Flexibility in teaching and learning local education, overcoming the situation of 'teaching without words, learning without words'

This is also a compulsory program in the 2018 General Education Program and is being flexibly implemented by schools in Nghe An, despite many difficulties.

Practical lessons

Lessonlocal educationwith the topic "Beliefs and religions in Nghe An", for 8th grade students, was organized quite flexibly by teacher Tran Duc Phuong - Literature teacher, Lam Son Secondary School (Nghia Dan) with many forms of expression. At the beginning of the lesson, with many vivid visual images shown on the screen, students were introduced to the origin and characteristics of religions in Nghe An and some famous religious belief works.

After helping students understand the basic content of the lesson, the remaining time will be for students to discuss in small groups. Groups 1, 2, 3 will introduce the origin of beliefs and religions, while groups 4, 5, 6 will present the concept of the lesson. During the discussion, the teacher encourages students to relate to the local reality, right where they live, so that they can understand and grasp the lesson better.

Before starting the lesson, the teacher asks students to research the reality of the place where they live. From this pre-prepared data, when starting the lesson, the teacher will rearrange it so that students can understand more thoroughly and deeply.

Up to this point, the compilation of textbooks for the local education subject for grade 8 has not been completed. Although there are instructions on the topics of the lessons, the implementation for teachers still has its own difficulties.

Sharing about this, teacher Tran Duc Phuong said: The total duration of the Local Education Program is only 35 periods and is integrated into many different subjects. I see that students are quite excited about this subject, because it is related to the reality of where they live, study and are exposed to every day. With the 8th grade program, I was assigned to teach 2 topics about religious beliefs and Nghe An folk songs and I also researched a lot of information to design electronic lectures. However, the current difficulty is that there are no textbooks to guide, so teachers and students have to explore, research and focus on letting students demonstrate their own abilities...

At Nghi Hoa Primary School (Cua Lo Town), local education lessons are often combined with practical experiences at historical sites and craft villages. Most recently, during a geography lesson on aquatic and seafood, teacher Tran Thi Quynh Anh took students to visit a fish sauce production model in wooden barrels so that they could better understand the famous seafood processing profession of fishermen.

The Local Education Program at the primary level is integrated into many subjects and teachers can apply a lot of practical knowledge into teaching. As with this lesson, students can grasp the fish sauce production process, the advantages of this industry in the marine economy and see the hardships and difficulties of people when doing the job, they will appreciate the value of labor more.

Teacher Tran Quynh Anh - Nghi Hoa Primary School (Cua Lo Town)

Be careful in compiling documents

Up to now, after the first 3 years of implementing the local education program at secondary and high school levels, the local education program is considered a quite interesting subject, because through the lessons, it has equipped students with a lot of knowledge about the history, culture, and society where they live. Thereby, it has also contributed to fostering love for the homeland, awareness of learning and applying what has been learned into life.

The problem we are facing here is that even though we have entered the third year of organizing teaching and learning, preparing textbooks is still difficult in the editing, appraisal and approval of the program.

In the previous school year, 10th graders following the 2018 General Education Program had to study one semester behind because there were no textbooks. This year, 8th graders, 11th graders and even 10th graders are also having to study without lessons, not yet implemented or schools are having to use temporary solutions such as using PDF documents, teachers have to prepare their own lesson plans. Moreover, the organization of teaching and learning in schools is having some shortcomings, one subject but many teachers participate (depending on the subject, topic)...

“This is a new subject, so we considered and evaluated it thoroughly during the process of compiling the materials. Through actual implementation, schools have implemented it seriously, many teachers have tried their best, are flexible in organizing lessons, and most teachers have searched for relevant materials themselves to supplement their lessons effectively.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy - Deputy Head of Secondary Education Department, Department of Education and Training

Recently, the Department of Education and Training has conducted experimental teaching of the new textbooks for grades 8 and 10 at many schools in Vinh city, Anh Son district and Dien Chau district, with each document covering 50% of the topics.

Through a trial lesson in History, teacher Dang Thi Quynh Hoa - teacher at Anh Son 1 High School said: "I experimented with teaching the lesson on relics and landscapes in the 11th grade program by introducing two relics, Bua Cave and Pu Mat Forest. Through practical teaching, I found that the textbook has introduced the core knowledge. However, the sections on economic value, tourism value, historical value, and images are not available or are sketchy. While the lesson requires students to highlight these values".

Ms. Quynh Hoa also added that this is an interesting but difficult subject. Therefore, if the textbook compilation is not complete, it will lead to difficulties for both teachers and students. As with the 10th grade program, the two topics that she participated in teaching about the content of the resistance war against foreign invaders or about Nghe An education, the materials in the book are not enough for a lecture and teachers are having to search for documents outside quite a lot.

With a spirit of learning and building, through the process of participating in experimental lectures, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy - Deputy Head of Secondary Education Department, Department of Education and Training added: “We organize up to 50% of experimental lessons in 3 localities, representing 3 regions, the purpose is to listen to opinions from teachers directly teaching in class, detect inappropriate things to adjust. On the part of the industry and related units, we will try to compile a set of quality local textbooks, meeting 3 streams of knowledge about history, traditional culture, geography, economy, career orientation and politics, society of Nghe An. Thereby, we try to bring the typical, outstanding features of Nghe An to students, helping them better understand the economic and social issues of the province and contribute to educating love for the homeland and country”./.