UNIS Hanoi Address

Learning a second language is the hallmark of successful communication and a potent intellectual and developmental tool for students. In today’s increasingly interconnected world, the benefits of learning a second language are extensive and impactful, extending far beyond linguistic competence.

For parents who wish to equip their children with skills that will remain relevant and valuable throughout life, language learning is an excellent investment.

10 Benefits of Learning a Second Language for Students

The benefits of learning a second language for students are numerous and multifaceted, supporting their academic, personal, and professional development.

1. Enhances Literacy Skills

By learning a new language, students acquire greater metalinguistic awareness that enables them to identify sentence structures, grammatical conventions, and syntactic patterns. The knowledge of compound sentence formation and multi-vocabulary also improves essay writing and reading abilities.

At UNIS Hanoi, our bilingual and multilingual programs provide opportunities for immersion and context-based language acquisition through extensive and rich linguistic exposure.

2. Improves Academic Performance

Second language learners often excel across multiple school subjects. Indeed, second language students have better attention control, working memory, and analytical thinking, which are advantages in mathematics, science, and reading.

At UNIS Hanoi, students develop language skills through an inquiry-based, interdisciplinary curriculum that helps them generate cross-disciplinary ideas and learn more effectively.

3. Boosts Memory and Brain Function

To learn a second language, students must actively build vocabulary, conjugate verbs, understand phonetics, and grasp sentence structure, as these skills strengthen both short-term and long-term memory. Bilinguals possess increased grey matter in regions of the brain involved in attention and cognitive control.

UNIS Hanoi promotes early language learning to stimulate neurological development and improve our learners’ mental well-being through their learning process.

4. Improves Multitasking Skills

Alternating between two languages places an executive control system in the brain of a student into operation. The cognitive switching improves his capacity to multitask, prioritise well, and remain focused in unstable or intricate circumstances.

Bilingual students are able to cope with more than one command and different contexts, either in class or in actual life. Different linguistic contexts that our UNIS Hanoi students encounter every day enhance their multitasking ability and flexibility.

5. Fosters Communication Skills

Acquiring a second language develops the skill in listening, reading non-verbal signals, summarising concepts, and expressing sophisticated ideas openly.

These skills are valuable in many settings, from university coursework and debates to social conversations and job interviews. Students become improved listeners and more reflective speakers.

UNIS Hanoi language instruction stresses both spoken and written language, encouraging students to communicate clearly and respectfully in multicultural environments.

6. Enhances Self-Confidence and Fulfilment

As students gain the ability to hold conversations, read texts, and understand media in another language, their self-confidence grows significantly. These successful experiences build a sense of mastery, motivating students to set and pursue higher expectations.

UNIS Hanoi creates an atmosphere wherein students’ language achievements are noticed and imitated, fostering emotional resilience and intrinsic motivation.

7. Promotes Cultural Awareness and Empathy

Every language reflects a unique worldview, and learning it offers direct insight into the culture, values, and traditions of the people who speak it. This cultural exposure deepens empathy, tolerance, and curiosity and allows students to build deeper intercultural understanding.

We learn internationalism at UNIS Hanoi by integrating culture discovery into our language class. We teach students about global food, celebrations, conversations, literature, and music to foster empathy and appreciation for diversity.

8. Offers New Relationships and Networking Opportunities

Language learning opens doors to new friends, partnerships, and networks. Through international school exchange, after-school clubs, or online language projects, bilingual students create global connections across boundaries and cultures.

UNIS Hanoi gives students frequent chances to explore intercultural interests and global discussion, and construct authentic personal and academic connections.

9. Improves Your First Language

Acquiring a second language can enhance one’s understanding of their native language. Students learn to interpret sentence structure, detect language nuances, and convey themselves better. Practice enhances their vocabulary, grammar, and stylistic writing in their home language.

UNIS Hanoi language teaching enables double-language development, with students learning to craft the form and use of their first and second languages.

10. Offers Future Career Opportunities

In the modern workplace, bilingual and multilingual job candidates can have a profound advantage.

Many industries, including education, international relations, healthcare, finance, and technology, seek employees who can communicate across cultures. Language proficiency also communicates flexibility, thinking skills, and a global mindset.

