All it takes for a teacher is to know the children? – An empirical study on increasing child development in Vietnamese preschools (2022)

Process-oriented child monitoring (POM) deals with systematic monitoring of the observed learning needs of children in early childhood education by teachers. Between 2017 and 2021, a teacher professional development trajectory was implemented using POM in ethnically diverse preschools in Central Vietnam. This study evaluates the effectiveness of this intervention using a pre- and post-test research design with a treatment and control group. Participants (N=339) in the study were assigned to the treatment or control group by using a clustered-randomised sampling approach. Results indicate that POM is promising in increasing holistic child development. 5-year-old girls show most progression in cognitive functioning and socio-emotional development, while boys at this age indicate advances in socio-emotional development and health behaviours. Further evidence indicates that changes in teaching children from poor households play out much faster on child development, as opposed to what is observed among wealthier households.