A CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS OF PRESCHOOL TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES IN A MEKONG DELTA PROVINCE (https://doi.org/10.63386/611003)
Nguyen Bach Thang, PhD[1]
(*)Huynh Thanh Tien, PhD[2]
Le Thi Hong Hanh, MA[3]
Tran Thi Huyen, MA[4]
Abstract
Vietnam has a long history of education, and traditionally the Vietnamese people highly respect learning. However, preschool education in Vietnam started to be concerned in the early 1945 and it has made remarkable progress since the early 2000s. The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) commits to improving access to preschool education across the country. The MOET has also attempted to enhance the quality of preschool education by revising the curriculum and upskilling its teaching workforce. According to Vietnam Education Law 2019, preschool education teachers are required to obtain a university degree. This paper aimed to explore the professional development activities of the preschool teachers in a Mekong delta province, Vietnam. The research findings indicated that the preschool teachers in this studied province had great hardships, burdens, and pressures about their teaching jobs, their individuals’ and families’ financial supports and their mastery and upgrading of their academic qualifications to meet the qualification requirements of the Vietnam Education Law 2019. The paper ended with some considerable recommendations for the preschool educational managers and preschool teachers in this province to reduce their difficulties in developing their preschool teaching workforce and helping them to overcome their financial hardships and burdens and upgrade their required qualifications.
Keywords: educational policies, preschool educational managers, preschool education teachers, preschool teaching workforce, professional development activities.
- Introduction
A nation’s human resource and particularly its human resources in the educational sector, including its national policy for human resource development in the sector of education. There are various issues of education and training such as goals, program contents, teaching methods, management mechanisms, policy systems, and development of the teaching staff and educational managers that should be addressed. Among of such issues, the development of teaching workforce and educational management team is considered as a crucial element primarily influencing on the quality of education and training.
Preschool education in Vietnam
Preschool is a type of early childhood education for children from about age 3 to 5, aiming to prepare children for kindergarten and lifelong learning. Preschool education is important and beneficial for any child attending nursery schools because it gives the child a head start through social interactions. Through cognitive, psychosocial and physical development-based learning a child in preschool will learn about their environment and how to verbally communicate with others. Children who attend Preschool learn how the world around them works through play and communication (Dustmann, C.; Fitzenberger, B.; Machin, S., 2008). Chapter II – Article 23 in Vietnam Education 2019 documents that Preschool education is the first educational level in the Vietnam national educational system that sets the foundation for the comprehensive development of the Vietnamese people and carries out nurturing, caring and educating children from 03 months to 06 years of age (Vietnam National Assembly (VNA), 2019).
Since 1986 there have been two periods of preschool education reform in Vietnam. First, the Education Law 1998 marked a new move on curriculum and pedagogy of preschool education, which a new preschool – called the Innovative Program 1998, was introduced in 1998 (Phan, 2012). This program was piloted in some kindergartens and then it was implemented throughout the country. The second reform was piloted in 2006 (Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training, Decision about promulgation a pilot project that uses new early childhood education curriculum, 2006) and was carried out nationwide in 2009, namely the Program 2009 (Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training Vietnam, 2009). Recently, the Program 2009 was amended in 2016 and then its updated version 2017 has been implemented since February 15th, 2017 (Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training, Circular 01/VBBH-BGDĐT dated on 24/01/2017 Issuance on Preschool Education Curriculum, 2017).
According to a report from MOET, the development scale of the preschool education was uneven in the regions in Vietnam; the quality of the preschool education was not stable; its policy system was not synchronized, and the resources to invest into the preschool education was considered to be the lowest in the education sector (Vietnam MOET, Decision 1215/MOET dated 4/4/2013 Promulgating the Action Program to implement the Vietnam Education Development Strategy 2011-2020, 2013). The MOET’s statistic report 2020 documented that there are 5,095,037 children and 336,783 preschool teachers (approximately ratio 15:1) (Vietnam MOET, General Number of Preschool Education in the school year 2019-2020, 2020); however, Joint Circular 06/2015/TTLT-BGDĐT-BNV on the date March 16th 2015 stipulates that each standardized preschool class should arrange 2.2 teachers maximally [approximately 2 teachers per class] (Vietnam MOET&MHA, 2015). Consequently, there happens to be a serious shortage of preschool teachers. In fact, according to the MOET’s statistic report 2022, there is a shortage of 48,700 preschool teachers, and in the school year 2023 Vietnam’s education sector needs to recruit 27,850 new preschool teachers (Vĩnh Hà, 2022). Currently, the MOET’s statistic report 2023, the whole country lacks 51,300 preschool teachers for public kindergartens. The lack of preschool education teaching staff leads to pressure on teachers, potential safety risks, and limitations in improving the quality of child care and education. Salaries, wages, and policies of preschool teachers are very low (Đỗ Như, 2023).
Types of preschools in Vietnam
Preschools in Vietnam consist of state-run and private nurseries and kindergartens. Nurseries, or crèches, cater to infants aged three months old to toddlers aged three years old. In Vietnam, children aged between three and six enter preschool. Approximately half the preschool system in Vietnam is made up of state-run kindergartens. There are also private kindergartens which use Vietnamese as the medium of instruction and international kindergartens, which can be found in big cities and use English as the medium of instruction.