At UNIS Hanoi, we prepare students for international careers by nurturing language skills alongside cross-cultural competence, ensuring they are well-prepared to contribute to and lead in a globalised workforce.

How UNIS Hanoi Supports Students Learning English as an Additional Language

UNIS Hanoi has a strong English as an Additional Language (EAL) to accommodate our diverse range of students from the most distant corners of the world. Responsive, student-centred, and governed by best practice, our teaching enables our students to thrive.

The EAL teachers work with the full-time class teachers, counsellors, and parents to provide individualised approaches that meet each student’s language learning needs.

Teachers adapt instruction to ensure equitable access for students at all proficiency levels, helping them engage with coursework, contribute to discussions, and communicate effectively.

We use formative, ongoing assessment to adjust the curriculum in real time based on students’ evolving needs. Students participate in peer teaching, group work, and language interaction that provides competency and confidence development.

In addition, our multilingual policy honours the position of the home language within identity and cognitive development. We promote variety within community languages and welcome students to hold their mother tongues alongside learning English.

Through this general scheme, UNIS Hanoi prepares language-capable students to achieve academic success and become integrated socially.

Prepare Your Child for Global Opportunities with UNIS Hanoi

The benefits of learning a second language are profound, far-reaching, and enduring. At UNIS Hanoi, we believe in the transformative power of language learning.

Our open and global-oriented curriculum enables students to discover the world through language, culture, and communication. Enroll your child at UNIS Hanoi today and give them the opportunity to unlock their potential in an increasingly interconnected world!

The beginning of the academic year offers a fresh opportunity to re-engage children, foster connections, and cultivate a joyful learning environment.

Carefully designed back to school activities for children foster community building, ease transitions, and even relieve anxiety. These activities become essential as children learn new routines, interact with peers, and face academic challenges. Let’s delve in!

12 Back to School Activities for Children

Below are 12 fun and purposeful back to school activities for children that will help develop creativity, social competencies, and emotional intelligence.

1. Name Tag Challenge

This classic activity serves as an icebreaker and a creative exercise. Children make personalised name tags with their interests or fun facts, which helps them remember names and start dialogues and friendships.

UNIS Hanoi students participate in a name tag gallery walk to learn about peers and to showcase their creations. We display the name tags for the first two weeks so all children can feel appreciated and understood, and also to foster inclusivity.

2. Pretend Play

For younger children, pretend play helps develop imagination, collaboration, and expression of feelings. They tell stories about new experiences and act them out through symbols.

At UNIS Hanoi, programs like “visiting the library” or “lunchtime routines” mitigate student anxieties by offering developmentally appropriate, playful scaffolding within the school’s context.

3. Classroom Scavenger Hunts

A scavenger hunt is a dynamic and interactive way for children to become familiar with their learning environment. It introduces them to the physical layout of the classroom while encouraging independence learning and problem-solving.

At UNIS Hanoi, we design customised scavenger hunts that highlight key areas such as reading corners, student cubbies, art stations, and learning centres. This builds comfort with the space and supports organisational skills and early autonomy.

4. Emotional Charades

Emotional charades activity promotes emotional literacy, social awareness, and communication skills. Children act out different emotions while their peers guess what they are portraying. It helps develop empathy, emotional vocabulary, and an understanding of non-verbal cues.

Students at UNIS engage in active wellbeing curricula, which involves charades as a means to simulate and comprehend social-emotional interactions and express feelings.

5. “Would You Rather” Questions

Engaging students in playful yet insightful “Would You Rather” questions promotes decision-making, perspective-taking, and thoughtful consideration while encouraging constructive reasoning and friendly arguments.

At UNIS Hanoi, we create school and routine-related questions like, “Would you rather work alone or in a group?” or “Would you rather learn outside or inside?”

The response helps to reflect on student character and strengthen community relations through shared laughter and exploration.

6. Free Dance

Free dance sessions offer a joyful and uninhibited outlet for physical expression. They allow students to move their bodies, reduce stress, and celebrate movement.

