In Global Nexus the adult's role can be summed up in four moves: observe before acting, ask questions that invite thinking, wait long enough for children to try, and extend their play or thinking with just enough support. Adults still lead directly when safety, routines or a new skill require it, but the default stance is close attention followed by a measured response. In a bilingual team the four moves are shared between a Vietnamese teacher and an English-speaking colleague, each using their language for real purposes rather than translating for each other.
A curriculum's principles mean little until they show up in what adults do minute by minute. This article describes the four moves, the research traditions that inform them, the situations in which a more directive approach is right, and how co-teaching teams divide the work.
Why the adult's role defines the curriculum
Two classrooms can have identical materials, timetables and themes and still offer children entirely different experiences. The difference lies in how adults behave: whether they talk at children or with them, whether they rescue children from every difficulty or let them struggle productively, whether they notice what a child is trying to do or impose what they think the child should be doing.
Research on early-years quality keeps returning to this point. The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education project in England, which followed thousands of children from the late 1990s, found that the most effective settings showed more episodes of what the researchers called sustained shared thinking: adults and children working together to solve a problem, clarify a concept or extend a narrative, with both contributing to the thinking. Such episodes depend on adults who listen carefully and respond thoughtfully, not on any particular set of materials.
Global Nexus names its four moves to give teachers a shared vocabulary for this work. The moves are simple to state and difficult to practise, especially for teachers trained to lead from the front or for those who interpret child-centred practice as standing back entirely.
The four moves are not a sequence to be run through mechanically. In a real moment a teacher may observe, extend, observe again and ask a question, or may wait for a long time and then decide not to intervene at all. The value of naming them is that a teacher reflecting on an interaction afterwards, or a colleague giving feedback, can say precisely which move was missing or rushed. 'I extended before I had watched long enough' is a far more useful reflection than 'it did not go well'.
Observe: look before you act
The first move is to watch before intervening. When an adult approaches a child who is absorbed in an activity, the instinct is often to say something: praise, a question, a suggestion. Global Nexus asks teachers to pause first and work out what the child is actually doing. A child pouring water from one container to another might be exploring volume, practising control, enjoying the sound or waiting for a friend. The right response depends on which.
Observation also has a longer-term purpose. Teachers record short notes about what they see, building the development record organised by the six dimensions. Over days and weeks, these notes reveal patterns: a child who always chooses the same corner, a child who speaks English with one adult but not another, a child whose play has become more complex. Planning grows from these patterns.
Good observation is specific and descriptive. 'She enjoyed the blocks' says little; 'she built a tower, watched it fall, then widened the base and tried again three times' says a lot. Teachers new to the curriculum often need practice to move from general impressions to specific notes, and teams that share and discuss observations improve faster than those that write alone. Observation also has to fit the day: a teacher with a group of toddlers cannot write long notes, so many teams use brief jottings or photographs during the session and fill in a sentence or two at rest time.
Ask: questions that invite thinking
The second move concerns questions. Many questions adults ask young children are tests: what colour is this, how many are there, what is this called in English. These have their place but they invite children to retrieve known answers, not to think. Global Nexus encourages more open questions, ones with many possible answers or none known in advance: what do you think will happen, how could we find out, why do you think it fell, what else could we use.
Open questions work in both languages. In an English-led activity, a teacher might ask a child what they think will happen if the ramp is made steeper, accepting an answer in Vietnamese or a gesture if the child cannot yet say it in English, and then offering the English words back. The aim is to keep the thinking going; the language can catch up.
Questions should also be sparing. A teacher who asks a question every few seconds turns play into an interrogation. Often a comment works better than a question: 'you made it taller this time' invites a child to explain without demanding an answer. Teachers learn to balance questions, comments and silence according to the child and the moment.
The age of the child changes the kind of question that helps. With toddlers, questions are often replaced by narration and simple choices, such as offering two cups and naming them. With three-year-olds, short what and where questions tied to what the child is holding work well. By five, children can handle questions about cause, prediction and comparison, and they enjoy being asked how they would explain their idea to someone who was not there.
Wait: time to try and think
The third move is the hardest for many adults: waiting. Research on classroom questioning by Mary Budd Rowe in the 1970s found that teachers typically waited only a second or so for an answer before rephrasing, answering themselves or moving on, and that when they waited longer, students gave longer, more thoughtful answers and more of them took part. Although that research was conducted with older children, the principle applies with even more force to young children, who need time to process language, especially in their second language.
Waiting also applies to action. When a child is struggling to fit a puzzle piece, zip a jacket or resolve a disagreement, the urge to step in is strong. Global Nexus asks teachers to wait long enough for the child to try, and sometimes to fail and try again, before offering help. The struggle is often where the learning happens, and a child who succeeds after effort gains confidence that rescue cannot give.
