Teaching cannot be too dependent on a set of textbooks.

Experts point out that perhaps only when we are no longer too dependent on textbooks and consider them as laws will the debate over one or more sets of books no longer be as tense as it is today.

TEACHERS ' CREATIVITY AND AUTONOMY DO NOT DEPEND ON THE NUMBER OF TEXTBOOKS

Ms. Ha Ngoc Thuy, Vice Principal of Nguyen Binh Khiem Secondary and High School ( Hanoi ), said that the concept of textbooks needs to change. Textbooks should be understood as reference materials for teachers to teach according to the program, not as a law.

The concept of textbooks needs to change. Textbooks are reference materials for teachers to teach according to the program, not regulations.

PHOTO: DAO NGOC THACH

Innovate teaching assessment according to the program, not the textbook.

Recently, when responding to voters' recommendations on the need to return to having only one set of unified textbooks nationwide as before so as not to affect students transferring schools, merging provinces, etc., Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son explained that different textbooks only differ in the language, presentation methods and teaching methods for each content but must meet the requirements of the program. Therefore, when students use different textbooks, the content of knowledge and requirements will not be affected.

A National Assembly delegate once raised the issue when supervising the implementation of curriculum and textbook innovation related to the operation of many textbook sets, saying: "If textbooks are just reference materials, have the management agencies of the education sector thoroughly implemented the spirit of innovation when there are many textbook sets? Can students go to class and study any textbook among the textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education and Training or do they still have to depend on the textbooks chosen by the school and teaching and learning still adhere to those textbooks?".

Perhaps that is something that even the education management agencies have not dared to affirm when applying the current regulations on textbook selection. In principle, after the Ministry of Education and Training organizes the assessment of textbooks, the Minister issues a decision approving each textbook, then that textbook has met the highest requirements, and the right to choose textbooks will belong to teachers and students, not to the provincial People's Committee as it does now.

Therefore, many opinions say that the Ministry of Education and Training needs to build a legal corridor and synchronous policies to truly unify teachers. The Ministry should issue specific guidelines on testing and evaluation according to the new program to unify so that teachers dare to be autonomous, break away from textbooks to teach according to the program.

Regarding training and innovation in teaching assessment for teachers in the direction of following the curriculum rather than textbooks, the subjects that must clearly understand this issue are first of all school leaders and education managers at the commune and provincial levels.

According to Ms. Thuy, if possible, schools and teachers should not choose a single set of textbooks but can refer to and use many sets in parallel. Because quality comes from education, not from choosing a set of books.

According to Ms. Thuy, experience from Nguyen Binh Khiem Secondary and High School shows that in order to teach independently of textbooks, the school has proactively researched the program. In particular, the school concretizes the content and teaching methods to develop learners' capacity. That is, organizing teaching in an open direction and creating conditions for students to participate in the process of building lessons in the way that students play the role of teachers, promoting interest, group cooperation and the ability to use information technology sensitively.

In addition, training and fostering teachers in teaching methods and content is also an issue that schools need to pay attention to. In particular, training for teachers should be based on the program instead of relying on textbooks as before when there was no comprehensive program.

Recently, when the debate about whether to have one or many textbooks arose, Professor Le Anh Vinh, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences , said that teachers' creativity and autonomy do not depend on the number of textbooks, but on their pedagogical capacity and ability to organize teaching and learning, turn content into appropriate experiences, connect with students' lives, and arouse their interest in learning. A good set of textbooks is just a tool, while teaching effectiveness still depends on the skills and initiative of the teacher.

"The number of textbooks should not be a measure of innovation; the decisive factor is that every region has the best textbooks for smooth implementation, while teachers are supported to turn books into vivid and effective lessons," Professor Le Anh Vinh shared.

Q EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT MUST "UNLEASH" TEACHERS

The Ministry of Education and Training has repeatedly called on teachers to innovate teaching, especially when there is one program and many textbooks, the textbooks are no longer the "law" as in the old concept, but only the program plays this role. All textbooks that are evaluated and approved for circulation by the Ministry of Education and Training meet scientific standards.

In 2023, during an online meeting with general education teachers nationwide, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son once again raised this issue when he said that teachers need to change their concepts and ways of using textbooks.

Teachers' creativity and autonomy do not depend on the number of books, but on their pedagogical capacity and ability to organize teaching, turn content into appropriate experiences, connect with students' lives, and inspire interest in learning.

Photo: Dao Ngoc Thach

The head of the education sector analyzed that in the previous period, we relied too much on textbooks. But the big change this time is the unified national program, textbooks are learning materials - they can also be special learning materials but textbooks need to be used proactively, not dependently.

"That is a tool and we are ready to use other textbooks and other learning materials, using them flexibly and promoting initiative," said Minister Kim Son, adding that if we cannot change our approach to textbooks, we will not achieve a very important innovation in the comprehensive fundamental innovation of general education.

However, according to many teachers, the Ministry wants teachers not to consider textbooks as laws, but the agencies that closely manage teaching and learning in schools seem not to have kept up with this innovation policy.

A secondary school teacher in Bac Ninh shared that there is a reality that makes teachers worried that educational managers at the commune level now have little expertise in education, so professional management will follow the old way, not keeping up with the changes in current education. According to this teacher, if teachers want to be confident in innovation, managers need to reduce observing classes and checking lesson plans in the old way of checking whether teachers teach the correct lessons in the textbooks or not, whether the textbooks being taught are the same as the textbooks chosen by the locality or not... "It is necessary to free teachers to be creative and autonomous in accordance with the capacity of each student and to test and evaluate educational results by output quality, not in that way," this teacher expressed.

Professor Dinh Quang Bao, former Principal of Hanoi National University of Education, once shared that during the process of training masters and doctors, when he asked teachers to analyze the textbook program to see how the program and textbooks were expressed, they could only talk about textbooks, but few people paid attention to how the program was expressed. That is, they just picked up the textbooks and taught.

According to Professor Bao, this is also the first thing that needs to be innovated when applying the new program. Right from when they are still in school, teacher training schools need to create for students the capacity to develop programs, this is a high level of capacity. At the very least, teacher training students need to be trained to read the program.

Professor Bao believes that before teaching a lesson in a textbook, teachers must understand what the program requires, then they can teach it. Once they have grasped the program, it is the teacher's job to get "materials" from this book or that book, as long as the content taught to students meets the program.

However, Professor Dinh Quang Bao also believes that reducing dependence on textbooks and not considering textbooks as "laws" does not mean denying the role of textbooks. Textbooks always have their own value, and the people who compile books are all very good experts in each field. Textbooks are a source of information that is presented systematically, processed and refined, although not really perfect, so it is natural for teachers to apply textbooks.

Textbooks are tools, but teachers must be trained to consult many sources of materials to teach, to know the good points of many different books, which is a capacity that Professor Bao emphasized that needs to be trained in teacher training schools. If teachers only read one textbook and then teach without knowing how to select the good points of other books to combine, it will be very limited.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/day-hoc-khong-the-qua-le-thuoc-vao-mot-bo-sach-giao-khoa-185250817224748919.htm