Table 1. Vietnam General Data on Preschool Education from 2018-2020
| Year 2018-2019 | Year 2019-2020 | |||||||
| Total No. | Division | Total No. | Division | |||||
| Public | Private | Public | Private | |||||
| Types of schools | 15,463 | 12,441 | 3,022 | 15,033 | 12,098 | 2,935 | ||
| Kindergarten | 2,124 | 1,980 | 144 | 1,978 | 1,843 | 135 | ||
| Nursery | 13,339 | 10,461 | 2,878 | 13,055 | 10,255 | 2,800 | ||
| Classes | 151,017 | 121,945 | 29,072 | 151,984 | 120,523 | 31,461 | ||
| Pupils | 4,415,233 | 3,709,236 | 705,997 | 4,314,744 | 3,573,610 | 741,134 | ||
| Of whom | Female | 2,110,684 | 1,777,614 | 333,070 | 2,067,134 | 1,716,859 | 350,275 | |
| Ethnic minorities | 806,967 | 791,659 | 15,308 | 798,348 | 781,270 | 17,078 | ||
| 5-aged pupils | 1,211,651 | 1,064,700 | 146,951 | 1,171,627 | 1,019,240 | 152,387 | ||
| disabled | 5,757 | 5,228 | 529 | 5,414 | 4,914 | 500 | ||
| 262,101 | 205,081 | 57,020 | 268,290 | 214,372 | 53,918 | |||
| Of whom | female | 261,651 | 213,207 | 48,444 | 267,786 | 213,925 | 53,861 | |
| Ethnic minorities | 40,369 | 38,419 | 1,950 | 38,669 | 37,113 | 1,556 | ||
| Staff | 194,108 | 194,108 | 200,577 | 200,577 | ||||
| Achieved qualification standards and above | 261,457 | 204,365 | 57,092 | 267,430 | 213,624 | 53,806 | ||
| Average No. | Pupils/class | 29.24 | 30.42 | 24.28 | 28.39 | 29.65 | 23.56 | |
| Pupils/teacher | 16.85 | 18.09 | 12.38 | 16.08 | 16.67 | 13.75 | ||
| Teacher/class | 1.74 | 1.68 | 1.96 | 1.77 | 1.78 | 1.71 | ||
(Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training, General Statistic Data on Preschool Education, 2021)
An Giang province’s plan for preschool education development
An Giang provincial People Committee issued Decision No. 219/QD-UBND, dated February 11, 2022 to promulgate the Project “Developing the teaching workforce and educational managers to meet the requirements of implementing the General Education Program in 2018, period 2021-2025, orientating toward 2030 in An Giang province”. Then, An Giang People Committee issued Plan No. 206/KH-UBND, dated April 13, 2022 to perform the Project “the Development of Preschool Education in Phase II 2021-2025, orientating toward 2030” according to Decision No. 1677/QĐ-TTg of the Prime Minister of the Government in An Giang province”. Following are some achievements in period 2018-2020:
- Scale of school and class network
- The whole province currently has 197 public and private preschools, childcare/daycare centers, kindergartens (179 public schools; 18 private schools); there are 157 children groups; private independent kindergarten classes.
- Total number of groups and classes: 1,886, of which (children groups: 167, kindergarten classes: 1,719).
- Rate of mobilizing preschool children to go to class: infants and toddlers are 6.8% of the age population; kindergarten children 72.7% of the age population (of which 5-year-old kindergarten children 99.7%).
- Preschool children at public preschool units: 49,631/56,450 children (87.9% of the number of children completing their classes).
- Preschool children at private preschool units: 6,819/56,450 children (12.8% of the number of children competing classes).
- The percentage of preschool children attending 2 sessions/day and boarding is 79.09% (of which 41.84% are boarding children) (Nguyen Bach Thang; Huynh Thanh Tien; Le Thi Hong Hanh; Tran Thi Huyen; Chau Soryaly, 2023).
- Development of preschool education teaching workforce
- Total number of management staff, preschool owners, preschool teachers and staff are 4,637 people (including 460 managers; 153 facility owners; 2,970 teachers; 1,054 employees. Qualifications of preschool teachers reaching the degree standardization is 99.0%, of which above the standard is 72.6%. Table 1 below illustrates the figure of An Giang province’s preschool teaching workforce in 2022.
Table 2. An Giang Province’s preschool education teaching workforce in 2022
| Professional titles | ||||
| Management staff | Preschool units’ owners | Preschool Edu. teachers | Preschool Edu. staff | |
| Number | 460 | 153 | 2,970 | 1,054 |
| Total | 4,637 | |||
| Qualified Qualifications: 99% of which are above the standard (qualified qualification) is 72.6% (over college degrees) | ||||
| Notice: According to Vietnam Education Law 2019, preschool teachers who are 3-year college degree holders are considered to be qualified or reach standardization. | ||||
- The ratio of preschool teacher over a group or class is 2,962 teachers/1,886 groups and classes – ratio of 1.57 teachers/group and class (arranged according to the quota of day-boarding classes 2.0; 2 sessions/day 1.5 and 1 session 1.0 teachers /class), the average teacher rate increases by 10-15% each year.
- The professional standard assessment rate of preschool teachers is evaluated with 4 levels (Good – Rather Good – Acceptable – Unaccepted). The level of ‘Good’ and ‘Rather Good’is 97.67% (2,893/2,962), ‘Acceptable’ is 5.98% (177/2,962), and ‘Unacceptable’ is 0.51% (15/2,962).
- 100% of preschool teachers are fully and promptly supported with legally required policies such as salaries, position allowances, preferential policies for teachers working in extremely difficult socioeconomic areas and ethnic minority areas; social insurance, health insurance and working conditions. There are no teachers violating teachers’ ethics.
- Facilities and equipment
Classrooms: The province has 1,915 classrooms/1,886 groups and classes (of which, 1,578/1,915 [82.40%] durable classrooms; 247/1,915 [12.9%] semi-durable classrooms, and 111/1,915 [5.8%] temporary rooms). Most classrooms are considered to ensure one room per class for 5-year-old kindergarteners to study 2 sessions per day. 100% of schools and classrooms have toilets and clean water to meet the needs of caring for, nurturing and educating preschoolers.
- Results of building preschools meeting national standards and universal preschool education for 5-year-old kindergarten pupils
- Develop the quantity and improve the quality of preschools meeting national standards. The whole province currently has 84/179 preschools meeting national standards, accounting for 46.9%.
- Maintain and improve the quality of universal preschool education for 5-year-old children. Presently, the province has 11/11 district units (including 2 towns and 2 cities) to gain 100% of meeting the universal standards for this aged-children group. There are 100% of 5-year-old kindergarten classes attending 2 sessions per day and boarding classes. On average, the rate of mobilizing this age group to school to account for nearly 99% of this age population.
This province’s Department of Education and Training (DOET) stated a general comment that its preschool network is reasonably planned, which basically meets the needs of preschool children. The province’s educational sector has successfully implemented the goal of universal preschool education for 5-year-old children and improved the quality of care, nurturing and education of children. The team of preschool education managers and teachers meets standards and exceeds standards in terms of professional qualifications, meeting the requirements of nurturing, caring for and educating children (Nguyen Bach Thang; Huynh Thanh Tien; Le Thi Hong Hanh; Tran Thi Huyen; Chau Soryaly, 2023).
