The problem when '2 in 1', '3 in 1' teachers teach integrated natural science subjects

Interdisciplinary but "unrelated" teacher

Over 50 years old and planning to retire early, teacher Le Thi Phuong Thao - Biology teacher at Nghi Phong Secondary School (Nghi Loc district) still decided to take charge of two subjects, including Biology for grades 7 and 9, and Chemistry for grade 6. She is also the only teacher at Nghi Phong Secondary School who can take on this requirement. Teaching two subjects at the same time and preparing lesson plans for three levels of education takes a lot of her time and effort. Not to mention, Chemistry is a major that is different from the major she was trained in.

Natural Science is a new subject in the 2018 General Education Program, integrating 3 subjects: Physics - Chemistry - Biology. Photo: My Ha

Sharing about this, Ms. Phuong Thao said: The Natural Science subject of the new General Education Program is built with the integration of 3 subjects Physics - Chemistry - Biology and the lesson design is linked together. Therefore, if a teacher can take charge of three subjects, teaching will be more effective instead of each person teaching a different subject. Personally, when deciding to teach two subjects, I was quite hesitant. But fortunately, over the years, I have regularly taught my children to study at home all the subjects of Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and they do not go to extra classes, so I have a fairly solid amount of knowledge. Therefore, even though it is a new program, I only need to review the lesson to be able to do it.

Because there is only oneteachercan teach interdisciplinary subjects, so although it is the second year of implementing the new general education program, Nghi Phong Secondary School still implements the teaching of Natural Science in parallel, meaning that 3 teachers are assigned to teach 3 different subjects at the same time. This helps the school to conveniently assign and arrange teachers, but the quality of the subject is somewhat affected.

Talking about the reason, teacher Nguyen Dinh Dien - Principal of the school said: Currently, teaching at our school is still going on normally but it is not really favorable because there are not enough teachers to meet the requirements of the program. Meanwhile, if teaching 3 subjects at the same time will lead to a situation where there are subjects that are ahead of the program, for example, there is knowledge in Chemistry that has not been taught but Biology has been taught and there is a lack of connection between the subjects. Or there are cases where one subject is integrated between two or three subjects, so teachers have to learn more about other subjects to be able to integrate. The current solution of the school is that if the program is related to another lesson that students have not learned, teachers have to sit together to review the lesson and support each other in terms of knowledge.

At the age of over 50, teacher Le Thi Phuong Thao is the only female teacher who can teach interdisciplinary subjects at Nghi Phong Secondary School. Photo: My Ha.

While Nghi Phong Secondary School is implementing parallel teaching, at Ha Huy Tap Secondary School - Vinh City, this plan cannot be implemented because the school has over 2,000 students. Currently, according to the distribution, each week the school has 84 Physics, Chemistry or Biology periods, while the school only has 3 Chemistry teachers, 3 Physics teachers and 3 Biology teachers.

The pressure is even heavier for students in grades 6 and 7 - the first two grades to implement the new General Education Program, because each grade has 13 classes. If teachers are assigned to each subject, there will not be enough teachers to teach the class. The school's current solution for Natural Science is to assign one teacher to be in charge, even though that teacher has only been formally trained in one subject or has graduated in Physics, Chemistry, or Biology.

I graduated with a degree in Physics Education, so I am currently teaching Biology and Chemistry, so I certainly cannot avoid difficulties.

Although we had been trained to teach interdisciplinary subjects before the school year, there was not much time and most of us had to study on our own. In addition, the professional groups in the school also had to regularly support in the form of teachers in charge of organizing professional meetings, guiding and helping teachers of interdisciplinary subjects design lessons. During the implementation process, if there was anything we did not understand or were unclear about, we would learn more from books and from colleagues.

Teacher Nhu Hoa - Teacher at Ha Huy Tap Secondary School

Concerns when implementing the new General Education Program

With the current arrangement of teachers, Ha Huy Tap Secondary School has basically solved the problem of teacher shortage. However, for a school with the largest number of students in the province and an annual education quality that is among the top in the city, this method only solves the immediate difficulties.