Waiting is not neglect. Teachers wait attentively, watching for signs that frustration is becoming distress or that safety is at risk. The skill is in judging when productive struggle has turned unproductive, and that judgement improves with experience and with knowledge of the individual child. A shy child new to the class may need help sooner than a confident one who has met the same difficulty before, and a good teacher adjusts her waiting to the child rather than to a rule.
Extend: just enough support
The fourth move is to extend children's play or thinking. After observing, asking and waiting, the adult offers something that takes the child a step further: a new material, a suggestion, a piece of information, a demonstration, a connection to something the child did before. The idea draws on Lev Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, the space between what a child can do alone and what they can do with help, and on the image of scaffolding introduced by David Wood, Jerome Bruner and Gail Ross in 1976 to describe how adults support a learner and then withdraw as the learner becomes capable.
Extension should be just enough. Too little and the child stays where they are; too much and the adult takes over. A teacher who sees a child struggling to make a block bridge stand might ask what is happening at the base, offer a wider block, or show briefly how a support can help, then step back. She does not build the bridge.
Extension also connects play to the curriculum. A teacher who knows the weekly thread and the child's development record can choose extensions that serve both: adding measuring tools to a building activity to support thinking, introducing a new English word that the child needs for their play, or inviting another child to join to support cooperation.
One situation, two responses
The difference the four moves make is easiest to see in a single moment. The example below is illustrative.
| Moment | A rushed response | A Global Nexus response |
|---|---|---|
| A four-year-old's sand tower keeps collapsing | The teacher says 'add water' and pats the sand into shape for the child | The teacher watches, then comments 'it keeps falling down', waits, and asks what the child thinks is different about the sand that stays up |
| The child says the wet part stays up | The teacher praises the answer and moves on | The teacher asks how they could make more of the sand like that and waits while the child tries |
| The child succeeds and calls a friend | The teacher praises the tower | The teacher asks the child to explain to the friend how they did it, offering the words 'wet' and 'dry' in English as the child explains in Vietnamese |
Both responses are kind, and in a busy room the first is understandable. The second takes perhaps a minute longer, yet it leaves the child with a discovery of their own, language attached to it, and the experience of teaching a friend. Over a year, the accumulation of such moments is a large part of what the curriculum offers.
When the adult should lead, and how co-teachers share the role
The four moves are the default, not the only option. Some situations call for direct teaching. Safety rules must be taught clearly and enforced consistently. Routines such as handwashing are learned best through clear demonstration and repetition. New skills, such as using scissors safely or a new song, may need explicit instruction before children can explore them independently. Leading directly in these cases is part of the curriculum, not a departure from it.
In Global Nexus classrooms, the adult role is usually shared between a Vietnamese teacher and an English-speaking colleague. The four moves apply to both, but teams agree how to divide the work. One adult may lead a group activity while the other observes and records; roles may switch during the day. Each adult uses their language for real purposes, rather than one speaking and the other translating, so that children hear two people thinking in two languages.
Co-teaching works best when the team plans and reflects together. Shared planning makes clear who is observing whom and which language leads each part of the day. Shared reflection lets the team compare what each adult saw and build a fuller picture of each child. Teams that work this way find that the four moves become a common language for discussing their practice, which is perhaps their greatest value.
Câu hỏi thường gặp
What does sustained shared thinking mean?
It is a term from the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education research in England. It describes episodes in which an adult and child work together intellectually to solve a problem, clarify an idea or extend a story, with both contributing to the thinking rather than the adult simply instructing.
Does the Global Nexus approach mean teachers never give direct instruction?
No. Teachers lead directly when safety, routines or new skills require it. The four moves of observing, asking, waiting and extending are the default stance during play and projects, but direct teaching remains part of the curriculum.
How long should a teacher wait before helping a child?
There is no fixed time. Teachers wait long enough for the child to try and think, watching for signs that frustration is turning into distress or that safety is at risk. Knowledge of the individual child guides the judgement.
What is scaffolding in early childhood education?
Scaffolding, a term introduced by Wood, Bruner and Ross in 1976, describes the support an adult gives a learner to do something they could not do alone, gradually withdrawn as the learner becomes capable. It is closely linked to Vygotsky's zone of proximal development.
How do Vietnamese and international teachers share the adult role?
They plan together, agree which language leads each part of the day, and divide roles such as leading and observing. Each uses their own language for real communication rather than translating, so children experience two adults thinking in two languages.
Can these four moves be learned by teachers trained in more formal systems?
Yes, although it takes practice and support. Teachers often find waiting and asking open questions the hardest moves. Observation, team reflection and coaching from experienced colleagues help teachers adjust their habits over time.