Each child has the right to develop to its unique potential. Children age 3 to 6 develop through deep level learning when they have high levels of well-being and involvement. Teachers play a key role in providing environments, materials, activities and interactions that support such deep level learning. In Vietnamese preschools, many teachers lack skills to observe how children are doing and to provide challenging, more child-centered activities. More school-based teacher professional development activities, focusing on practice and reflection, can help teachers in a shift towards more experiential, child-centered preschool education.
From December 2015 to May 2016, child monitoring skills were introduced to 32 preschool teachers in disadvantaged districts in Vietnam. The professional development trajectory made use of more school-embedded methods. The objective was to increase teachers’ skills to observe children’s levels of involvement and well-being, reflect on children’s barriers to learning and participation and take actions to address those barriers. Following a school-based capacity development trajectory, building on teachers’ experiences in the classroom, teachers acquired practical skills to identify children facing barriers and to take actions to increase their well-being and involvement. With these new skills, teachers managed to increase the proportion of children with high levels of involvement and well-being increased from less than 25 percent to over 65 percent. Teachers sustained the child monitoring practice with support of their school leaders and district education officer.
Children’s well-being and involvement significantly improved as a result of teachers’ new skills, acquired through school-embedded reflection on authentic experiences in their classrooms. The school-based approach facilitated changes in teachers’ practice, professional behavior and beliefs about education, more than a traditional top-down mechanism of professional development. The support of the school leaders, district and provincial education officer responsible for teacher professional development is also crucial to generate change in teachers’ practice.