At UNIS Hanoi, integrating movement and music during breaks offers various benefits, especially during the first weeks of school. It helps to improve brain function, support gross motor development, and enhance the atmosphere within the classroom.

These sessions are often student-led, giving children the opportunity to take initiative and feel empowered.

7. Animal Yoga

Animal-themed yoga focuses on physical awareness and helps to calm and engage children, while encouraging them to regulate their emotions. Poses like “downward dog”, “cat-cow”, and “lion’s breath” are simple, imaginative, and easily achievable.

At UNIS Hanoi, the wellbeing program includes regular yoga classes which focus on mindfulness, breath work, and physical grounding. These yoga sessions are helpful in easing students into learning routines and self-regulation.

8. Decorate Classroom Challenge

Fostering contribution to class decoration helps enhance and cultivate an identity besides belonging and shared ownership. It turns the classroom into children’s space which represents their identity and ideas.

At UNIS Hanoi, every class starts the year with collaborative art projects, like vision boards, motivational murals, and welcoming posters. These class decorations, reflecting shared values and student ambitions, evolve alongside the students throughout the school year.

9. Find A Friend Challenge

This activity promotes social interaction among students to work together, reflect, and celebrate differences. Checklist prompts for certain attributes, such as “has a pet”, “can speak more than one language”, or “has traveled internationally” encourage interactions, with students talking to multiple peers.

At UNIS Hanoi, the celebration of cultural diversity helps nurture curiosity about people and builds bonds across students’ different backgrounds and interests.

10. Group Contracts

The creation of group or class agreements fosters respect and responsibility among members. This activity empowers them to shape classroom norms, fostering peer respect and constructive engagement in their learning environment.

At UNIS Hanoi, students participate in conversations to set out fundamental guiding principles such as empathy, kindness, patience, and integrity. The classroom contracts that capture these agreements are masterfully decorated, and they are signed by everyone, depicting their promise to uphold a safe and supportive environment for all.

11. Draw a Self-Portrait

With this task, students get the chance to shape and reflect on their own identities. Students draw themselves, incorporating favorite things and symbols that reflect their aspirations.

As UNIS Hanoi, all students’ self portraits are displayed with short biographies to help their peers and teachers understand each child. The artworks are often revisited later in the year for reflection on progress and changes in self perception.

12. Back to School Bingo

This light-hearted game uses a bingo-style format with personalised prompts such as “has a younger sibling”, “plays a musical instrument”, or “loves science”. It”s a highly effective way to get children moving and engaging in structured conversations with different classmates.

At UNIS Hanoi, we adapt the bingo cards to include community themes and school values, using the activity to break down social barriers and encourage inclusive participation in the early days of the school term.

Start a Fun and Fulfilled School Year with UNIS Hanoi

At UNIS Hanoi, our thoughtfully designed back to school activities for children are not just engaging, they are a vital foundation for social-emotional growth, academic readiness, and a sense of belonging.

We are proud to offer an internationally-minded education where every student is nurtured as an individual and celebrated as part of a vibrant learning community. Apply to UNIS Hanoi and give your child the confidence and connection they need to flourish in the year ahead.

Developing solid critical thinking skills allows students to problem-solve critically, make evidence-based judgments, and make informed decisions.

At UNIS Hanoi, we build these skills carefully, research-based pedagogic practice within our curriculum and co-curriculum. We seek to generate critical thinking as a pleasing experience of self-discovery and self-development rather than pressure.

What Are Critical Thinking Skills?

Critical thinking skills are an intellectual ability that enables students to analyse facts, make decisions, and give reasonable solutions to any issue. At its core, critical thinking involves reflective and independent thinking that guides students to assess ideas and arguments reasonably and logically.

These are the skills that illuminate students to approach information, issues, and diverse perspectives. Critical thinking cultivates intellectual curiosity, effective communication, and logical reasoning skills that prepare children for university, employment, and active citizenship.

At UNIS Hanoi, we consider the development of critical thinking foundational to student success. It drives our pedagogy and is embedded in curriculum and co-curriculum programs to develop reflective, well-rounded students.

