Teacher Van Nhu Cuong uses Facebook to connect with his students.

Associate Professor Van Nhu Cuong is known for his "playful" Facebook presence, with statuses that attract public attention. His Facebook account is befriended by many of his former students.

Not only are they respected teachers who impart knowledge, but many teachers also captivate their students with their engaging "tricks." In fact, many teachers have even had fan pages created by their students...

Go on Facebook to understand your students.

When mentioning respected teachers beloved by generations of students, it's impossible not to include Associate Professor Van Nhu Cuong. "Teacher Cuong" - that's how many students affectionately called him.

Meeting him in his room, which serves as both his living and working space, he happily showed off his treasures: two large glass jars containing thousands of paper cranes folded by his students as gifts, a thousand loving wishes for his good health so he can continue to accompany them. He recounted that last year, even during the most severe course of his treatment, he still "escaped" from the hospital just to share a few words of joy with his students during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Teachers today need soft skills.

At nearly 80 years old, his health is failing, preventing him from teaching as he did in previous years, but he still meets and chats with his students daily, sometimes just during short breaks in the schoolyard. He is famous for his "active" Facebook (FB) posts that attract public attention. His FB account has many student friends and a huge following of 116,000.

The teacher believes that Facebook is also a mirror for students to look at, to see how the teacher writes, what language he uses, and how he shares life's issues with them. He said: "A few years ago, when Facebook boomed, students at the school used it a lot, and there were instances of them badmouthing each other, harboring resentment, and fighting just for random likes..."

Seeing this situation, I held a meeting to gather students' opinions on rules for using Facebook, and they unanimously agreed on the following rules: no swearing, no writing inappropriate content, no slandering others, and no indiscriminately liking posts on Facebook without considering whether they are right or wrong. I believe teachers should also educate students on proper Facebook etiquette and guide them to behave appropriately on social media.

However, to achieve that, teachers need soft skills; they must be attentive and understanding of the students, knowing their attitudes so they can correct them in a timely manner. These skills must be developed by the teachers themselves to keep pace with the students; teacher training colleges don't teach them these things."

Despite his frail health, on important occasions such as the start and end of the school year, or the Lunar New Year, the teacher always shared heartfelt messages with his students. His letter welcoming the new school year 2015-2016 touched many generations of students because of his closeness, care, and love.

In the letter, the teacher wrote: "...Later, you may become honest workers, highly skilled technicians, successful entrepreneurs, outstanding leaders, knowledgeable politicians..., but first and foremost, you must be decent people, capable of love and anger, for the people, for our beloved Vietnam... That is what I expect from you."

Beloved by his students and a social media sensation with over 138,000 followers, Dr. Nguyen Hoang Khac Hieu, a psychologist from Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, has earned the title of Outstanding Young Person as voted by the online community.

Besides his handsome appearance, Mr. Hieu is also a psychological counselor for young people. He has made many videos on hot topics among students such as: dealing with sexual predators, dealing with robberies, videos related to cohabitation and relationships, what to do when failing university entrance exams, etc.

The students even created a Facebook page to admire their teacher and dedicated a poem to him expressing their affection: “…Teacher, you often help people/advise the children, ‘show them the way’/You often stay up all night thinking/How to make the children focus on their studies/You are still so young, like me? So trendy, so familiar with teen slang/So many sincere words/Even offline teaching clips/You give so many good ideas/Essential skills to your students…”. For his contributions, Teacher Hieu was awarded the Outstanding Young Teacher award at the school and city levels.

Mr. Tran Quang Hung, Vice Principal of the Experimental High School (Hanoi), said: "The approach to educating students is very different from the past. Before, it was just about imparting knowledge, but now it focuses on developing students' abilities."

Therefore, teachers cannot maintain the old teaching methods; they are forced to innovate their teaching approaches to better understand students' abilities. Teachers teaching soft skills or guiding students towards experiential and creative activities will help students develop their potential even more. This is essential because it brings significant benefits to education.”

Versatile to keep pace with students.

Students today desire a teacher who not only imparts knowledge but also helps them develop soft skills and shares their experiences in life.

Facebook is an effective communication channel between teachers and students.

Tran Ngoc Anh Son, a student in class 12C at the Experimental High School, expressed: “I hope that teachers will be both transmitters of ideas and recipients of our suggestions, rather than rigidly following a formula. Only then can we create diversity and enthusiasm for learning. At the Experimental High School, most teachers are quite dynamic and youthful, making it easy for them to connect with us.”

Instead of just learning dry theory in the classroom, the teachers have changed their teaching methods by organizing activities such as thematic workshops, scientific research, and extracurricular activities... so that we can learn many skills and broaden our knowledge of society. Through these activities, teachers and students understand each other and find common ground, so the acquisition of knowledge is also more effective.”

In this era of integration, developing teachers' soft skills is extremely important, no less crucial than providing knowledge. Ms. Nguyen Thu Van, a geography teacher at the Experimental High School, stated: “The qualities of teachers today are very different from the past. Besides profound knowledge, teachers must also acquire a lot of social knowledge and build soft skills to support their students. Teachers also communicate with students via email and Facebook to share their difficulties in learning and in life.”

Regarding this issue, Mr. Tran Quang Hung expressed concern that training teachers in soft skills to meet the demands of education remains a significant gap. Good teachers now not only teach knowledge but also need to be trained in soft skills to adapt to the new educational environment.

Traditional teaching methods are one-way transmission of knowledge, but now there is a need to create two-way and three-way interaction between teachers and students, teachers and parents, and society... This requires teachers to proactively innovate their teaching methods to engage students and achieve high effectiveness in teaching.

Teacher Van Nhu Cuong stated: "In teacher training colleges, the focus is solely on knowledge, while skills and moral character are not taught in any curriculum. This is why there have been so many cases of teachers beating students and students being disrespectful to teachers in recent years."

According to VOV