Many teachers are 'slow and lack initiative'

Hanoi Many teachers rely on textbooks, teach in the old way and lack initiative in the first year of grade 10 studying under the new program, according to the Department of Education and Training.

At the May 16 conference to review one year of implementing the new general education program (2018 program) for high school level, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Truong, principal of Thanh Oai A High School, said that many teachers were slow and lacked initiative in implementing new teaching methods. According to Mr. Truong, most still focus on imparting knowledge, while the new program requires teachers to organize activities, help students learn and maximize their abilities and personal qualities.

Sharing the same view, Principal Nguyen Thi Nhiep of Chu Van An High School said that many teachers teach in a traditional way, relying on experience and just reading and writing. According to Ms. Nhiep, experience is very important, but we cannot use this alone to implement the new program.

For example, when assigning tasks to students, teachers often ask general questions like "How do you feel about this lesson?", while, according to Ms. Nhiep, a better question is "What details do you remember about the beautiful scene?".

"Goals and tasks must be specific and clear, so that teachers can determine what methods they will use to implement them," said Ms. Nhiep.

Teachers invigilate the 2022 high school graduation exam in Hanoi. Photo: Giang Huy

The whole country will start implementing the new general education program from the 2020-2021 school year with grade 1, and will be implemented in a rolling manner with other grades, in parallel with changing textbooks. The 2022-2023 school year will be the first time that high school students will follow the new program with grade 10.

The Hanoi Department of Education and Training assessed that teachers' failure to adapt and innovate their thinking and teaching methods is a barrier to implementing the new program. When teachers rely too much on textbooks and teacher's books, lesson planning becomes mechanical, cumbersome, and far from the goal of developing students' qualities and abilities. Many teachers organize activities but they are too formal or not suitable for students' abilities and time. This also overloads students and reduces their interest.

According to the Department, one of the reasons for this situation is the habit of "learning what you study, testing what you do" that has existed for a long time, making it impossible for teachers to change immediately. According to principal Nguyen Xuan Truong, partly because schools do not have criteria to evaluate teaching methods, teachers still choose to teach in the old way "to be safe".

In addition, the Department assessed that some subjects and topics such as Physical Education and Economic and Legal Education have many new contents and approaches, requiring teachers to be more creative than what is written in the documents. However, the time for training and updating knowledge is not much.

Director of the Department of Education and Training Tran The Cuong at the conference on May 16 to review one year of implementing the new general education program for high school level, morning of May 16. Photo: Thanh Hang

To overcome this situation, Director of the Department of Education and Training Tran The Cuong requested high schools to review the quality of teachers; increase the quantity, form and scale of training and fostering; focus on connecting, learning and sharing experiences from other schools.

This is the method Bat Bat High School is applying. Currently, this school and Cau Giay High School are exchanging teaching materials and organizing workshops to implement the new program. Thanh Oai A High School is organizing sample teaching sessions for teachers or observing classes to give feedback. Principal Nguyen Xuan Truong said that the goal for the next school year is for all teachers to be proficient in implementing new teaching methods according to the program's requirements.

"At that time, comparing and evaluating teacher quality will be more accurate," said Mr. Truong.

Director Tran The Cuong said that the expectations of society and people are very high, so the education sector always faces certain pressure. However, innovation requires a process, one year is still a short time to comprehensively change education. In the next two years, the new program will be applied to grades 11 and 12 in high school.

Thanh Hang

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