However, the province has also recognized several limitations and causes. The rate to mobilize children under 3 and 4 aged and boarding children is still low due to the limited conditions of facilities and classrooms. The provincial DOET estimated that the province needs a budget of 7,200 billion VND to construct facilities and teaching equipment (4,430 billion VND for basic construction; 2,740 billion VND for teaching equipment); however, this budget is huge for this poor province; the Central government has not supported yet, and it is hard for the province to mobilize such a huge socialized capital.
The ratio of preschool teachers per group and class has not met the maximum level according to Joint Circular No. 06/2015/TTLT-BGDDT-BNV dated March 16, 2015 of the MOET and the MHA on regulating the list employment position framework and norms for the number of employees working in public preschools. An Giang Province’s DOET stated that the number of payroll assigned to the education sector is a total number for the general education at all 3 educational levels (preschool education- primary education – lower and upper-secondary education); another reason is that the recruitment source of preschool teachers is not guaranteed. On the other hand, when recruiting, many students register to enroll in the same unit (with favorable conditions or close to home), but many other units in need do not have students applying.
Children groups and private preschool units are rapidly growing in number and mainly centered in favorable areas and residential areas. Most of the units take advantage of available housing premises to turn them into places to raise and care for children, so they have still limited playgrounds and also difficulties in staffing. Most of their teachers are working with temporary sign-contracts and work. Additionally, their teaching and supporting teams are not stable and their salaries are low, too. Therefore, it is hard for them to create favorable conditions to attract new, good teachers (An Giang Province People Committee, 2022).
- Literature Review
Preschool education provides a bridge between the caring and nurturing and learning experience children receives in a preschool and their continuing learning journey when they enter into a school setting later (All About Children, 2023). Pre-primary education quality is the foundation of a child’s journey. Every stage of education that follows relies on its success. However, there have been proven and lifelong benefits of the preschool education stage, more than 175 million children – nearly half of all preschool-age children globally – are not enrolled in the preschool education stage (UNICEF, 2023). So far, there have been several research trends in preschool education that have been reported. They include (1) Mindfulness, (2) Nature-based preschool education, (3) Social emotional learning, (4) Technology-based learning, (5) STEM/STEM education in preschool education, (6) Early language and literacy development, (7) Culturally responsive teaching, practices, and approaches, (8) Child-centered instruction, (9) Developmentally appropriate practice, and (10) Family engagement (Mc Callops, K; Karpyn, A.; Klein, J.; Jelenewicz, S., 2021). However, in the section of the literature review of this research, the research team just focuses on reviewing studies related to the shortage of preschool education teachers and policies and teacher professional development for the teaching force at this educational level.
2.1. The global shortage of preschool education teachers
Preschool education provides the highest return on investment of all education sub-sectors; however, it receives the smallest share of government expenditure compared to primary, secondary and post-secondary education. According to a report from the UNICEF (2023), less than 1% international aid to education currently support preschool education and less than 2% of education budgets are allocated to preschool education in low-income countries. UNICEF (2023) mentioned that efforts to scale up access to preschool education should not come at the expense of quality. Quality is the sum of many parts, including teachers, families, communities, resources, and curricula. Without adequate safeguards for quality, expansion efforts can intensify education inequities. It is only by investing in quality as education systems grow – not after – that governments can expand access and maintain quality. 9.3 millionnew teachers are needed to achieve universal pre-primary education. Only 50% of pre-primary teachers in low-income countries are trained. Only 5% of pre-primary teachers globally work in low-income countries (UNICEF, 2023).
Preschool education teachers and staff are significant contributors to the quality of preschool education care, development and education. The daily experiences of children in their early years, in particular the quality of care, depends on appropriate qualifications, training, knowledge and skills. Properly trained professional preschool education teachers and staff provide children with experiences that are nurturing, developmentally appropriate and responsive. Yet, while knowledge and skills are important, professionalism, attitudes towards children and the values they hold also affect the quality in their services. Therefore, both educational qualifications and professional commitments are essential to effectively provide warm, positive interactions and high-quality learning environments to optimally promote children’s learning and development. The continual upgrade of knowledge and skills for preschool education teachers and staff reflects their professional commitments to improve their capabilities and responsibilities as professional preschool education practitioners. Based on these vital contributions to the preschool education quality from the teachers and staff, in 2017 all ASEAN member States ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which has 54 articles covering four major categories of child rights, namely, the right to life, the right to protection, the right to development and the right to participation. Specifically, teachers and staff at this educational level are required to meet the following criteria:
- G1: Qualifications: Staff meet the qualifications in compliance with regulatory requirements of the ASEAN Member State.
- G2: Knowledge, skills and attitudes
- (G2.1) Respect children’s rights, demonstrate knowledge of child development in their planning and implementation of activities, communicate respectfully and effectively with the children, use positive, non-violent approaches to guide children’s behavior.
- (G2.2) Staff are flexible and innovative in modifying the planned lessons, routines and schedules on encountering unexpected situations and events.
- (G2.3) Staff encourage and support children’s learning and development through: asking open-ended questions, active listening, responding to their questions, providing opportunities for children to express their feelings and ideas, providing opportunities for active exploration and experimentation.
- G3: Professionalism
- (G3.1) Staff display professionalism in performing their duties and routines: respect all children and adults irrespective of gender, ethnicity, religion, position and socio-economic status, respect cultural and religious sensitivities
- (G3.2) Staff maintain strict confidentiality on all matters relating to children (except with parents‟ consent), families and colleagues
- (G3.3) All staff adhere to the guidelines of ethical conduct as staff members of the center
- (G3.4) Staff regularly upgrade their knowledge and skills.
(ASEAN, 2017)
2.2. Teacher professional development
Teacher professional development involves a continuing process of reflection, learning and action to further develop teachers’ knowledge and skills, leading to enhanced teaching practices positively impacting on students’ learning (Angus-Cole K. , 2021). Teacher professional development (PD) aims to improve teachers and their practice by adopting a holistic approach to developing the teacher as a professional practitioner. It is an ongoing process that supports continuous development of practice throughout the whole of a teacher’s career. Teaching practice comprises a range of areas, each of which can be targeted by PD activities. For example, in the TPACK model (Mishra, P., and Koehler, M. J., 2006), there are three overlapping areas that exist – Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge. PD activities could therefore specifically target subject content knowledge or instead focus on subject-specific pedagogical knowledge (the overlapping areas of Pedagogical and Content Knowledge) (Angus-Cole K. , 2021). Any activity that supports teachers to reflect, learn and then act to improve their practice can be classified as teacher PD. Such PD activities can occur in a face-to-face or online environment and some of their examples can be seen in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Micro to macro scale engagement with PD activities [adapted from Angus-Cole (2021, p. 1)]
Some common terms associated with PD activities include:
- Continuing professional development (CPD) reinforces the notion that professionals should always develop their expertise and teaching practice.
