No abstract

The partnership between school, family and community for the development and care of children has been interested in research by many scientists. This study aims to investigate Vietnamese early childhood educators’ perspectives on an integrated model to early childhood education and care in Vietnam. A self-assessment tool with 5 standards and 15 criteria was administered to 420 teachers working in 30 kindergartens across 6 provinces of Vietnam. The self-assessment tool considered 5 areas of the school, family and community partnerships, including: planning and building childcare education environments; connecting and sharing information between the school, family and the community in child care and education; coordinating in individual child education; making decisions about policies related to child care and education; and evaluating child development. Through average score analysis, the results show that early childhood educators in Vietnam stressed the significance of school, family and community involvement in early childhood education and care.

To meet the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Vietnam’s K-12 education has shifted from a content-based to a competency-based approach. Teacher education institutions are, therefore, required to make comprehensive curriculum reforms to align with the K-12 education innovation. This paper is concerned with the adoption of the CDIO (conceive-design-implement-operate) initiative for teacher training programs at Vinh University in Central Vietnam. It gives an account of the large-scale changes that involve significant shifts in the culture of management, teaching, learning and assessment, the revamp of the structure and contents of the curricula, along with enhancement of faculty teaching competence, personal and interpersonal skills, product, process, and system building skills, as well as disciplinary fundamentals. It also describes how the university has adapted the 12 CDIO standards for teacher training programs, and how teacher training spaces, outcome-based assessment and program evaluation have been adjusted in accordance with the CDIO principles. The qualitative research method was employed for an evaluation of the CDIO-based program implementation. The data were collected from interviews with faculty members and students, observations, documents related to the CDIO program implementation, reports of departments and AUN-QA accreditation agency that assessed the programs. It was found that the CDIO approach is highly applicable for teacher training programs; it fits the outcome-based teaching and assessment and the development of professional skills and competencies with which future teachers need to be equipped.