原文：于越的“全人”理想：以习惯养成课程 开启学前教育的内涵革命（中国经济时报）

Yu Yue’s Vision for Early Childhood Education

Supporting Whole-Child Development Through Habit Formation

By Wang Jingyi

As China works to curb primary-school-style instruction in kindergartens and expand access to affordable preschool education, practitioners are grappling with a fundamental question: What should be nurtured, and what should be protected, during these early years to give children the strongest possible foundation for life?

Dr. Yu Yue, chairman of Oriental Cambridge Education Group (OCEG) and a long-time practitioner in preschool education, believes the answer lies in cultivating positive behaviors and habits rather than simply imparting knowledge. Since joining OCEG in 2006, Yu has led the rapid growth of its preschool sector. Under his leadership, OCEG became one of China’s largest kindergarten operators, with a directly operated network spanning 39 cities. That experience reinforced his belief that scale and facilities are only the foundation. Lasting strength, he argues, depends on a renewed focus on the essentials of child development. Guided by this belief, Yu personally led the in-house development of the Whole Child Habit Formation curriculum.

Grounded in Practice, Shaped by Expertise

The development of Whole Child Habit Formation was an educational exploration rooted in classroom practice and refined through continued testing. Before formal development began, Yu made frequent visits to kindergartens across the country. Through in-depth conversations with teachers and parents, he identified two recurring challenges. Amid the policy shift away from primary-school-style teaching, many kindergartens lacked a systematic, pedagogically sound alternative curriculum. Parents, meanwhile, recognized the importance of habit formation but often lacked practical methods for supporting it.

In response, Yu made habit formation central to the curriculum’s whole-child approach. He uses the term “habits” in a broad sense: not simply daily routines, but a comprehensive framework for whole-child development encompassing the physical, mental and spiritual dimensions of growth.

To translate this vision into classroom practice, Yu assembled a team of early childhood education specialists from China and abroad, academic faculty from the group’s higher education institutions, and experienced kindergarten teachers. He oversaw the entire development process and, during classroom trials, spent time observing children and recording their responses. Their feedback informed successive revisions. The result was a structured curriculum built around five core areas: self-development, healthy living, innovative thinking, interpersonal relationships and social behavior.

Yu has placed particular emphasis on implementation. “Even the best curriculum will remain an abstract ideal if teachers do not understand it or know how to teach it,” he says. He therefore championed a complementary teacher-training system. Developed in response to practical challenges and shaped by professional expertise, the curriculum also marks OCEG’s strategic shift from expansion at scale to a deeper focus on educational quality.

From Local Recognition to National Influence

A strong curriculum can speak for itself. In Shanghai’s Minhang District, Whole Child Habit Formation was honored as a “Quality Course Close to Home,” recognizing its value as a local educational resource. Its reach and adaptability have also earned recognition elsewhere. In Xiamen, Fujian Province, the curriculum received recognition from the local education system, and its story was selected by the China Association for Non-Government Education as one of “China’s 100 Selected Early Childhood Education Stories.”

The curriculum was also incorporated as a distinctive core component of research into a training model for preschool education majors at Harbin Cambridge University, which is part of the group. That model went on to receive an Innovation Award at the China Education Innovation Expo.

For Yu, these local and national honors reflect the quality of the curriculum rather than serving as goals in themselves. They also suggest that Whole Child Habit Formation has value beyond OCEG’s own development. With a coherent framework and a record of classroom implementation, it offers other preschool education providers a practical, replicable model as they adapt to the shift away from primary-school-style teaching.

Taking Whole Child Habit Formation Digital

Education must evolve with the times. Recognizing the opportunities created by digital technology, Yu led the transformation of Whole Child Habit Formation into Whole Child Planet, an online education platform.

The platform extends the curriculum’s reach through animation, interactive games and tools that support collaboration between kindergartens and families. It presents habit-formation concepts in a more engaging and accessible form, connecting guidance at kindergarten with continued learning at home.

Since its launch in September 2022, Whole Child Planet has been adopted across OCEG’s more than 150 kindergartens. It has also expanded beyond the group, reaching more than 100 kindergartens in 15 provinces and municipalities across China, including Beijing and Shanghai. This progression from an internal resource to a platform serving the wider sector demonstrates the curriculum’s adaptability and broader relevance.

Under Yu’s leadership, the move from a classroom-based delivery to a digital platform represents more than an expansion in reach. By integrating educational content with technology, Whole Child Habit Formation has established a new benchmark for the digital transformation of preschool education.