How can we change the teaching of integrated subjects?

One of the most notable points is that the education sector currently lacks teachers trained in integrated subjects, while teachers who teach single subjects, after a short training period, switch to teaching integrated subjects, resulting in unsatisfactory teaching quality.

Responding to concerns from many educators regarding the difficulties and shortcomings related to teaching integrated subjects at the lower secondary level under the 2018 General Education Program, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son stated that changes will be made in the near future.

So, how should changes to integrated subject teaching (natural science ; history and geography, art and local education content) be implemented to avoid disruption?

A one-hour integrated natural science lesson for 7th-grade students in Ho Chi Minh City.

As a teacher trained in history as a single subject with 37 years of teaching experience, I would like to propose some solutions for changing the integrated subject curriculum.

Keep the original curriculum, adjust the integrated subject into a sub-subject.

The Ministry of Education and Training should maintain the 2018 General Education Program because it is a standard, unified program that ensures scientific rigor, modernity, and progress, is suitable for the reality of Vietnam, and teachers and students are gradually adapting to it and achieving some initial results.

However, the biggest problem is the lack of teachers who meet the requirements for teaching integrated subjects. Textbooks for integrated subjects are still compiled according to separate, independent sub-disciplines, lacking integrated content. This leads to situations where two or three teachers teach the same textbook and grade the same papers during tests and timetable allocation.

Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to separate the integrated subject content into independent content: physics, chemistry, biology, history, geography, music , and fine arts, to ensure the required learning objectives of each sub-subject are met without affecting the overall content of the 2018 general education curriculum.

There is no need to reprint the integrated textbooks.

The integrated textbooks that have already been published do not need to be reprinted or separated because students can use one integrated history and geography textbook to study both subjects (saving money on buying separate books).

If reprinting is necessary, the publisher only needs to separate each subject for convenience. The common theme within the integrated history and geography subject is also simple; if the common theme is heavily focused on knowledge from a particular sub-discipline, then that sub-discipline should handle it, which is appropriate.

Similarly, natural science should be separated into independent subjects: physics, chemistry, biology, to facilitate teaching and learning.

Parents and students browse for textbooks at a bookstore in Ho Chi Minh City.

In addition, the local education content for grades 6, 7, and 8, currently compiled by local authorities, includes six subjects (literature, history, geography, music, art, and civics) combined into a single book.

Many teachers suggest that the local education content should be removed and separated into independent sections, returning them to individual subjects. This would allow teachers to integrate it into each subject, facilitating teaching, professional development, and timetable scheduling.

Do not use single-subject teachers to teach integrated subjects.

While there is still a shortage of well-trained integrated subject teachers, continuing to use teachers who teach only one subject to teach integrated subjects will compromise quality and contradict the 2018 General Education Program. Therefore, allowing teachers to teach their own single subjects is necessary, reasonable, and scientifically sound in this situation.

Furthermore, assessment methods need to be adjusted to be more appropriate. For example, individual subject grading could be implemented to avoid the complications and difficulties associated with the current integrated subject assessment method. This is the most important point, and the Ministry of Education and Training should quickly make adjustments to better implement the 2018 General Education Program, focusing on teaching that develops students' competencies and qualities.

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