Pedagogical practices in teacher recruitment: Necessary and appropriate

GD&TĐ - The Law on Teachers 2025, passed by the 15th National Assembly, has established many important innovations, including the requirement to add a pedagogical practice round in teacher recruitment, which is receiving great attention from educational institutions.

This is considered a step forward from the "theoretical test" recruitment method to "measuring actual capacity", thereby contributing to improving the quality of the team.

The need for teacher recruitment

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Hue - Vice Principal of Quang Chu Kindergarten (Cho Moi Commune, Thai Nguyen Province), teacher recruitment in the past was mainly based on resumes or written exams. Although convenient, cost-effective and easy to organize, this form has not yet assessed the pedagogical capacity of candidates in the classroom environment. "The addition of a pedagogical practice round in teacher recruitment marks a fundamental change in thinking in the education sector's human resources policy. When candidates have to stand in class, handle situations and demonstrate teaching skills, they will demonstrate their ability and practical capacity," Ms. Hue said.

According to Ms. Hue , the new regulation not only creates a legal basis for assessing professional capacity in a realistic way, but also contributes to protecting the rights of learners, who are directly affected by the quality of the teaching staff. Thanks to that, schools can recruit suitable candidates, reducing the pressure of retraining after recruitment.

Mr. Dinh Quang Tung - Principal of Nam Phong Secondary School (Vi Khe, Ninh Binh ) shared: “From the perspective of the unit directly using the teaching staff, we highly appreciate the regulation that from January 1, 2026, teacher recruitment candidates must have a standard amount of pedagogical practice time. This is a policy that is completely consistent with the current practice of general schools, where professional quality alone is not enough, but the ability to handle situations, manage classrooms and methods of organizing educational activities are the decisive factors in teaching effectiveness.

During many years of management work, I have noticed a common reality: Many young teachers after graduation are still quite bewildered when entering the actual teaching practice. Although they have a firm grasp of professional knowledge, they lack skills and teaching methods; they are confused when organizing educational activities or handling pedagogical situations that arise daily. Some young teachers still lack professional courage, are not really proactive in taking charge of the classroom, especially when there are observers or when they have to stand in front of the class during important school activities.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tan - Principal of Nhon Mai Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities (Nhon Mai Commune, Nghe An) said that, having worked as a manager in many schools, he has met many teachers who are "good but not very good". "There are very good Math teachers, with high degrees and training results at the teacher training college, but in reality, their teaching is not outstanding. Although this teacher has excellent Math ability, during his working time he has not trained any excellent students in the province.

That is to say, teaching is a special profession, requiring not only knowledge but also skills, methods, creativity… to be able to teach well. Therefore, I support the inclusion of pedagogical practice in the recruitment process as a step to screen professional skills and assess the actual capacity of candidates,” said Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tan.

A teacher at Phuc Son Kindergarten (Anh Son, Nghe An) guides children to recognize numbers and letters. Photo: Ho Lai

Fair and transparent in recruitment

Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nhung - Principal of Dong Dat Kindergarten (Phu Luong commune, Thai Nguyen province) highly appreciated the requirement of pedagogical practice and considered this an important step, moving the recruitment process from 'theoretical testing' to 'measuring substance'. However, for the policy to be successful, the core is to organize it transparently, fairly and consistently throughout the system.

According to Ms. Nhung, assessing teaching practice is not just observing a lesson. The recruitment council needs to develop a clear and unified set of criteria on professional competence, classroom organization skills, ability to handle situations and professional attitude.

“If done well, this will be a powerful filter, helping to select teachers with knowledge and skills to teach in the classroom. This is necessary in the context of preschool education being under a lot of pressure regarding quality and safety for children. Organizing a practical exam for preschool education in particular requires preparing classrooms, equipment, teaching aids, groups of children for candidates to practice, along with a team of experts,” Ms. Nhung emphasized.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tan - Principal of Nhon Mai Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities shared: "During my time as a manager, I have observed hundreds of teachers with thousands of teaching sessions. With just 15 minutes of observation, we can basically assess the teaching capacity of that teacher."

