Both teacher and student were at a loss.

For a long time, examinations have always impacted teaching and learning. However, this year, as the first cohort of students prepares for the high school graduation exam under the 2018 General Education Program (the new program), the Ministry of Education and Training has yet to announce the exam guidelines or sample exam questions, leaving teachers constantly anxious and unprepared.

This year, when preparing the syllabus for the 11th grade math trigonometry section, a teacher posed a question geared towards a multiple-choice exam, and 100% of the students in the class used calculators to get the answer. Adjusting the question to a more essay-style format, as in previous years, would be very cumbersome and time-consuming.

The problem is that textbooks are geared towards questions that require students to answer using critical thinking. Therefore, if teachers only focus on teaching for multiple-choice tests, students will lose their critical thinking skills and simply use a calculator. Conversely, if teachers focus on developing critical thinking, students will lose the ability to use a calculator – a powerful tool for multiple-choice tests!

The Ministry of Education and Training's announcement that all subjects (except Literature) will be tested using multiple-choice questions, even though it's a fait accompli, has caused concern among teachers. Multiple-choice exams will imply that students only need to use calculators. Meanwhile, teachers are required to comprehensively develop students' thinking and abilities during the teaching process. If exams only require the use of calculators, where is the critical thinking? If exam results are not high, families and students will complain, and teachers will face even more pressure.

This is just a small example of how teachers implement teaching, testing, and evaluation according to the new curriculum. The new curriculum is understood to reduce academic knowledge and increase practical application in students' lives. However, when implementing the curriculum, the textbook replacement process is divided into many phases, with textbooks being changed for each grade level each year. The textbooks are fragmented and not continuous, leaving students confused.

For example, 12th-grade students this year only studied the new curriculum for three years, leading to the discovery of knowledge they hadn't learned before due to the disjointed structure of the textbooks. For instance, 12th-grade math requires knowledge of cylinders and cones, while the new curriculum introduces this topic to 9th grade. However, 9th-grade students are already studying the old curriculum, which doesn't include this knowledge! Teachers then have to scramble to fill in the missing information immediately. This situation isn't unique to math; many other subjects face similar challenges.

With the goal of reducing academic knowledge, textbooks and guidebooks are designed inconsistently and fail to reflect the program's objectives. The requirements in each lesson may seem easy at first glance, with students only needing a basic understanding because many questions have been omitted or simplified. However, this is merely a mechanical reduction of the workload, lacking comprehensiveness and depth. Because of this, teachers must supplement the content because even though the textbook doesn't explicitly present it, the examples and questions presented in the lesson lead to confusion and a lack of overall direction for the students. Teachers must supplement the content in various ways and forms, adhering to the principle of "better to teach too much than too little."

Without the Ministry of Education and Training providing an exam matrix, teachers don't know what to teach. They can only teach everything, teach just enough, and follow the textbook and reference materials. This is no different from teaching according to the old curriculum, drawing students into an exam-taking race, and therefore, reducing the curriculum load remains a difficult goal to achieve.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/ca-thay-lan-tro-deu-choi-voi-196240929205301177.htm