Fair observation means recording what each child actually does, without letting expectations, labels or comparisons with other children shape what the adult sees. In practice it rests on a few habits: separating description from interpretation, observing every child deliberately rather than only the ones who stand out, checking impressions against evidence from several adults and several weeks, avoiding labels in writing and in speech, and treating children's images and information with the respect owed to their privacy.
Observation gives teachers great influence over how a child is seen, by colleagues, by the family and eventually by the child herself. That influence can be used well or badly, often without anyone noticing. This article looks at the most common ways bias enters early-years observation, why labels and comparisons do lasting harm, what privacy and consent mean when the subjects are under six, and the team habits that keep observation fair. It applies to any early-years setting and reflects the rules the Global Nexus curriculum sets for itself.
How bias gets into observation notes
Every observer brings expectations, and expectations shape attention. Confirmation bias, the tendency to notice evidence that fits what we already believe and overlook evidence that does not, is as active in a preschool classroom as anywhere. Once a child has a reputation, for being clever, for being difficult, for being shy, adults start to see the episodes that confirm it and to explain away the ones that do not. A note written by a teacher who already thinks a child is difficult tends to record conflicts and miss moments of kindness.
The halo effect works the other way. A child who is articulate, cheerful and easy to like may be credited with skills she has not yet shown, simply because she makes a good overall impression. Quiet children, children who are still learning the language of the classroom and children whose behaviour is challenging are especially at risk of being underestimated.
Other biases are more structural. Adults may expect boys to be more active and girls more careful, and record the same behaviour differently depending on the child. They may read a child's behaviour through assumptions about her family's background or nationality. In a bilingual classroom, a teacher may judge a child's thinking by her skill in the teacher's own language. None of this needs bad intentions; it happens to careful, caring teachers unless they build habits to counter it. Naming these biases openly in team meetings, without blame, is often the first and most effective step.
Psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson's study of teacher expectations in the 1960s, later known as the Pygmalion effect, has been debated for decades, and the size of the effect is still argued over. But the broad point that adults' expectations can influence how children are treated, and therefore how they develop, is taken seriously across education research.
Why labels and comparisons do harm
Labels are tempting because they are quick. Shy, bright, naughty, lazy, sporty, a chatterbox: each word sums up a child in a way that feels efficient. But labels describe a fixed quality rather than a behaviour in a situation, and children change fast. A label that was roughly true in September may be quite wrong by March, yet it lingers in conversations and files long after the behaviour has gone.
Labels also travel. A teacher mentions to a colleague that a child is difficult; the colleague mentions it to the next year's teacher; a parent overhears. Children are very good at picking up how adults see them, and they tend to act in line with it. A child who keeps hearing that she is shy may stop trying to speak up, because that is who she has been told she is.
Comparison has similar effects. When children are compared, in conversation, in displays or in written records, someone is always placed at the bottom. In early childhood, where development is uneven and ranges are wide, those positions say very little about long-term ability but a great deal to the child about her worth. For this reason the Global Nexus curriculum does not give children scores, does not rank them, and does not use public comparisons such as charts showing who has learned the most words or who finished first.
Avoiding comparison does not mean ignoring development. Teachers still need to know what is typical for an age group, and they still need to notice when a child may need support. The difference is that the comparison is between a child and a broad developmental range, used privately by professionals, not between one child and another in front of anyone.
Replacing labels with descriptions
A practical way for a team to reduce labelling is to agree on replacements for the labels they hear most often. The examples below show the idea.
| Label | Description that could replace it |
|---|---|
| Shy | Prefers to watch new activities for a while before joining; speaks freely in small groups |
| Naughty | Finds it hard to wait during transitions; settles when given a job to do |
| Bright | Asks many questions about how things work; enjoys puzzles with several steps |
| Lazy | Often leaves tidying to others; joins in when tasks are shared out by name |
| Clingy | Stays close to a familiar adult in the first hour; separates more easily after a calm greeting routine |
Each description is longer than the label, and that is the point. It describes behaviour in context, which is accurate, open to change and useful for planning. It also sounds very different when overheard by a parent or a child.
Observing challenging behaviour fairly
Fairness is tested hardest with children whose behaviour is challenging. A child who hits, bites, throws things or disrupts group time draws adult attention constantly, and the notes in her file can quickly become a catalogue of incidents. That record may be accurate in every detail and still be unfair, because it describes one part of the child and leaves out the rest.
A fairer record does three things. It describes incidents factually, using event sampling to capture what happened just before and just after, so that the team can see patterns: perhaps the difficulties cluster around transitions, crowded spaces or the end of a long morning. It records the times when things go well, so that the team can see what helps. And it keeps noting the child's interests, ideas and relationships, so that she remains a whole person in the eyes of the adults who read her file.