- Teacher (or professional) education emphasizes how engagement in educational experiences leads to learning, advancing a teacher’s knowledge, skills and characteristics and enhancing their practice.
- Training often develops operational features of a role, focusing on accomplishing one specific skill, such as understanding how to teach a syllabus or how to write learning objectives.
- Mentoring and coaching are slightly different from one another. Mentoring focuses on establishing a supportive relationship where a less experienced teacher benefits from the guidance of a more experienced colleague (a ‘critical friend’). Coaching is a technique that provides structured support to encourage a practitioner to review and develop their practice in relation to a specific skill or change in circumstance.
- A professional learning community/network brings practitioners together, enabling the sharing of ideas and experiences, as well as providing mutual support, either online or face to face.
- In action research teachers conduct research into their own practice with the aim of finding out how they might overcome a specific issue or problem associated with their practice.
2.3. Preschool education teacher professional development
It is likely to state that the preschool teacher professional development is a subordinate concept of teacher professional development and different researchers have different views on its the connotation (Qiu, Y. and Fu. T., 2019). Li (2010) stated that the professional development of preschool teachers is an activity procedure of continuous learning of professional knowledge, acquisition of professional skills and formation of good professional attitude by preschool teachers in order to achieve their professional development goals (Li, 2010) whereas Gu (2013) said that the professional growth of preschool teachers principally referred to the development process of preschool teachers from non-professionals to professionals and continuously improving their own professional quality (Zhang, S.Y. and Gu, R.F., 2013).
Teaching development
Professional development for teachers consists of self-directed or directed programs and activities designed to enhance their knowledge, skills, and expertise in their teaching practice. It has many forms, including ongoing classes, periodic seminars or workshops, in-class observations, collaborative learning sessions or support groups.
According to the Learning Policy Institute (2017), effective teacher professional development consists of the following elements (Darling-Hammond,L.; Hyler, M. E.; Garner, M.; Espinoza, D., 2017):
- Focuses on content: Successful teacher professional development concentrates on teaching strategies associated with specific curriculum content that supports teacher learning within their classroom contexts;
- Incorporates active learning utilizing adult learning theory: Teacher learning that offers hands-on experience designing and practicing new teaching strategies and skills, helps teachers overcome challenges in their day-to-day practice;
- Supports collaboration, typically in job-embedded contexts: Active learning — that creates space for teachers to share ideas and collaborate — often takes place in job-embedded contexts that relate new instructional strategies to teachers’ students and classrooms.
- Uses models and modelling of effective practice: Good teacher learning gives access to lesson plans, unit plans, sample student work, observations of peer teachers, and video or written cases of accomplished teaching;
- Provides coaching and expert support: School leaders should provide access to master teachers and experts who share their specialized knowledge, either as one-on-one coaches in the classroom, as facilitators of group workshops, or as remote mentors using technology to communicate with educators;
- Offers opportunities for feedback and reflection: To develop professionally, teachers must have time to think about, receive input on, and make changes to their practice by incorporating feedback; and finally,
- Maintains a sustained duration: an effective teacher development program provides adequate time (over weeks, months, and/or years) to learn, practice, implement, and reflect upon new strategies that facilitate changes in their practice.
(QualtricsXM, 2023)
2.4. Research gaps
So far there are numerous studies of early childhood education or preschool education. These studies can be classified into themes on mindfulness, nature-based preschool education, social emotional learning, technology-based learning, STEM/STEM education in preschool education, early language and literacy development, culturally responsive teaching, practices, and approaches, child-centered instruction, developmentally appropriate practice, and family engagement that are summarized by Mc Callops, et all. (2021). In Vietnam, there have been an increasing number of studies on preschool education since 2017 when Vietnam MOET issued Circular 01/VBBH-BGDĐT dated on 24/01/2017 on Vietnamese Preschool Education Curriculum (Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training, Circular 01/VBBH-BGDĐT dated on 24/01/2017 Issuance on Preschool Education Curriculum, 2017). Most studies on preschool education sector conducted in Vietnam have been focused on renovating early childhood education pedagogy (Dang, T. P., & Boyd, W. A., 2014), the history of Vietnam early childhood education (Boyd W., Dang T., 2017), the matter of quality in Vietnamese early childhood education studied by Hang (Hang D. T. T., 2019), and a review of the trends of early childhood education in Vietnam (Nguyen, H. T. T., Boyd. W., 2022). However, there have been still a limited number of studies on exploring the development of teaching workforce at preschool education sector and its sustainable development orientation toward 2030. Up to now, it is likely to confirm that the research team of this study can a research team to undertake this type of research in An Giang province, in the Mekong Delta region, – a ‘low-lying area on education’ in Vietnam, and it is in their expectation to provide some insights on this exploratory research to those interested into the research issue of the preschool teachers’ professional development activities. This study was in attempt to answer the three following research questions:
(1). What professional development activities have been implemented by the preschool education teachers in the three studied localities?
(2). What pressures and hardships have the preschool education teachers had when new educational policies have been in effect?
(3). What recommendations should be provided to help them overcome their pressures and hardships?
- Research Methodology
This study is an interpretive cross-case study to explore the professional development activities of the preschool teachers in a Mekong Delta province during the time that the education sector in Vietnam has had a plenty of positive changes for the country. Especially, there have been many updating policies for preschool education level. The research team of this study invited 233 preschool education teachers and six educational managers from the three locations (Chau Doc city, Cho Moi district, Thoai Son district) in An Giang province to join the study with the permission from their management agencies. The participants were provided a detailed description of the content and objectives of the study. As for the sensitive issue in working with human participants when they shared their personal viewpoints about professional development careers, the research team guaranteed to keep confidentiality about all information provided by the participants in this research as a matter of professional ethics in conducting studies related to human participants. The research team went to three localities’ education and training departments to ask permissions to invite all potential preschool education managers and teachers to join this research. For questionnaire surveys, the participants had to spend approprimately 30 minutes to complete their questionnaire survey. For interviews, it could take 60 minutes for the interview respondents to answer all the semi-structured deep interview questions. The survey data were input and analyzed with the SPSS software 20 while the interview data were manually grouped in themes to be analyzed and interpreted objectively by the research team. Table 3 shows the demographic data of the preschool teachers participating into this study.
