You are here

14/06/2016

The number of young children enrolled in preschool in Vietnam is rising rapidly, but so are concerns over the quality of teaching in classrooms. VVOB provided 32 teachers with child observation tools, in order to identify children at risk of not learning by focussing on the young learners’ levels of well-being and involvement.

Learning crisis replaces access crisis

Over the past decade, Vietnam's rapidly rising preschool enrolment rate has been testimony to the success of a government policy that has consistently worked towards universal preschool education for children aged 3 to 5, including in disadvantaged areas. Unfortunately, this positive evolution has raised concerns over the quality of teaching in preschools.

The Vietnamese Early Childhood Education curriculum of 2009 insists on holistic development, deep learning, and child-initiated activities to offer all children the opportunity to develop to their full potential. However, classroom observations all too often reveal that teachers experience difficulties in applying these innovative changes.

Defining ‘well-being’ and ‘involvement’

To improve their practice, VVOB accompanied teachers from eight schools in the provinces of Thai Nguyen and Quang Nam on a six-month action research trajectory. In line with the objectives of Vietnam’s child-centred early education curriculum, the action research was focussed on children’s well-being and involvement.

The definitions of these two concepts are rooted in the educational model of Experiential Education that evolved during the 1970s and 1980s from a series of observations of young children in early education settings in Flanders, Belgium:

  • ‘Well-being’ indicates that the basic needs of the child are satisfied and refers to the degree to which children feel at ease, act spontaneously and show vitality and self-confidence.
  • ‘Involvement’ is evident when children are concentrated, focussed, interested and fascinated, and when they are operating at the very limits of their capabilities.

High levels of well-being and involvement ultimately lead to high levels of child development.

First: getting teachers’ support system on board

Measuring well-being and involvement in a learning context where teachers insist on children following instructions from a very early age was particularly revealing. Even during "play" activities there is little room for children’s initiative, despite this being a central part to the 2009 curriculum. At the same time, there is a relatively heavy focus on content. This can be partially explained by Vietnamese teachers feeling considerable pressure from parents who ask for a "real" education.

Before embarking on the action research, VVOB organised a four-day training of the overarching support system for teachers. This target group consisted specifically of lecturers from various teacher training institutes, trainers of the provincial Departments of Education and Training, national experts, and representatives from the Ministry of Education and Training. Their buy-in was crucial to build robust support for teachers, who would almost inevitably be confronted with the differences between what they do in classrooms and what the government expects from them.

Self-evaluation

During the action research, teachers engaged in a self-evaluation consisting of three steps:

  1. Assessment of the actual levels of well-being and involvement;
  2. analysis and explanation of the observations made in relation to barriers to learning and participation experienced by children;
  3. and selection and implementation of actions to improve quality of teaching.

The two discussed concepts are central to the first step. Each day, the teacher assesses the well-being and involvement levels of a few children at a time, and gives them a score based on a five-point scale*. This first phase takes a few weeks. Once all children have been observed, there is a ‘group screening’. Those children at risk of not learning, i.e. children scoring low on one or both indicators, can be properly and timely identified.

Eye-opening

While the numbers at first seemed dramatic – with a majority of the 519 children observed at risk of not learning – the speed with which teachers adjusted their practice was impressive. Very quickly, they structured activities differently (e.g. more open-ended activities), enriched the learning environment with materials adjusted to the children’s interests and took them outside the classroom for learning and playing.

The three-step approach was a real eye-opener for the teachers involved in the action research, particularly because it invited them to focus on individual children rather than the class as a group. A teacher in Nam Giang elaborates: "Before, I observed my whole class and felt that the class was doing OK because they could answer my questions. Now, by observing involvement and well-being in each child, I found those children that are not doing OK and focus my efforts on their needs." 

VVOB expects that the use of process-oriented child monitoring will not only lead to significant changes in the classroom as such, but will also contribute to the professional development of teachers. Teachers understand how to integrate a learning child’s perspective in their approach, thus creating more optimal conditions for children's social-emotional and cognitive development.

 

* Developed by the Research Centre for Experiential Education at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.