Top 10 Critical Thinking Skills for Students

Building critical thinking skills starts from learning the most crucial elements of an ideal thinking process. All these abilities support and belong to cultivating a resourceful, reflective, and adaptable mind.

1. Research

Critical thinking has its roots in the ability to search, analyse, and synthesise. Students with strong research skills can identify credible sources, compare differing viewpoints, and draw reasoned conclusions.

We expose our students to inquiry-based research projects from early years at UNIS Hanoi.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is also facilitating independent research in the form of Extended Essays, Personal Projects, and Science Investigations with the aim of creating depth and rigor in research studies.

2. Observation

Observation means paying attention to detail, noticing patterns, and understanding context. Observational skill is particularly important in science and social science, where interpreting the data or behavior is crucial for making decisions.

By studying subjects like Biology, Environmental Systems, and the Arts, UNIS Hanoi students become sensitive through observation when they study the world around them, gathering data in the field, and interpreting art works.

3. Problem-Solving

Problem-solving is the process of formulating problems, creating alternatives, and selecting effective solutions to implement.

UNIS Hanoi students also participate in cross-disciplinary learning activities like Design Technology challenges and Model United Nations simulations. They are arenas for exploring world and country-related issues, teamwork, and presentation of innovative solutions.

4. Reasoned Judgment

Reasoned judgment is the skill of building fact-based and objective judgment, and discriminating against prejudice or emotional judgment. It makes conclusions arguable, data-based, and fact-based.

Our Theory of Knowledge course in the IB Diploma Programme exemplifies how students explore knowledge claims and evaluate arguments critically. We instruct them on how to formulate well-supported opinions out of facts and moral values.

5. Reflective Thinking

Reflective thinking enables students to study their experiences, activities, and learning environments. It facilitates growth through making students question what they did, the reasons for it, and how they can improve in the future.

UNIS Hanoi has reflective practice at all school levels. The students participate in peer feedback sessions, advisory programs, and learning journals, employing reflection in academic and personal development.

6. Open-Mindedness

Open-mindedness is the willingness to consider different perspectives and accept new ideas. It fosters inclusivity, adaptability, and respect for others.

Our international learning community at UNIS Hanoi naturally supports this mindset. Through intercultural exchanges, service learning, and group discussions, students learn to embrace diversity and value multiple viewpoints in a global context.

7. Communication

Effective communication supports co-operation, conflict resolution, and quality problem-solving.

From debate lessons to group projects and student conferences, we communicate daily at UNIS Hanoi. We instruct students on how to speak with respect, devise arguments logically, and listen positively.

8. Decision-Making

Decision-making is the culmination of critical thinking processes. It requires evaluating options, anticipating consequences, and choosing a course of action with confidence.

UNIS Hanoi students learn the skill through school decision-making, project management, and leadership. From selecting a CAS experience to planning a club, they learn to think through evidence, weigh the consequences, and take accountability for decisions.

9. Creativity

Although not generally in the same league as reasoning, creativity is included in critical thinking. It enables students to think about problems in unique ways and come up with creative solutions.

UNIS Hanoi encourages creative thinking within our STEAM, Innovation, and Arts courses. Students are encouraged to think, design, invent, and dream beyond the box.

10. Self-Regulation

Self-regulation is the ability to monitor and regulate the thinking process. Self-regulation of emotion, concentration, and awareness of bias are all self-regulation.

Our wellbeing programme encourages the cultivation of self-regulation. Mindfulness lessons, guidance lessons, and resilience lessons in UNIS Hanoi educate children to cope with stress and develop mental flexibility.

How To Promote Critical Thinking Skills For Students

Addressing critical thinking skills at home and in the classroom requires consistent strategies that promote autonomy and wonder.

The following critical thinking activities aim to challenge students intellectually, encourage analytical reasoning, and foster independent thought in both individual and collaborative learning environments.