Table 3. Demogratic characteristics of partitipating preschool teachers in the three locations.
| No. | Demographic characteristics of participating preschool teachers | Frequency | Percentage |
| 1 | Preschool types where teachers are teaching | 233 | 100.0 |
| Public | 197 | 84.5 | |
| Private | 36 | 15.5 | |
| 2 | Locations | 233 | 100 |
| Chau Doc City | 67 | 28.8 | |
| Thoai Son District | 99 | 42.5 | |
| Cho Moi District | 67 | 28.8 | |
| 3 | Age | 233 | 100 |
| Under 25 | 11 | 4.7 | |
| 25 to 30 | 57 | 24.5 | |
| 30 to 35 | 64 | 27.5 | |
| 36 to 45 | 78 | 33.5 | |
| Over 45 | 23 | 9.9 | |
| 4 | Gender | 233 | 100 |
| Male | 1 | 0.4 | |
| Female | 230 | 98.7 | |
| Other gender | 2 | 0.9 | |
| 5 | Maritial Status | 233 | 100 |
| Unmarried | 57 | 24.5 | |
| Married | 176 | 75.5 | |
| 6 | Years of working experience | 233 | 100 |
| Under 5 years | 43 | 18.5 | |
| 5 to 10 years | 51 | 21.9 | |
| 10 to 15 years | 51 | 21.9 | |
| 15 to 20 years | 63 | 27.0 | |
| Over 20 years | 25 | 10.7 | |
| 7 | Qualifications | 233 | 100 |
| Highschool Diploma | 10 | 4.3 | |
| Intermediate teacher education Diploma | 9 | 3.9 | |
| College Degree | 24 | 10.3 | |
| University degree | 188 | 80.7 | |
| Master Degree | 10 | 4.3 |
Notes: Intermediate teacher education diplomas include (1) preschool teachers who obtained lower secondary diplomas (Grade 9) would spend 3 years of study to achieve intermediate teacher education diplomas, and (2) preschool teachers who graduated highschool and received highschool diplomas (Grade 12) would spend 2 years of study to achieve intermediate teacher education diplomas. Another name for the 9th graders is called the 9 plus 3 intermediate diploma and the 12th gragers is called the 12 plus 2 intermediate diplomas.
Suprisingly, An Giang University in this province did cease the fostering course for the 9 plus 3 and 12 plus 2 presschool teachers since 2016. However, the data in Table 3 indicates that there are 19 preschool teachers in the total number of 233 preschool teachers in the three location in the province that are still unqualified, accounting for 8.2% (4.3% for the 9 plus 3 preschool teacher group and 3.9% for the 12 plus 2 preschool teacher group) in terms of qualification standardisation according to Vietnam Law 2019.
- Findings and Discussions
This section presents the findings collected from the two instrument collection tools (the questionnaire survey and deep structured interviews). The questionnaire survey findings is presented and discussed in Section 4.1, and the interview findings of this cross-study is analysized and discussed in Section 4.2.
4.1. Questionnaire survey findings and discussions
Table 4. Professional developement training courses participated by the preschool teachers in the three studied districts.
| No. | PD training course names | Districts | ||
| Chau Doc | Thoai Son | Cho Moi | ||
| 1 | Fostering courses according to professional title standards | 11.9% | 16.1% | 11.5% |
| 2 | Annual regular training | 9.8% | 15.1% | 11.3% |
| 3 | Fostering school development programs from the perpective of comprehensive, integrated and child-centered education | 9.1% | 13.3% | 11.0% |
| 4 | Fostering skills in organizing professional activities and developing professional career competence | 9.3% | 12.9% | 9.2% |
| 5 | Fostering skills to prepare preschool children to learn to read and write in the direction of interconnection with Grade 1 curriculum | 7.4% | 12.0% | 6.1% |
| 6 | Fostering skills in making toys and designing educational environments suitable with the local cultural context | 6.4% | 13.3% | 5.9% |
| 7 | Fostering school counsuling skills | 1.1% | 0.9% | 2.3% |
| 8 | Fostering preschool teaching skills according to the local context | 5.7% | 1.3% | 3.6% |
| 9 | Fostering a foreign language (English) | 7.0% | 2.1% | 6.3% |
| 10 | IT application in preschool teaching | 11.0% | 5.6% | 9.2% |
| 11 | Organizing experiential activities for children in kindergartens | 5.2% | 0.1% | 8.5% |
| 12 | Other training courses | 5.2% | 0.1% | 8.5% |
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% | |
The data from Table 4 shows that the percentage of preschool teachers in Thoai Son district joining the training courses No. 1-6 is higher than the percentage of the preschool teachers in the two other location. However, the percentages of preschool teachers joining in No. 7-10 training courses in Chau Doc city and Cho Moi district are higher than that in Thoai Son District. These figures can mean that the educational management board and the preschool teachers ithemselves n Chau Doc and Cho Moi were highly centering on developing their English language competence and IT skills and competence to apply in teaching to meet the requirement of new teaching curriculum at this education level. It is remarked that, for No.11-12 training courses, the percentage of preschool teachers in Thoai Son District participating in the two courses was very low (0,1%).
