models and to determine the unique features of character development in young children. He also touched on how educators can use “Thematic Play Activity” based learning to support the holistic development of young children’s character and personality.

The participants also heard from Dr Yang how to develop good character and personality traits such as Self-awareness, Confidence, Responsibility, Independence, Sociability, Curiosity, Courtesy, Honesty, Empathy and Positive Self-control.

Continuing Professional Development course “Holistic Development of Children’s Character and Personality” session conducted by Professor Yang LiZhu

“There are limited resources in Singapore and there is so much more to learn from best practises from around the world. KLCII will continue to bring in overseas experts to share their insights.” KLCII Vice President, Mr Desmond Seah shared.

KLCII ‘s Visiting Professor Seminars series was launched in December 2002 with  Professor Yang LiZhu as its first speaker. She was at that time Head of the Psychology Department Teaching Research Centre at Liaoning Normal University (LNU). The inaugural lecture was on child discipline.