Tighten extra classes for students to study on their own: Need guidance, don't leave them to "swim on their own"

Self-study time at school of students at Phan Huy Chu High School, Dong Da, Hanoi . Students have to discuss and complete assigned tasks together - Photo: HUY TRAN

But self-study and teaching how to self-study in practice is still a big gap.

Talking about promoting self-study to help students meet the requirements of knowledge and skills instead of taking too many extra classes, a school manager in Hanoi bluntly said that "that is just theory" because in reality, if teachers do not hold hands and guide students, it will be difficult for them to meet the requirements.

Pressure, parental expectations

Mr. Le Van Cuong, a teacher at Nguyen Tat Thanh Secondary and High School (Hanoi), said that the reason why "self-study" is not given much attention by some students, instead "extra study" is overemphasized is because parents are overly worried but do not want their children to work hard.

Furthermore, the exams are still heavy, often far exceeding the requirements of the program, making both parents and children feel that they have to study extra to get high scores and easily pass the stressful exams.

Mr. Vu Ngoc Toan, a chemistry teacher at Nguyen Tat Thanh Secondary and High School, also said that the impatience of wanting their children to achieve good results in exams and get into good schools has led many parents to choose to send their children to extra classes instead of encouraging them to study on their own. Meanwhile, except for senior students, students in other classes are currently distracted by many things, including electronic devices.

"Using modern tools such as the Internet, Google, and artificial intelligence (AI) is now popular, and has advantages that make the learning process easier, but also has the downside of making students dependent and lazy in thinking if there is no supervision from teachers," Mr. Toan shared.

Some teachers believe that many students lack motivation to study because of the mentality of "going to school for their parents, not for themselves". However, teachers also admit that there are many different pressures that lead to teachers not focusing on training students' self-study skills.

"Not all students have a sense of learning, so in reality, assigning work and controlling students' self-study is very difficult. Pressure from exams, from the program with many new points, from the requirements for achievements and expectations of parents are factors that make teachers only focus on teaching and how to help students achieve good learning and exam results in the shortest way", a high school teacher in Tay Ho district shared his true thoughts.

Need to understand self-study correctly

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh, principal of the Hanoi School ofEducation Training, said that in order for "self-study" to have positive changes, it must first be understood correctly.

From the student's perspective, self-study needs to be appropriate to the age and type of student. That means teachers cannot "let go" and let students manage their own self-study, but depending on each age (primary or secondary), depending on the type of student (grouped by level and awareness), there will be different ways of assigning tasks and supervising.

"Self-study is not only an activity that students do alone at home, but can also be done in class and in many different activities. How to make students read, do things by themselves such as measuring, practicing, searching for documents, exploiting charts and data provided... depending on the learning content and requirements for capacity and skills from simple to more complex.

There are tasks that students do alone but can be done in study groups. Perhaps giving students to read a text, answer some questions, record the results of an experience is also self-study. This whole series of self-study activities must be designed, assigned, guided and supervised by the teacher.

During this process, parents can also participate in supervising their children, but teachers and parents cannot do it for them. Self-study needs attention and must start from the time students are in lower grades so that skills can be formed, become habits, and become proactive on the part of the learner," said Mr. Thanh.

According to Mr. Thanh, the 2018 General Education Program requires students to have high self-study skills. But to achieve that, teachers must be trained and aware of "teaching self-study" to students.

Teachers can reduce presentations and lectures, but the workload of teachers does not decrease but increases, becomes more difficult, especially during the period of changing teaching methods and approaches. The school's education plan and the teacher's education plan must address the issue of guiding students to self-study and be regularly discussed and controlled in professional group activities.

Primary school students also need to practice self-study skills through activities guided by teachers to experience, observe and write down or express their comments - Photo: NGUYEN LAM

New program, teachers and students must change

Ms. Hoang Anh, a literature teacher at Chu Van An High School for the Gifted, shared that in the old literature program, the content of a literary work was taught and the content of that work was tested. Students who listened to her lectures a lot and memorized the lectures could pass the test.

But the new program has changed a lot. Students are taught to improve skills such as reading comprehension and writing. The works in the program are just illustrative materials. This year, the transfer exam and high school graduation exam will also use materials outside the program.

With this change, teachers must focus on teaching students a solid grasp of theory (text genres, steps to perform skill test requirements) and practice reading and writing more.

"The advantage of the new program is that students have to read more and write more. But it will be hard for both teachers and students. Therefore, guiding students to study by themselves through specific tasks is very necessary. Instead of mainly lecturing in class, teachers will have more work to do, such as designing activities, different content requirements for students, and grading and correcting more papers," said Ms. Hoang Anh.

Mr. Vu Ngoc Toan shared his approach, according to which guiding students to self-study can be included in the assignment of tasks before, during and after school hours: "Instead of teachers doing as before, many tasks will be transferred to students to prepare and perform. However, teachers will have to build a system of questions, exercises, and necessary activities very carefully, linked to the requirements of the program content."

For self-study to come from the needs and initiative of students, from the beginning, there needs to be guidance and supervision from teachers, parents and a positive environment where students study together, exchange and support each other. In my class, I divide students into study groups. Every week, the group leader will report on the learning situation, including learning results and discipline.

Ms. PHAM THU PHUONG (teacher at Nguyen Tat Thanh Secondary and High School)

Do it for your child so they don't have to work so hard.

Parents of a middle school in Cau Giay district shared in a class group about the idea of ​​parents sharing to make review outlines for their children's subjects because the children are having such a hard time studying for exams.

According to this parent, the time is coming when teachers will check their children's review outlines, and there are subjects where students have to answer dozens of questions in the review outline. During the final exam preparation period, students attend too many extra classes and do not have time to do the outlines. If parents do it for their children, their work will be "lighter" and they will only have to study.

The reason for "making outlines for students" is because many parents only think that this is to "report to the teacher" and not to help the students. Some think that when parents help, it will reduce the amount of work their children have to do themselves and they will only have to memorize the outline.

Applying technology to test self-study

Phan Huy Chu High School, Dong Da, Hanoi has been using the review app for 100% of its students for many years. With this app, teachers can closely monitor students' self-study and self-test progress, such as calculating the correct and incorrect rates of questions, calculating the level of students' test completion, grading, and easily classifying the sections with a high percentage of students doing it incorrectly to discuss in class, correct tests, etc.

According to Mr. Tran Van Huy - a physics teacher and also the school's network administrator, the application of information technology helps teachers immediately detect students who have not started self-studying at home, and at the same time clearly see the amount of homework and work that subject teachers assign to students to balance and avoid overloading students in each self-study hour at home.

Back to topic

VINH HA

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/siet-day-them-de-hoc-sinh-tu-hoc-can-co-huong-dan-khong-bo-mac-cac-em-tu-boi-20250524002203209.htm