TRAINING RESPONSIVE CAREGIVING SKILLS FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION STUDENTS THROUGH AN OBSERVATION-REFLECTION CYCLE: QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Main Article Content
Abstract
Responsive caregiving requires early childhood teachers to identify children’s signals and needs and provide appropriate responses. This study examined the effectiveness of a structured five-stage training cycle: observation, needs identification, responsive feedback, reflection, and activity adjustment. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design with a comparison group was conducted over eight weeks with 84 third-year Early Childhood Education students at Saigon University during practicum in three kindergartens. Findings showed that the experimental group had a significantly greater improvement in responsive caregiving skills toward individual children than the comparison group (p < .001; d = 0.825). Observed professional practice also showed a significant improvement (p < .001; d = 1.169), while reflective practice improved significantly (p = .014; d = 0.562). No significant between-group difference was found in group-level responsive caregiving skills (p = .450). The findings indicate that the training cycle is effective in developing specific aspects of responsive caregiving skills, while longer and more integrated training may be needed to strengthen responsiveness at the group level
Keywords
responsive caregiving, early childhood education, pre-service teachers, practicum, reflection, quasi-experiment
Article Details
References
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