• Provide Diverse Perspectives: Introduce students to different points of view about cultural, historical, and intellectual contexts to broaden their understanding. Emphasise respect and appreciation of other experiences.
• Create Safe Learning Environments: Set up learning environments in which students feel emotionally safe and are encouraged to contribute without judgment.
• Give Instructional Strategies: Use Socratic questioning, case studies, and role-plays to foster engagement, promote higher-order thinking, and push students to justify their reasoning.
• Ask Open-Ended Questions: Promote discussion and inquiry by avoiding yes/no queries and instead asking “why”, “how”, and “what if”, which invites elaboration and exploration.
• Connect with Previous Knowledge: Help students link new information to prior learning experiences to enhance understanding and support long-term retention.
• Learn from Mistakes: Make mistakes learning opportunities to garner resilience and flexibility. Walk students through where they went wrong and how to handle the situation differently next time.

Inspire Intellectual Growth And Nurture Problem-Solvers With UNIS Hanoi

UNIS Hanoi works actively towards the all-around development of critical thinking skills as a basis for lifelong learning. Our educational system equips students to succeed academically and become well-prepared, reflective, and accountable world citizens.

Join us and provide your children with the opportunity to explore, to direct, and to thrive in a school of the future. Enlist your child at UNIS Hanoi today and prepare them for a world of challenge and potential!

Contextual learning is increasingly recognised as a powerful approach to education, enabling students to connect academic knowledge with real-world applications. By situating learning in familiar and meaningful contexts, students can better understand, retain, and apply information beyond the classroom. This method prioritises relevance, emphasising the importance of acquiring skills and knowledge that serve practical purposes in everyday life.

Students grasp complex ideas through contextual learning and build essential skills for lifelong learning and problem-solving. This article explores the key aspects and benefits of contextual learning, offering insights into how it fosters academic and personal success.

What is Contextual Learning?

Contextual learning is a learning approach that believes learning is most effective when learners can relate new information to their personal experiences or frames of reference. This method enables students to draw meaningful connections between classroom material and real-life scenarios, making the content more engaging and practical.

Key characteristics of context based learning include:

• Connection to Personal Experience: Learners connect new information to their experiences, facilitating deeper understanding and retention.
• Practical Application: Knowledge is applied in realistic settings, preparing students for practical use in everyday and professional situations.
• Engagement through Active Participation: Contextual learning encourages active involvement, allowing learners to engage directly with the material and enhancing motivation.

This approach bridges the gap between theory and practice, ensuring that knowledge acquisition is purposeful and impactful. It ultimately leads to a more engaged and prepared student body.

4 Benefits of Contextual Learning Strategies

Contextual learning provides a framework that enhances student engagement by connecting academic knowledge to real-world applications. This approach leverages various strategies to foster practical skills for academic success and lifelong learning.

Emphasises Real-World Problem-Solving

One of the foremost advantages of contextual learning is its emphasis on solving practical problems within relevant contexts. By framing academic concepts within real-world scenarios, students learn to think critically and adapt theoretical knowledge to dynamic situations.

This approach is particularly valuable in fields where disciplinary knowledge must be applied daily, such as healthcare or engineering. For instance, electricians and surgeons alike rely on their theoretical knowledge to identify and resolve real-time challenges.

Experiences as Learning Aids

When considering learning is contextual, hands-on experiences play a significant role in reinforcing academic concepts. Learners are encouraged to draw on their experiences and participate in exercises that build upon prior knowledge.

Through these activities, students have the opportunity to learn by doing, thereby enhancing their ability to retain information and develop skills. For instance, rather than simply learning the theory behind a new software program, a student may use the software in realistic scenarios that mirror future tasks.

Encourages Group Learning

Contextual learning often incorporates collaborative activities, encouraging students to learn with and from each other. Group learning provides an environment where students can share ideas, engage in joint problem-solving, and communicate effectively.

This collaborative atmosphere is especially beneficial in adult education and professional training, where learners bring diverse experiences that can enrich group discussions and outcomes.

Supports Independent Learning

Contextual learning promotes independence by allowing students to take charge of their educational journey. By learning at their own pace and making connections between theoretical content and practical applications, students build autonomy in their approach to knowledge.

This self-directed aspect of context based learning enables learners to reflect on their experiences, gain a deeper understanding of the material, and apply their knowledge in new settings. For educators, this provides a more precise assessment of each student’s abilities, offering insights into their progress and skill level in a more authentic and meaningful way.