Table 5. Training courses participated by the preschool teachers to improve themselve their capacities in organizing activities to nurture, care for and teach children to meet the new updating preschool education program year 2022[5]
| No. | PD and capacity training course names | Percentage of preschool teacher participation in three districts | |||||
| YES | NO | ||||||
| Chau Doc | Thoai Son | Cho Moi | Chau Doc | Thoai Son | Cho Moi | ||
| 1 | Fostering the capacity to develop preschool programs from the perpective of comprehensive, integrated and child-centered education | 95.5% | 88.9% | 79.1% | 4.5% | 11.1% | 20.9% |
| 2 | Fostering the capacity to build and use the toolkit to evaluate the implementation of the preschool education programs in kindegardens | 86.6% | 85.9% | 64.2% | 13.4% | 14.1% | 35.8% |
| 3 | Fostering and strengthening inter-sectoral and family coordination to improve the quality of nurturing, caring for and educating children in the epidemic time | 91.0% | 86.9% | 80.6% | 9.0% | 13.1% | 19.4% |
| 4 | Fostering the capacity to build school safety, prevent accidents, and injuries and prevent common diseases and epidemics in kindegartens | 74.6% | 52.5% | 71.6% | 25.4% | 47.5% | 28.4% |
| 5 | Fostering and improving the capacity to apply IT in managing, nurturing, caring for and educating preschool children | 52.2% | 24.2% | 55.2% | 47.8% | 75.8% | 44.8% |
| 6 | Fostering the capacity of preschool skills education for disabled children to learn inclusively at kindegartens | 70.1% | 39.4% | 76.1% | 29.9% | 60.6% | 23.9% |
| 7 | Fostering skills in organizing professional activities and developing professional career capacity | 71.6% | 80.8% | 79.1% | 28.4% | 19.2% | 20.9% |
| 8 | Fostering and improving the quality of social skills education for preschool children. | 64.2% | 47.5% | 49.3% | 35.8% | 52.5% | 50.7% |
| 9 | Soft skills training for preschool teachers | 77.6% | 25.3% | 41.8% | 22.4% | 74.7% | 58.2% |
| 10 | Fostering preschool education methods according to new trends | 89.6% | 20.2% | 50.7% | 10.4% | 79.8% | 49.3% |
| 11 | Fostering skills in organizing experiential activities and applying STEAM in preschool teaching | 28.3% | 31.3% | 37.3% | 71.7% | 68.7% | 62.7% |
| 12 | Other training courses | 10.0% | 23.2% | 31.3% | 90.0% | 76.8% | 68.7% |
After 2021, Vietnam like many nations in the world were fallen into a severely global Covid 19 Pandemics. Vietnam’s education sector highly focused on teaching and protecting health for teachers and students, especially for low leveled-education like preschool education level. Therefore, there were more training courses related to preventing diseases causing by Covid 19 viruses which were organised nationwide and, as a result, such fostering and training workshops were also orgainised in An Giang province. Overall, Table 5 illustrates that more preschool teachers from Chau Doc city and Thoai Son district took part into all offical training course in the list in 2022 than the teachers in Cho Moi district. Howerver, fewer preschool tearchers from Chau Doc city joined the training course No. 11 “Fostering skills in organizing experiential activities and applying STEAM in preschool teaching” and No. 12 “other training courses (which is meant unofficial training courses or self-supported learning training courses”. This could be explained that they were not eager enough to learn the application of STEAM education in their teaching work and to develop their self-professional development activities supported by their own finance. Secondly, the percentage of the preschool teachers in Cho Moi district joining such training courses was the lowest. The teachers in this district, however, joined in the two final training courses (No.11 and No.12) with little higher percentages (37.3% and 31.3% respectively) in comparison with that in other locations. noticiably, it seems that the percentage of presschool teachers from Thoai Son district joining the training course No. 5 “IT skills applied in managing, nurturing, caring for and educating preschool children was lower. All in all, the percentage of the preschool teachers in the three locations that joined such official training courses organised by the management agency was acceptable in difficulty conditions to organise such training courses.
4.2. Interview Findings and discussions
The interview findings from the six educational managers of the three districts show the same ideas that they only created as much as possible about the time for preschool teachers to learn and join short training PD courses organised by the provincial department of education and training. For improving English and IT competence and upgrading their professional degrees, the preschool teachers had to pay the tuition fees by themselves while their salaries were very limited and even lowest in comparison with higher education-level teachers. They added that it was because their schools did not have budgets to support their teachers to study higher. For instance, one preschool educational manager from a kindergarten of Thoai Son District stated
“Chủ yếu nhà trường chỉ tạo điều kiện về thời gian để học nâng chuẩn và tham gia bồi dưỡng chuyên đề; còn lại việc học tin học, ngoại ngữ và nâng cao trình độ chuyên môn là giáo viên tự túc chi phí.”
(The school only creates the conditions of time for teachers to study for upgrading their professional standardization degrees and joining PD fostering courses; the tuition fees of studying IT, English and upgrading their professional standardization degrees will be paid by themselves).
From the interview findings, the research team found that the preschool educational managers from the three districts in this study revealed that their teaching staff had great hardships and pressure in their teaching jobs because they received very limited salaries. Additionally, they had pressures of standardizing their professional degrees according to Vietnam Law 2019. Furthermore, they had to look after and teach a bigger number of children than the required class zize. Many classes had over 35 children but the regular class number is 30 children. Consequently, they had limited time for their own self-learning of professional development, designing their teaching visual aids. They did not have much much to pay for learning English and IT courses as required and unfortunately, their school of course did not pay for their study of English and IT courses as well. Therefore, they were attempting to find various part-time jobs to do to provide financial supports for themselves and their families. Additionally, many preschool teachers in this study were married and had small children looked after as well. Therefore, they themselves revealed that they had great burdens of finance to support their families and limited time to take care for their children. In other words, they had difficulties to balance their time of work and family. In the time of interview taking place in the three districts in this study, the research team found that two interviewees even wanted to quit their teaching jobs because of low salaries but great pressure of teaching work. In conclusion, the interview results of the study indicated that all the the interviewees expressed that they themselves and their teaching staff have had a great deal of hardship, burdens, and pressures in their teaching work, mastery of professional development activities and time-care for their families.
- Conclusions and recommendations
Based on the research findings, the authors of this study could make some conclusions. All the preschool education teachers in the study sharpened their professional knowledge from formal learning opportunies. This includes going back to school with their own financial budgets and attending formal conferences and seminars organised by the provincial-level educational management agent by their schools’ budgets. They went back to school to complete or upgrade degrees to meet the required standardisation of qualifications according to the Vietnam Education Law 2019. Additionally, some preschool managers attended postgraduate courses to develop their management and leadership skills for their current management positions. However, they had mostly no informal learning opportunies for their professional development activities such as finding a mentor, studying independently, and attending on-demand online PD courses. For pressures and hardships that the preschool education teachers in this study have had, they included great hardship, burdens, and pressures in their teaching work, mastery of professional development activities and time-care for their families.