A good teacher is not only qualified in professional knowledge, but also in the ability to organize educational activities for students. A good, creative teacher will be immediately shown in the system of questions given to students, the way of leading the problem, stimulating them to learn and explore knowledge; at the same time, creating an attractive learning atmosphere, suitable for students' psychology with content and knowledge content suitable for their actual capacity.

Therefore, Mr. Tan believes that incorporating pedagogical practice into the teacher recruitment process is very necessary and feasible. In a teaching session, the jury with selected professional core will certainly evaluate the candidate's ability. The issue is fairness, transparency, and objectivity in recruitment. From the organization process, if the evaluation criteria are built scientifically and appropriately, young teachers who are both good at their profession and have the ability to practice pedagogy and progress in the future will be selected.

Teaching hours of teachers and students at Huynh Thuc Khang High School (Thanh Vinh, Nghe An). Photo: Ho Lai

Promote the improvement of pedagogical practice skills

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nhung - Principal of Dong Dat Kindergarten (Thai Nguyen), the 2025 Teachers Law and regulations on pedagogical practice not only change the recruitment process, but also contribute to improving the status of the teaching profession. When capacity is measured by practice, preschool teachers will have to proactively practice pedagogical skills, constantly learn and prepare themselves to stand in class.

Strongly supporting the idea of ​​making pedagogical practice a mandatory condition before recruitment, Mr. Dinh Quang Tung - Principal of Nam Phong Secondary School (Vi Khe, Ninh Binh) said that for this policy to be truly effective, there needs to be a change in pedagogical training.

According to Mr. Tung, teacher training colleges need to increase students' access to reality: from the second year, they must be familiarized, observed, and guest lectured; from the third year, they need to participate in direct teaching or practice simulating pedagogical situations. This is the best way for students to continuously improve their professional skills, instead of just doing short-term internships at the end of the course.

After going through a systematic internship process, observing - teaching - self-assessment - receiving comments from experienced teachers, candidates enter the recruitment exam room with obvious maturity. At that time, young teachers are not only more confident but also have a deep understanding of school life, school culture and the psychology of students. From the recruitment unit's side, the recruitment exam should have two mandatory contents: Candidates must directly teach a unit of knowledge and handle a specific pedagogical situation. Thus, we can accurately assess the candidate's professional capacity, avoiding the situation of recruiting based only on theory.

According to Mr. Phan Trong Dong - Principal of Nguyen Xuan On High School (Dien Chau, Nghe An), currently, teacher recruitment is mainly based on a combination of competency profile and interview. Schools only participate in reviewing the team, proposing the needs, quantity and professional positions of teachers that are lacking.

However, in reality, after being recruited as civil servants, there are some young teachers whose teaching ability is not as expected. Although they are supported and guided by the school and professional groups, they still lack creativity and flexibility in teaching. This comes from limited pedagogical practice capacity. Therefore, adding pedagogical practice requirements in teacher recruitment is a good thing to do and must be done.

The Principal of Nguyen Xuan On High School also suggested that the teacher recruitment process should involve the teacher-using unit. They will contribute to the objective, honest and appropriate assessment of candidates applying to teach at their unit, with the goal of selecting teachers with good quality, professional capacity and pedagogical skills.

Mr. Dinh Quang Tung - Principal of Nam Phong Secondary School (Vi Khe, Ninh Binh) shared: "I believe that, with serious and synchronous preparation from the pedagogical school, management agency and general school, the new regulation will help improve the quality of newly recruited teachers, reduce the burden of initial training for schools and contribute to building a team of teachers with enough capacity to meet the requirements of educational innovation. I also hope that the Ministry of Education and Training will issue unified standards of pedagogical practice capacity, and at the same time have a mechanism to encourage instructors."

Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/thuc-hanh-su-pham-trong-tuyen-dung-giao-vien-can-thiet-va-phu-hop-post759279.html