How to Implement Contextual Learning in the Classroom

Besides knowing “what is context based learning?”, integrating contextual learning strategies within the classroom can significantly enhance student engagement and understanding. Here are some effective ways to implement this approach:

• Role-Playing Scenarios: Students take on roles in fake situations, for example, court cases or business deals, where they can practise various skills and make decisions.
• Field Trips: Real-world excursions allow students to observe the relevance of classroom knowledge in a practical setting, such as visiting a local wetland to learn about ecosystems.
• Project-Based Learning: Students engage in long-term projects that apply theoretical knowledge to create real-world outcomes. For example, students can make a documentary about a historical incident.
• Guest Speakers: By having professionals speak and describe their work, the students learn how the concepts taught in class can be applied in different professions, making the learning process more relatable.
• Service-Learning: Students do volunteer work relevant to their subjects and link what they learn in the classroom with the real-world course.
• Simulation Games: Video or simulation games provide opportunities for students to demonstrate the periphery of their skills in relatable situations that would be difficult to replicate.
• Problem-Based Learning: Presenting real-world problems encourages students to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills, such as calculating costs for a business scenario in a mathematics class.

By combining these strategies, educators can ensure that students are actively participating in their learning, acquiring transferable skills, and even relating what they have been taught to real-world scenarios.

At UNIS Hanoi, contextual learning plays a central role in our teaching approach, mainly through the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme. As a pioneering IB World School in the Asia-Pacific region, we are committed to providing a curriculum that empowers students to apply academic concepts in relevant, real-world contexts.

From the Primary Years Programme to the IB Diploma, our teaching framework emphasises inquiry-based learning, critical thinking, and practical application. This approach prepares our students for the complexities of the modern world, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed for academic and professional success.

Join UNIS Hanoi and Thrive with Contextual Learning

At UNIS Hanoi, we are committed to cultivating an educational environment where students are inspired to engage deeply with their learning, connect ideas across subjects, and transfer their knowledge to new contexts. We believe learning is most effective when it goes beyond the classroom, preparing students to be confident and adaptable toward real-world challenges. Our emphasis on contextual learning ensures that students develop a robust foundation of knowledge, practical skills, and the ability to think critically and creatively.

Applications for the 2024-2025 academic year are now open. We encourage prospective families to book a tour or reach out to our Admissions team for personalised guidance at admissions@unishanoi.org. Begin your journey with us and experience how contextual learning can shape a brighter future.

The earliest memories and experiences of a person’s life shape their future perspectives as well as development. By teaching children engaging lessons and values in the early years of their lives, they are more likely to grow up into empathetic individuals with a firm learning motivation.

Promoting diversity in early childhood education is at the heart of how we help children learn the value of inclusivity and appreciate the differences between individuals, here at UNIS Hanoi. These are the crucial traits that will guide them into becoming successful and empathetic citizens in life.

What is Diversity in Early Childhood Education?

Diversity in early childhood education exposes children to cultural and cultural differences regarding ethnicity, religion, family structure, and sexual orientation. In short, this framework promotes fair treatment and full participation of all people, regardless of differences, positively impacting children’s mindset throughout life.

In the context of education, the definition of diversity in early childhood education simply means teaching children that people come from all walks of life. They might have differences in cultures, genders, beliefs, etc., but these are to be respected and appreciated, not discriminated against.

By teaching children cultural and linguistic diversity in early childhood education, children will become more academically successful. Still, they will also learn to be more understanding and empathetic adults later in life.

Anti Bias, Anti Racist Education at UNIS Hanoi

At UNIS Hanoi Anti Bias, Anti Racist (ABAR) teaching methods are used from Early Years 3. In an increasingly diverse world where cultures and identities intertwine, letting children experience cultural diversity in early childhood education is the key to success as they grow up.

Children are natural learners, and with the right guidance from dedicated teachers, they are much more likely to learn the cultural and linguistic differences with ease, helping them to adapt more easily than adolescent students.

How to Promote Diversity in Early Childhood Education

How to apply diversity in early childhood education is certainly a major challenge for educators, especially since the concept remains alien to the vast majority of schoolteachers. Furthermore, even parents might not be aware of this concept, so it is a good idea to start with the adults first.