From the conclusions of this research, the authors susgested considerable recommendations to help preschools and their teachers overcome difficulties. Firstly, the managers of the preschools should include their teachers in decision making. When they are not included in decisions that impact their day-to-day routines, they do not feel valued, and then they will not stick around. Therefore, reliable ways to ensure teachers feel heard are inviting their input, giving them options, and including them in the decisions that affect their ability to do their job. Secondly, the school managers should trust their teachers. Once a teacher has been hired and trained, they need time and space to establish themselves in their working environments. Believing teachers can handle themselves professionally and appropriately helps build confidence and trust, two key elements to any successful working relationship. Thirdly, there should be frequently arrivals of expressing appreciation in preschools. It is believed by Pennsylvania early childhood educator, Jan Hoculock, as one of the most important steps of improving teacher retention. This is seen as simple thankful words or acknowledgement of their jobs well done. Other ideas for expressing gratitude to hardworking teachers are celebrating teaching milestones, recognizing a professional achievement, and simply being available when needed. Fourthly, there also should be in a great need of high payments for teachers. Recruiting and retaining a diverse, well-qualified, and stable workforce to support children and their families requires that it should address the fact that teachers are underpaid and under-appreciated. offering adequate compensation is certainly a great place to start and encourage them to retain their current workplaces. Fifthly, teachers’ work should be highly respected. Teaching little ones is physically, emotionally, and mentally demanding. Educational managers respecting their staff is meant to acknowledge the demands by actively listening to concerns and ideas, asking how they can help, and not making a habit of regularly interrupting instructional time. Sixthly, there is a must to have a significant investment in teachers and children at kindergartens by providing relevant, valuable training to reinforce the teachers’ competence and to offer opportunities for their professional growth. This can be a good way to retain teachers’ feets to energetically work for the school. Last but not least, the school leaders need to cultivate a collaborative work environment by creating a sense of belonging, considered as a powerful motivator for employees in general and preschool teachers to remain at their jobs. According to a 2023 Work in America Survey, “connection and community, including belonging, is one of five workplace essentials identified by the U.S. surgeon general for workers’ psychological health and well-being.” Workplaces that encourage collaboration among staff generally have employees with higher job satisfaction rates. Those who are content tend to stay put (Jankowski, 2024).
In summary, the study is ended with some conclusions withdrawn from the research findings. From this, the authors suggest some recommendations for preschool education leaders and teachers to take into consideration for applying into their workplaces in the studied locations and in a wider community of An Giang province’s education sector subtly and effectively. Also, from this study, the authors are in great hope that we can provide some insights into the realities of preschool teacher professional development in three locations of An Giang province, one of the provinces lying in the low and disadvantaged area of education in Vietnam, for responsible educators and educational administrators to consider in order that they can give hands in the right time to support and promote the preschool teaching force here to maintain and develop sustainably in coming years.
Acknowledgements:
This Research is funded by Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) under Grant Number B2023-16-04.
References
All About Children. (2023). How Early Childhood Education is Important. (N. U. All About Children Head Office, Producer) Retrieved from All About Children: https://allaboutchildren.co.uk/news/how-early-childhood-education-is-important/
An Giang Province People Committee. (2022). Đề án “Phát triển Giáo dục mầm non giai đoạn II 2021-2015, Định hướng đến năm 2030” theo QĐ 1667/QĐ TTg tại tỉnh An Giang [ Project Plan “Development of Preschool Education in Phase II 2021-2025 and Orientation toward 2030” in An Giang Province. An Giang: An Giang Province People Committee.
An Giang Provincial People Committee. (2022). QĐ Số 219/QĐ-UBND [Propject: Development of “Teaching Workforce and Educational Managers to meet the requirement of the New National General Education 2018 in Phase 2021-2025 and Orientation toward 2030” in An Giang Province. An Giang: An Giang Provincial People Committee.
Angus-Cole, K. (2021). Education Brief: Teacher professional development. Cambrige Assessment International Education.
Angus-Cole, K. (2021). Education Brief: Teacher professional development. Cambridge Assessment International Education.
ASEAN. (2017). ASEAN Early Childhood Care, Development and Education Quality Standards. Retrieved from https://asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ASEAN-Early-Childhood-Care-Development-and-Education-Quality-Standards-2017.pdf
Boyd W., Dang T. (2017). Early childhood education in Vietnam: history and evaluation of its policies. In E. P. Li H., Early childhood education policies in Asia: advances in theory and practice (pp. 263-284). Singapore: Springer.
Dang, T. P., & Boyd, W. A. (2014). Renovating early childhood education pedagogy: A case study in Vietnam. International Journal of Early Years Education, 22(2), 184-196. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2014.909306
Darling-Hammond,L.; Hyler, M. E.; Garner, M.; Espinoza, D. (2017). Effective Teacher Professional Development. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED606741.pdf
Đỗ Như. (2023). Cả nước thiếu 51.300 giáo viên mầm non [The Country lacks 51,300 preschool teachers]. VnEconomy. Retrieved from https://vneconomy.vn/ca-nuoc-thieu-51-300-giao-vien-mam-non.htm
Dustmann, C.; Fitzenberger, B.; Machin, S. (2008). The economics of education and training. Springer. doi: ISBN 978-3-7908-2021-8
Hang D. T. T. (2019). Quality matters in Vietnamese early childhood education: the situation and the challenge. Annu Res Early Childhood, 41, 15-21.
Jankowski, S. (2024, May 08). 9 Ways to Improve Teacher Retention at Your Preschool. Retrieved from Highlight Early Learning: https://earlylearning.highlights.com/blogs/the-confident-classroom/9-ways-to-improve-teacher-retention-at-your-preschool
Li, Y. J. (2010). Professional Development of Preschool Teachers from the Perspective of Constructivism. Li, Y.J. (2010) Professional Development of Preschool Teachers from the Perspec, 4, 93-94.
Mc Callops, K; Karpyn, A.; Klein, J.; Jelenewicz, S. (2021). Ten Current Trends in Early Childhood Education: Literature Review and Resources for Practicioners. Center for Research in Education & Social Policy, University of Delaware.