Language matters especially here. "Aggressive" is a label; "pushed two children while queuing for the slide on Tuesday and Thursday mornings" is a description that points toward a solution, such as a different way of organising turns at the slide. Families who read records about their child's behaviour deserve that precision, and so does the child.
Finally, teams should be careful about how behaviour is discussed in front of other adults and children. Conversations about a child's difficulties belong in planning meetings and private conversations with the family, not at the gate or in the hearing of other parents.
Privacy and consent when the subjects are under six
Observation involves collecting information about children who cannot meaningfully consent to it. That places a duty on adults to collect only what is needed, store it securely and share it only with those who should see it. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Vietnam ratified in 1990, recognises children's right to privacy and their right to express views on matters that affect them. Vietnam's own rules on personal data protection, including Decree 13 of 2023, set further requirements for handling personal information, with particular care for children's data.
For a preschool this translates into practical rules. Photographs and recordings are taken on school devices, not personal phones, and kept in school systems. Families are told how images are used and can opt out of particular uses, such as public display or social media. Notes about sensitive matters, such as health, family circumstances or developmental concerns, are kept separately and shared only with staff who need them. Records are kept for a defined period and then deleted or returned to families.
Children's own views matter too, even when they are very young. Asking a child whether she would like a photograph taken of her tower, or whether she wants her drawing in her portfolio, takes a few seconds and teaches her that her work and her image belong to her. Respecting a child who says no, when nothing important is at stake, is part of the same lesson. Photographs taken during intimate care, distress or sleep have no place in documentation.
Team habits that keep observation fair
Individual teachers can do a great deal, but fairness is easier to sustain as a team. The following habits are simple and widely used.
- Coverage checks. Once a month, count the notes and learning stories for each child. Children with few entries are the ones being overlooked, and they become focus children the following week.
- Two pairs of eyes. In co-taught classrooms, both teachers observe each child and compare readings. Disagreement is a signal to look again, not a problem to be settled by seniority.
- Evidence before conclusions. In planning meetings, ask for the notes behind any strong statement about a child. "What did we actually see?" is the most useful question a team can ask.
- Language checks. Before records go to families, read them for labels, comparisons and assumptions about family background, and rewrite where needed.
- Strengths first. Make sure every child's file includes interests and strengths, not only concerns. A file that is mostly about problems describes a problem, not a child.
These habits take little time once they are routine. They also protect teachers: a record built on evidence from two adults over several weeks is much easier to explain to a family, or a leader, than one person's impression.
Fairness in a multilingual, multicultural classroom
A preschool serving Vietnamese and international families brings together children from many backgrounds, and adults from many teaching cultures. Expectations about how children should behave, how much they should talk to adults, how independent they should be at a given age and how emotions should be expressed vary between cultures. An international teacher may read a Vietnamese child's quiet respect toward adults as shyness; a Vietnamese teacher may read a child from a family that encourages debate as cheeky.
Neither reading is simply wrong, but both can distort an observation if the teacher is not aware of them. Co-teaching helps, because colleagues from different backgrounds can point out cultural readings to each other. Families help too: asking a family how their child usually behaves with adults at home often explains a pattern the school had misunderstood.
The aim is not to remove all judgement from observation, which would be impossible, but to make judgements visible, checkable and open to correction. That is what turns an impression into evidence, and it is what families are entitled to expect from the people who write about their children.
Câu hỏi thường gặp
Why do early-years teachers avoid labels like shy or bright?
Labels describe fixed qualities rather than behaviour in context, they stick long after children change, and children tend to live up or down to them. Describing what a child does in specific situations is more accurate and more useful for planning.
Is it ever acceptable to compare children in a preschool?
Professionals may compare a child with broad developmental ranges to check whether support is needed, but children should not be compared with each other in conversation, displays or records. Comparison between children harms motivation and says little about long-term ability.
How can a teacher tell if her observations are biased?
By checking coverage across all children, comparing readings with a co-teacher, asking for evidence behind strong impressions, and noticing whether some children are described mostly through problems. Team review of notes is one of the most effective safeguards.
Do preschools need parents' permission to photograph children?
Schools should have a clear policy, explained to families, on how photographs are taken, stored and used, and families should be able to opt out of uses such as public display. Vietnamese data protection rules also apply to children's personal information.
Should young children be asked before they are photographed?
Where practical, yes. Asking a child whether she would like a photograph of her work taken teaches her that her image and work belong to her. Teachers should respect a refusal when nothing important is at stake.
How do cultural differences affect observation?
Expectations about behaviour, independence and emotional expression differ between cultures, and teachers may misread a child through their own cultural lens. Co-teaching across cultures and asking families about the child at home help correct these readings.