Teachers and schools struggle with integrated teaching

Recurrence of teachers having to teach interdisciplinary subjects

Teacher Nguyen Thi Minh is a contract teacher who has taught for 3 years at Nghi Phuong Secondary School (Nghi Loc). Although she is not yet an official teacher, her duties at the school are no different from those of a tenured teacher, because she is responsible for teaching, nurturing gifted students, being a homeroom teacher, and also taking on a number of other subjects... The most difficult of which is teaching Natural Science (integrating the three subjects of Biology - Chemistry, Physics).

Previously, teacher Nguyen Thi Minh graduated from university with a major in Biology. Implementing the new teaching program, she was in charge of the Natural Science subject and in addition to Biology, she also taught Chemistry and Physics. In addition, she also taught Computer Science because the school was lacking teachers for this subject.

Talking about her job, teacher Nguyen Thi Minh said: “The Natural Science subject is a new subject, so students are not familiar with it. Meanwhile, teachers do not have many reference materials. Currently, we have to learn a lot from our senior colleagues or invest time to research online resources. Before each lesson, we have to study the lecture, and after each lesson, we have to discuss with the professional team to see if the effectiveness is appropriate or not so that we can make adjustments.”

Entered the 3rd year of implementationNew general education programHowever, teacher Nguyen Cong Son - Principal of Nghi Phuong Secondary School is still worried, because for many consecutive years the school has been in a state of teacher shortage and the number of seconded teachers has fluctuated every year. This has greatly affected the arrangement and organization of teaching at the school. Currently, the school does not have teachers for Fine Arts, Music, and Information Technology, so all remaining teachers have to take on one of these subjects, even though they do not have expertise. In the integrated subject of Natural Sciences, according to regulations, teachers who want to teach effectively must have expertise in teaching integrated subjects. However, currently, the school is having to arrange teachers to teach "2 in 1", "3 in 1", or even more. In that context, improving quality is extremely difficult.

At Tra Lan Secondary School (Con Cuong town), although it is considered a key school in Con Cuong district, before the new school year, the school principal had to consider very carefully before being able to arrange teachers to teach in the classroom. The school could not avoid the situation where one teacher had to take on many subjects because there were not enough teachers, including teacher Tran Oanh, a Physics teacher who had to teach Chemistry and Biology; teacher Le Sa ​​and teacher Ho Ha, Math teachers who had to teach Biology. Teacher Nguyen Thi Bich Nguyet - Principal of the school said: "Taking on a part-time basis is only suitable for the first grades such as grade 6 and grade 7. But in grade 8, this will not be effective because the program is heavy and requires deep expertise."

Concerns about organizing exams

After more than 25 years as a Physics teacher, with many excellent students, teacher Nguyen Thi Hiep - Teacher at Nghi Thuy Secondary School (Cua Lo town) admitted that "the new program makes me confused, from the way of teaching, the way of making questions, the way of testing and the way of evaluating students".

At Nghi Thuy Secondary School, instead of teachers having to teach interdisciplinary subjects, the school still tries to arrange for teachers to teach independently. However, having only one Natural Science subject but 3 teachers of Physics - Chemistry - Biology teaching together leads to difficulties in organizing teaching.

Sharing about this, Ms. Hiep added: “Last year, we organized teaching by subject, which means finishing one subject before continuing to teach another subject. So there were times when we taught more than 25 periods/week, although the regulation for secondary school teachers is only 19 periods/week. But there were times when we were free because it was time for another subject. But this year, the school changed the teaching method, instead of teaching by subject, we were arranged independently for each subject. But this led to "contradictions". For example, I am currently teaching the first lessons of Physics for grade 8, but the textbook is allocated to chapter 3, lesson 8. Meanwhile, students studying Biology are studying all the way to chapter VIII, which is very unreasonable."

Teacher Nguyen Thi Hiep also said that the purpose of the integrated Natural Science subject is to create a logical chain with links between subjects. However, through the practice of teaching 3 years of grades 6, 7, 8, she realized that there is not much knowledge connecting between subjects. Therefore, organizing teaching as an integrated subject at present is inappropriate and not suitable for the reality at the grassroots level.

Previously, in the first 2 years of implementation, she also encountered difficulties in implementing the students' tests. Therefore, although the testing method has been changed 3 times, she is still not satisfied. “The first time we gave a common test that linked all 3 subjects, but when it came to grading, we felt very confused. The second time we gave questions for each subject, but we had difficulties grading and entering scores. The third time, we gave questions in the form of multiple choice tests, with answers available, making it easier for teachers to grade because they could grade the answers. But in the end, teachers did not know the ability of their students because a teacher could grade up to 3 subjects without knowing the quality of the students' work,” Ms. Hiep shared.

The 2023-2024 school year is considered an accelerated school year because the new general education program has been implemented in grades 6, 7, and 8 and will be completed next year. However, up to this point, the organization of teaching and learning and the implementation of exams are still confusing.

Speaking about this, teacher Tran Thi Thuy Thanh - Principal of Nghi Thuy Secondary School added: "In grade 8, secondary school students will start participating in district, town and city level excellent student competitions. But currently we do not have any instructions on which subjects they will take. If the exam is based on a combination of Natural Sciences and Social Sciences, students will be overloaded because they have to study 2-3 subjects. But if we divide the subjects into separate subjects for the exam, it is not in line with the spirit of innovation, studying each subject and taking the exam in that subject. The exam is about to start but our school is still confused and has not yet established a team."

This is also a common situation in all other schools in the province. Many teachers are also concerned that for students in secondary school, the biggest pressure is the entrance exam to grade 10, the entrance exam to specialized schools. So with the integrated subjects of Natural Sciences or Social Sciences, will traditional specialized classes such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, History still exist in the future, or will there be new specialized subjects to match the 2018 General Education Program? While there is still no specific guidance, schools, teachers and students will still face many confusions in organizing teaching, learning and participating in exams.

To facilitate schools in the process of organizing teaching, this year the Department of Education and Training also made adjustments such as for Natural Science, schools can proactively assign teachers to teach the subject to ensure the requirements are suitable for the professional capacity of the teachers and can develop teaching plans, arrange time, and flexible teaching times for each content in each semester. However, other questions are still unanswered and are awaiting guidance from the Ministry of Education and Training.

Previously, at the conference summarizing the school year, the Minister of Education and Training also said that integrated subjects will be adjusted and ensured not to cause too much disruption. Teachers and schools hope that before making changes, the Ministry needs to listen to opinions from the grassroots so that the removal is closer to reality and in line with the wishes of teachers and students.