Empowering early childhood teachers to foster high-quality learning using a scalable technology-driven professional development initiative

 

The integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) into early childhood education (ECE) has garnered significant interest in providing early exposure to key skills such as creativity, inquiry, problem solving and teamwork. However, in Vietnam, low competencies among ECE teachers in STEM adversely affect their ability to facilitate STEM activities for their students. To address this issue, the project will use STEMsmart, a promising teacher professional development model, to enhance ECE teachers' competencies in STEM.

This project aims to adapt the STEMsmart model to suit diverse ECE contexts, address gender equality, equity and inclusion concerns, and gather evidence of its effectiveness and scalability. The study will collect data to compare schools implementing STEMsmart with those that do not implement it by sampling schools from different geographic regions and ECE types in Vietnam. Data will be collected at different stages of implementation to evaluate how the innovation diffuses over time and its effectiveness through surveys, focus groups, classroom observations, videography, interviews and document reviews.  

The project will produce a STEMsmart teacher professional development model to suit public preschools in Vietnam, including a companion online STEMsmart platform. It will train ECE teachers and leaders to implement the model and conduct a national workshop, in addition to generating a peer-reviewed research paper, a policy brief and a handbook on sustainable public-private partnership.  

This project is funded under the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Knowledge and Innovation Exchange, a joint endeavour between the GPE and IDRC to connect expertise, innovation and knowledge to help low- and middle-income countries build stronger education systems and accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goal on education.