Talking about this, teacher Nguyen Thi Huyen Nga - Vice Principal of the school said: All the teachers of the school who are assigned to teach Natural Science are young teachers, love their jobs and are eager to learn. However, we are also determining that this is only suitable for grades 6 and 7 when the amount of knowledge in the subjects is still simple. However, when moving to grades 8 and 9, the amount of knowledge is more and more difficult, it is clear that the arrangement of teachers "2 in 1", "3 in 1" will no longer be suitable and if we continue to "try", it will affect the quality of teaching at the school.

Natural Science class at Ha Huy Tap Secondary School. Photo: My Ha.

The concern of the Board of Directors of Ha Huy Tap Secondary School is completely justified because from grade 8, in addition to the amount of knowledge that is more difficult, the school is also preparing its staff to train for the excellent student exams at the city and provincial levels and to create resources to prepare for the final exams to enter specialized schools. Many teachers believe that "if students study in a rolling form or teach by subject" as they do now, they will forget a lot of knowledge, because the time to study each subject will sometimes be interrupted for many months. Moreover, if the teacher in charge of the subject is not properly trained and does not have a major, it will be difficult to train excellent students...

Many teachers are also worried, this is the second year of implementing the new General Education Program and have taught integrated subjects. However, there is still no answer on how this subject will be tested, especially in the gifted student exam (testing by separate subjects or testing the 3 subjects Physics - Chemistry - Biology). Therefore, at present, the establishment of teams in schools is still under consideration.

Through discussions with many teachers and school leaders, the current confusion in organizing integrated subject teaching at secondary level is still due to the fact that the teaching staff has not met the requirements. In fact, at the present time, in teacher training colleges, there are no students graduating from integrated subjects, so they cannot be recruited. Previously, some teachers graduated from college and had interdisciplinary teacher training, but it was not suitable for the current reality, for example, training teachers of Literature - History, History - Civic Education, Biology - Physical Education or Geography - Chemistry. Meanwhile, the current demand must be teachers of History - Geography, Chemistry - Biology or Physics - Chemistry...

Because teachers are not enough, in many schools today, many teachers are overloaded, especially in schools that are implementing the integrated teaching method by topic. For example, with grade 7, if taught in this form, in the first semester, students are studying two subjects Physics and Chemistry and in the second semester, students will study Biology. Therefore, in the first semester, Chemistry teachers can teach up to 30 periods (10 periods more than the regulation). But in the second semester, Biology teachers are overloaded. Currently, many schools cannot implement teaching in this form, because firstly, there is no budget to contract more teachers. In the case that teachers are arranged to teach more than one period, there is no budget to pay for extra hours for teachers.

Class time of students at Hung Loc Secondary School - Vinh City. Photo: My Ha

The current problem in schools is that there is a local shortage of teachers, making it difficult to arrange. For example, in our school, there are 3 Physics teachers, 3 Biology teachers but only 1 Chemistry teacher. That forces us to contract an additional Chemistry teacher even though the school's teacher structure is already 1.7 teachers/class. However, because there are no teachers to contract, we are currently contracting with a teacher who is teaching at Dang Thai Mai Secondary School.

The current method of teaching by subject also forces schools to constantly change their timetables to meet the correct subject ratio for teachers. This is really hard for students, sometimes they have to study continuously 4 periods/subject 1 week, sometimes they have to take breaks. Meanwhile, in the previous program, students only studied 2 periods/subject.

Teacher Dau Thi Huong - Vice Principal of Hung Loc Secondary School (Vinh city)

With the current difficulties, it is clear that solving this difficulty is beyond the capacity of schools, even the provincial education sector. Furthermore, many teachers and schools hope that the Ministry of Education and Training needs to grasp the actual implementation in schools and listen to teachers' feedback to make early adjustments, or have support solutions to help teaching integrated subjects in schools achieve the set goals and effectiveness./.