1. Establish Connection Between Parents and Educators

Both educators and parents have to work together to effectively promote diversity in early childhood education. This means that parents and educators will first have to familiarise themselves with the concept and exchange what they have learned to better understand the subject matter.

During this process, educators and parents can also form strong professional links to support one another. Only when the adults are aligned with the same goal can the children appreciate diversity in cultures as well as in linguistics.

2. Establish Welcoming and Inclusive Environment

The next step should be to establish a welcoming environment where every child feels included and safe. Educators should start by being supportive and respectful of all children, regardless of their culture or language.

It would also be a good idea to plan lessons that include and promote participation from all children. For example, group activities and play-based learning lessons encourage children to participate and socialise with others, creating a vibrant and inclusive environment where every child is welcome.

3. Conduct STEM Activities

STEM activities are a great way to promote culture and diversity in early childhood education. Typically, STEM activities include hands-on lessons that stimulate children’s imagination as well as creativity while encouraging teamwork, all of which help promote diversity in the classroom.

Examples of STEM activities include making ice cream in a bag or building a paper roller coaster.

UNIS Hanoi incorporates a wide range of STEM activities into our curricula to promote DEI in early childhood education. Children can participate in activities such as playing puzzles or using experiment sets to explore the fun world of science with their peers, making the lessons more engaging.

4. Support with EAL

Children possess an amazing capability for learning languages, and by teaching them English in their early years, educators will empower the children to learn more about different cultures and languages. As English is widely spoken around the world, this will open up many opportunities for children to explore even more cultures and languages.

UNIS Hanoi offers EAL assessments in the early stages of a child’s education, when their language-learning capability peaks. We aim to teach children not just the language but also the cultural aspects of English-speaking countries, providing cultural contexts that help children appreciate different cultures even more.

5. Build a Positive Relationship with Children

Children need capable educators to provide guidance and assistance in learning and life, and that is why teachers should always prioritise fostering a positive relationship with the children they are assigned to.

Instead of harsh words and disciplinary measures, smart educators choose supportive language and encouraging expressions to foster a bond with the students. In turn, children will put more trust in these educators, and they will be motivated to learn more about diversity and the world around them.

6. Value Home Languages

Although learning English as an additional language is crucial for children to learn about diversity, the value of home languages should not be diminished in any way.

Home languages form a part of a child’s identity, as they are the languages the child first comes into contact with. Thus, educators should also take care not to ostracise children who speak their home languages in class.

How UNIS Hanoi Promotes Diversity in Early Years

Promoting diversity in early childhood education is a multi-stage process that requires plenty of effort from both parents and educators, but the result is well worth all the effort. Children who learn to appreciate diversity early in life will become more successful as adults, and they are much less likely to encounter major personality issues.

At UNIS Hanoi, we are committed to promoting a safe and diverse environment for all of our students. We also work closely with parents to make sure that our effort is not cut off the moment a child goes home. Contact us now for more information!

FAQs About Promoting Diversity in Early Childhood Education

With a topic as difficult as diversity in early childhood education, there are bound to be some questions. This section will help you find the right answer.

1. What does a welcoming and inclusive environment look like?

A welcoming and inclusive environment encourages participation from all children. No child is left out, irrespective of their culture and language. If you wish to see what a welcoming and inclusive environment really looks like in practice, come and visit our campus!

2. What are ways to celebrate a family’s culture while also embracing others?

Cultural celebrations can be as simple as saying hello in one’s native language. The first step you could take is to invite other children to teach your child how to say basic greetings in their home language. Not only will your child learn more about another culture, but they will also gain new friends!

3. What are some activities I can do with my children to teach them about diversity and inclusion?

As a parent, you can start by telling stories about people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds so that children understand the concept of diversity first. You could then ask them what their thoughts on the subject matter are. Provide a safe space for children to voice their thoughts and opinions, and you can have a meaningful conversation with them more easily.

At UNIS Hanoi, children can choose from a wide variety of co-curricular activities that promote teamwork and diversity. These activities include sports, drama production, and much more!