Mishra, P., and Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A new framework for teacher knowledge: A new framework for teacher knowledge. In Teacher College Record (Vol. 108, pp. 1017-1054).
Nguyen Bach Thang; Huynh Thanh Tien; Le Thi Hong Hanh; Tran Thi Huyen; Chau Soryaly. (2023). An investigation into the development of preschool education teachers in An Giang province, Vietnam. Early Childhood Education Quarterly, 66(1). Retrieved from https://www.doi-i.org/journals/view/525
Nguyen, H. T. T., Boyd. W. (2022). Early Childhood Education in Vietnam. In L. H. Symaco, International Handbook on Education in South East Asia (pp. 1-21). Singapore: Springer Nature. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8136-3_35-1
Phan, H. T. (2012). Current curriculum and pedagogy reform in Vietnamese Early Childhood Education: A socio-historic interpretation. In P. W. Chan, Asia Pacific Education, Diversity, Challenges and Changes. Australia: Monash University Publish.
Qiu, Y. and Fu. T. (2019). Research Review on Professional Development of Preschool Teachers in China. Open Access Library Journal. doi:http//doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1105643
QualtricsXM. (2023). Teacher Development: What is it and Why is it important? Experience Management. Retrieved from https://www.qualtrics.com/au/experience-management/industry/teacher-development/
The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). (2018). State Preschool Yearbook 2017. (A. H. Friedman-Krauss, W. S. Barnett, G. Weisenfeld, R. Kasmin, N. DiCrecchio, & M. Horowitz, Eds.) Rutgers.
Thuvienphapluat [Law Library]. (2023). Bảng lương giáo viên các cấp năm 2023 (Table of Salary for Teachers at different education levels). Retrieved from https://thuvienphapluat.vn/banan/tin-tuc/bang-luong-giao-vien-cac-cap-nam-2023-7487
UNICEF. (2023). Early childhood education: Every child deserves access to quality early childhood education. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/education/early-childhood-education
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2019). A World Ready to Learn: Prioritizing quality early childhood education (Advocacy Brief). New York: UNICEF. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/media/57931/file/A-world-ready-to-learn-advocacy-brief-2019.pdf
Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training. (2006). Decision about promulgation a pilot project that uses new early childhood education curriculum. Ha Noi: Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training.
Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training. (2017). Circular 01/VBBH-BGDĐT dated on 24/01/2017 Issuance on Preschool Education Curriculum. Ha Noi: Ministry of Education and Training. Retrieved from https://thuvienphapluat.vn/van-ban/giao-duc/Van-ban-hop-nhat-01-VBHN-BGDDT-Thong-tu-Chuong-trinh-giao-duc-mam-non-2017-342703.aspx
Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training. (2021). General Statistic Data on Preschool Education. Retrieved from Số liệu thống kê Giáo dục mầm non năm 2019 – 2020 [Statistic Data on Preschool Education Year 2019-2020]: https://moet.gov.vn/thong-ke/Pages/thong-ke-giao-duc-mam-non.aspx?ItemID=7385
Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training Vietnam. (2009). Thông tư 17/BGDĐT ngày 25/7/2009 “Chương trình Giáo dục Mầm non” [Circular 17/BGDĐT dated on 25/7/2009 “Preschool Program” . Ha Noi: Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training Vietnam. Retrieved from https://luatvietnam.vn/giao-duc/thong-tu-17-2009-tt-bgddt-bo-giao-duc-va-dao
Vietnam MOET. (2006). Quyết định Ban hành chương trình thí điểm giáo dục mầm [Decision about promulgation a pilot project that uses new early childhood education curriculum]. Ha Noi: Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training.
Vietnam MOET. (2013). Decision 1215/MOET dated 4/4/2013 Promulgating the Action Program to implement the Vietnam Education Development Strategy 2011-2020. Ha Noi: Ministry of Education and Training.
Vietnam MOET. (2017). Thông tư 01/VBBH-BGDĐT ngày 24/01/2017 Ban hành Chương trình Giáo dục mầm non [Circular 01/VBBH-BGDĐT dated on 24/01/2017 Issuance on Preschool Education Curriculum]. Ha Noi: Ministry of Education and Training. Retrieved from https://thuvienphapluat.vn/van-ban/giao-duc/Van-ban-hop-nhat-01-VBHN-BGDDT-Thong-tu-Chuong-trinh-giao-duc-mam-non-2017-342703.aspx
Vietnam MOET. (2020). General Number of Preschool Education in the school year 2019-2020. Ha Noi.
Vietnam MOET&MHA. (2015). THÔNG TƯ LIÊN TỊCH: Quy định về danh mục khung vị trí việc làm và định mức số lượng người làm việc trong các cơ sở GDMN công lập [JOINT CIRCULAR: Rgulations on the framework list of employment positions and norms for the number of people working. Ha Noi.
Vietnam National Assembly (VNA). (2019). Luật số: 43/2019/QH14: Luật Giáo Dục [Law No.: 43/2019/QH14: Education Law]. Ha Noi: Vietnam National Assembly.
Vĩnh Hà. (2022). Khẩn trương tuyển 27.850 giáo viên mầm non, phổ thông trong năm học tới [Urgently recruit 27,850 preschool and high school teachers in the next school year]. Tuoitre Online. Retrieved from https://tuoitre.vn/khan-truong-tuyen-27-850-giao-vien-mam-non-pho-thong-trong-nam-hoc-toi-20220802115722736.htm#:~:text
Zhang, S.Y. and Gu, R.F. (2013). Study on Professional Stages of Kindergarten Teachers from the Perspective of Teachers’ Concerns. Studies in Early Childhood Education, 4, 57-63.
[1] Head of Educational Psychology Department, An Giang University-VNUHCM; email: nbthang@agu.edu.vn
[2](*) English Lecturer of Foreign Languages Faculty , An Giang University-VNUHCM; email: httien@agu.edu.vn and httien@vnuhcm.edu.vn; the corresponding Author; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3389-9724
[3] Staff of Student Affairs Office, An Giang University-VNUHCM ; lthhanh@agu.edu.vn
[4] Lecturer of the Educational Psychology Department, An Giang University-VNUHCM; tthuyen@agu.edu.vn
[5] The training courses were organized nationwide according to Circular No. 51/2020/TT-BGDĐT on the date of 31/12/2020