On December 28, 2020, Wise Consulting Finland and two partners, Ms. Saga Arola of Playvation Ltd and Ms. Hoang Thuc Nhi of University of Eastern Finland, joined the international conference "Early childhood education in the age of technology: Opportunities and Challenges" as guest speakers. This was the first international conference on educational sciences organized by VNU University of Education, Vietnam National University, which attracted nearly 200 teachers, researchers and educational experts from Finland, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam.
Source: education.vnu.edu.vn
The conference received over 200 educators, teachers and experts in the field of education from Vietnam, Finland, Japan and South Korea. International speakers joined the conference through Zoom connection. The conference triggered a supportive platform for researches, experts, teachers and students to exchange their latest research, to introduce training models and to propose solutions to reform early childhood education in Vietnam.
Photo: Vice Rector Nguyen Duc Huy, VNU University of Education, Vietnam National University
Source: education.vnu.edu.vn
Vice Rector of VNU University of Education, Associate Proffessor Nguyen Duc Huy, started the day with his sound opening remark that emphasized the importance of a child’s early years as it marks a foundation for his life-long mental, physical, cultural and intellectual development. In the age of Industrial Revolution 4.0 and when individualized and life-long learning is truly cared, it is more and more important to select the appropriate knowledge, safe teaching tools and pedagogies for children at their early ages.
Next, Assoc. Professor Tran Thanh Nam presented a vision on early childhood education in Vietnam toward 2030. According to him, neuroscientists and educators have shared a belief that early life experiences have positively influenced brain development and learning capacity in adulthood. The child’s brain from infancy to 5 years old is the most flexible and adaptable to all experiences and interactions with the surrounding environment. At this stage, the children at this stage have more than twice as many neural connections as adults. The interaction with parents, other adults and peers will lay a strong foundation for future learning. That is why fostering and developing the social, emotional, cognitive and linguistic capacity in the early years sessential.
Following these two remarks were 10 presentations by both national and international speakers. The morning session gathers talks on “Early childhood education: from theory to practice” and the afternoon one “Innovative pedagogies and their applications in early childhood education”.
Starting the afternoon session, Saga Arola introduced Moomin Language School and the research conducted in Tampere in 2018/2019. Moomin Language School is a certified product by Education Alliance Finland which applies flipped learning method and digital tools to teach children aged 3-8 English language from zero to A2 level based on CEFR frame. PhD Hoang Thuc Nhi continued the conference with her talk on “Teaching quality in kindergartens in Vietnam and other countries”. She presented the most popular evaluation tool nowadays in the world. Then Ms. Dieu Nguyen, Chief Representative of WCF Office in Vietnam, delivered an overview of ICT integration in Finnish early childhood education. It mentioned policies, current applications, and usages of ICT in Finnish kindergarten and most recognized EdTech solutions. Together, these three presentations shed light on the early childhood education landscape in Finland.
Dieu Nguyen, Wise Consulting Finland talking about ICT in early childhood education in Finland