The teacher created an exciting drama, 'don't force students to drink, make them thirsty'

That was the sharing of Associate Professor, Dr. Ton Than at the seminar "Innovation in the culture of teaching and learning Mathematics" organized by the Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics on August 2.

Associate Professor, Dr. Ton Than, former Head of the Mathematics and Information Technology Department of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, said that teaching methods are extremely important, but the training of teachers on methods is often not thorough and is heavily influenced by trends.

“This has been done a lot for many years, but it is too formal. Competitions to select good teachers, which are supposed to select good teachers, have cases where students are taught lessons in advance so that when they come to class, they raise their hands immediately. As soon as the teacher asks a question, a series of hands go up. But the teachers only point to the students who have been prepared in advance. This is acting and does not inspire students to truly learn,” Associate Professor, Dr. Ton Than said.

Or for example, when talking about innovation in methods, everyone thinks that dividing the class into many groups for discussion is innovation. Or in class, we have to use a lot of teaching aids, such as slideshows, tools, etc. "Understanding and teaching in such a formal way makes learning Math uninteresting," said Mr. Than.

Associate Professor, Dr. Ton Than, former Head of Mathematics and Information Technology Department of Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences . Photo: Thanh Hung.

According to Mr. Than, currently, there are many teaching methods for Math, such as: Developmental and problem-solving teaching; discovery teaching; interactive teaching; teaching through experience,...

But according to Mr. Than, in the end, we need to teach in the spirit of "don't force students to drink, make them thirsty".

Teachers should not impose knowledge on students, or force them to listen, to memorize this theorem, that method,... but should be the ones to inspire and arouse in them a passion for learning. "Students must be made by teachers with their pedagogical art to be 'thirsty' for knowledge, to want to explore and discover," said Mr. Than.

“In today’s language, teachers must create ‘dramas’ to excite students and attract their attention. Thus, teachers play a leading role, while students play an active role. Once they are ‘thirsty’, students will naturally find ways to quench their thirst,” Associate Professor Dr. Ton Than said.

Associate Professor Dr. Ton Than also believes that it is necessary to change the testing and assessment methods to be true to the nature and classify students. Because if not, we will only be able to select "solvers". "The danger is that those students can solve many difficult problems but cannot solve life problems. The 'problems' in life do not have a ready-made model, students cannot solve them; even the problems that people just change a little bit and do not follow the model are not solved. In testing and assessment, we have not been able to do that. In the end, the results are fake even though there are really high scores", Associate Professor Dr. Ton Than said.

Editor Nguyen Huu Viet Khue (Vietnam Television, graduated with honors from the Bachelor of Science in Mathematics program of the University of Natural Sciences, VNU) said that he was once a person with basic training in Mathematics and also observed many students, and found that: "Many students solve problems very quickly, but not all of them understand the nature of the problem. That is, they study like "a machine" to get high scores, pass exams, and receive satisfaction from their parents, family, etc. That is what I think needs to be improved in the current study and teaching of Mathematics".

Editor Viet Khue also expressed concern about the scores in class: “Students can get 8, 9, 10 points in class, those are high scores, but when I ask a very simple question like what is a simplest fraction, they either cannot answer or are incorrect. So, teaching is a real form and we have to worry about it.”

Professor Ngo Bao Chau shares at the seminar. Photo: Thanh Hung.

Professor Ngo Bao Chau believes that solving a problem is not simply finding the answer and solving it correctly, but also giving a clear, easy-to-understand and essential solution. “Learning math, not only now but also in the past, requires understanding the essence to present the solution. Sometimes, even though you can solve a problem, you may not understand what the essence is,” said Professor Ngo Bao Chau.

Professor Ngo Bao Chau believes that to make students "thirsty", it is necessary to make them understand the essence instead of just memorizing a theorem,...

“Understanding is demonstrated by the process by which students can connect one piece of knowledge to another. Teaching is not about mechanically conveying what needs to be proven, but about helping students know how to create connections between blocks of knowledge,” said Professor Ngo Bao Chau.

Dr. Hoang Anh Duc, researcher at RMIT University, shared at the seminar. Photo: Thanh Hung.

Dr. Hoang Anh Duc (RMIT University) believes that we need to pay attention to the learning goals we are aiming for. According to Dr. Duc, it is necessary to create opportunities for students to express their free thinking, have the right to think and the right to be wrong.

“Let’s give back the right to be curious, the right to ask questions to students. Normally, during the teaching process, when students answer correctly, teachers’ faces will be bright. If a student answers incorrectly, their faces will be a bit downcast. After just a few weeks, students will guess which teacher usually asks this question, that type of question, and will direct their answers according to the teachers’ ‘taste’. That is the process by which their thinking is eroded. Therefore, whether in the AI era or any other era, teachers should find opportunities to give students the right to ask questions, even if they ask wrong questions, as long as they ask and ask their own questions,” Dr. Duc sent a message to teachers.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/nguoi-thay-tao-ra-drama-hao-hung-dung-bat-hoc-sinh-uong-hay-lam-cac-em-khat-2428041.html