History and the problem of teaching and learning History

In recent years, it has been a fact that the high school graduation exam and university entrance exam scores for History are very low; very few high school students register to take the History graduation exam. This has made public opinion increasingly interested in the teaching and learning of History in high schools.

Students of Le Quy Don High School for the Gifted, Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province, during a History class on sovereignty over seas and islands. Photo: NGUYEN CHUNG.

In our opinion, there are six reasons why History scores are low and students do not like to study History. First of all, it must be admitted that studying History is difficult and not attractive. History must be associated with events and characters, and to understand history, one must grasp the basic and important events and characters throughout the thousands of years of struggle to build and defend the country of our people.

Second, the program prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training requires students to grasp almost all the content of Vietnamese history and world history, while the number of prescribed periods is too small, only one period per week.

Third, due to the requirements of the program, the content in textbooks is too heavy, comprehensive, lacking in selectivity, and some content even lacks coherence and logic. The content in textbooks is like a "compressed disk", full of information that students cannot remember all of, leading to the situation of "learning first, forgetting later".

Fourth, as a minor subject, history teachers have not focused on improving the content and teaching methods. The situation of "teaching by rote" and forcing students to learn by heart mechanically is still common.

Fifth, the way the test questions and answers are created also affects the students' test results. Many questions are too difficult, focusing on numbers and facts, and not close to the learning content; there is a gap between the test questions and the answers, making it difficult for students to do and difficult for the examiners to evaluate.

Sixth, our society today does not attach importance to History and the history industry. History is often classified as a secondary subject in schools. Not only that, job opportunities for History graduates are not many, and if there are any, the income is very low.

In our opinion, it is not accurate to judge whether students do not like studying History or lack knowledge about Vietnamese history based on the results of the History exam of high school students or the fact that few students register for the History graduation exam. Students with poor academic performance will do poorly in all subjects, not just History.

In recent years, the Vietnam Historical Science Association has organized awards for excellent students in History in high schools nationwide, including students who love and understand Vietnamese history, write and speak about Vietnamese history so well that teachers are very proud and admire them. Not only that, currently, in our country, there is a reality that in addition to state agencies with the function of researching and compiling history, localities, clans, and people who love history also write history. From a social perspective, is it an act that shows the love and respect for history of the Vietnamese people?

Vietnamese history is very rich, attractive and proud, while the dissemination of national history to the people through many different channels (such as books, newspapers, electronic newspapers, television, movies, tours...) is still limited. Many Vietnamese people understand foreign history better than their own history. Loving national history is not the same as being good at History. Studying History once you do not have to take the graduation exam, job opportunities for history graduates are very rare, the income and status of teachers or historical science researchers are too low compared to society, etc. will reduce the number of students registering for the exam and studying History.

From the above analysis, in order for students to love History, we need to pay attention to the following issues: Responsible agencies need to put History in its proper place in society (in terms of politics, culture, security and defense of the country), thereby having appropriate policies for studying this subject in schools and for using cadres in the History science sector. This is the first macro measure to encourage students to love and study History. Regarding the curriculum and exams, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to arrange a reasonable curriculum in the subject system.

Make History one of the basic subjects like Math and Literature; increase reasonable class hours for this subject. Regarding the curriculum, reduce knowledge requirements compared to the issued program and accordingly reduce content, distill the basic core and consistent issues of Vietnamese history, limit issues, characters, and events that are not representative and are of a minor nature.

According to each class, each level is equivalent to the age of the students to prepare the curriculum, lectures to be suitable in both content and language, avoiding the situation where the content of general education textbooks is an abridged version of the university program. Regarding teaching methods, combine the transmission of content with historical storytelling, combine teaching according to the curriculum with illustration by diagrams, charts, pictures, photos; combine teaching Vietnamese history with world history, national history and local history; combine learning in class with field trips and practice.

Regarding exam questions, it is necessary to closely follow the learning content and be appropriate to the level and age of the students. The exam questions must be clear and precise, avoiding the situation where the questions have many ways to solve, while there is only one answer. The exam content, along with testing basic knowledge, needs to present "open" questions to evaluate the general knowledge, skills, and creativity of the students.

The Vietnamese people have a tradition of ardent patriotism and of course love and respect the history of their country. We should not look at the test papers with errors about characters and events or the few students taking the History test to judge that our people do not like or know history. A reality that we are witnessing is:

Today’s young generation is pioneering and actively participating in youth volunteer movements, movements towards borders and islands, and making strong advances in the fields of science and technology. With national pride, the future owners of the country will certainly continue to write the heroic pages of the nation’s history, firmly protect independence, and successfully achieve the goal of building a rich and strong Vietnam.

According to NDĐT