Vietnam: What is the purpose of professional activities in implementing the Primary Education Program?

What is the purpose of professional activities in implementing the Primary Education Program?

Based on Subsection 1, Section 1 of Official Dispatch 1315/BGDDT-GDTH in 2020, to implement the general education program issued together with Circular 32/2018/TT-BGDDT and to enhance the quality of implementing the current general education program for primary level, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam provides guidance for specialized activities for the primary level. The purposes of these specialized activities in implementing the primary school education program are as follows:

- To help management levels unify the content of directives regarding specialized activities; to develop plans for organizing specialized activities about understanding the 2018 General Education Program, lesson study, and constructing teaching plans for subjects and educational activities, contributing to improving the quality of primary education.

- To foster and enhance the professional and technical competence of primary school teachers to plan and organize teaching that aims to develop students' qualities and abilities; to build a friendly, active, and self-learning environment; to improve the quality of specialized activities in primary educational institutions.

What is the purpose of professional activities in implementing the Primary Education Program?

Requirements when conducting professional activities to implement the Primary Education Program

Based on Subsection 2, Section 1 of Official Dispatch 1315/BGDDT-GDTH in 2020, the requirements for specialized activities to implement the primary school education program include:

- Competent authorities must direct the construction of the plan, organize effective and quality specialized activities, ensuring the educational goals according to the primary school education program, suited to the local context and the school's actual conditions.

- The school principal approves the plan, directs, organizes, inspects, and evaluates the specialized activities of specialized groups without assessing teachers and without grading teaching hours during specialized activities.

- Management staff and teachers must actively and responsibly implement the content of specialized activities as prescribed, proactively propose content and methods to organize implementation to improve the quality of specialized activities effectively implementing the primary school education program.

How to guide professional activities to implement the Primary Education Program for Primary School based on lesson study?

Based on Subsection 3, Section 2 of Official Dispatch 1315/BGDDT-GDTH in 2020, the guidelines for specialized activities to implement the primary school education program through lesson study are as follows:

Step 1. Constructing an Illustrative Lesson

- The specialized group discusses and agrees on selecting an illustrative lesson based on the specific purpose of the specialized activity session.

Teachers selected for the illustrative lesson need to ensure that all teachers in the specialized group take turns participating.

Teachers are encouraged to voluntarily register to teach the illustrative lesson.

- The teacher assigned to the illustrative lesson studies the subject curriculum, the subject teaching plan, textbooks, and related teaching materials, and cooperates with other teachers in the specialized group to construct the illustrative lesson.

The construction of the illustrative lesson must clarify the required outcomes of the lesson.

Based on the required outcomes of the lesson, teachers can actively and flexibly adjust the content, duration, teaching aids, teaching methods, and techniques, and assess students' learning progress to suit the students' abilities and teaching conditions, and to facilitate the formation and development of students' qualities and abilities.

Note: Do not organize a pre-teaching of the illustrative lesson.

Step 2. Organizing the Illustrative Lesson and Classroom Observation

Based on the illustrative lesson that has been constructed, the teacher conducts the lesson so the specialized group can observe and analyze it. While observing, focus on observing the students' learning activities in combination with observing the teacher’s organizing and guiding activities according to the following requirements:

- Transferring learning tasks: the learning tasks must be clear and suitable to students' capabilities, demonstrated by the product requirements that students must complete when performing the task; the transfer method should be lively and engaging, stimulating students' cognitive interest; ensuring that all students receive and are ready to perform the tasks.

- Performing learning tasks: encourage students to cooperate and help each other when performing learning tasks; promptly identify students' difficulties and provide timely, suitable, and effective support; ensure no student is "left out."

- Presenting and discussing results: presentation methods must be appropriate to the learning content and active teaching techniques used; encourage students to exchange and discuss the learning content; handle arising educational situations reasonably.

- Reviewing and assessing the results of learning tasks: comment on the students' task performance process; analyze, comment, and assess the task performance results and students' discussion opinions to help them gain interest and confidence in learning, and improve their learning outcomes; accurately consolidate the knowledge that students have learned through activities.

During the organization of teaching and observation, encourage the observing teachers to note and record student learning activities to use in lesson analysis, but without affecting the teaching activities of teachers and students.

Step 3. Analyzing the Lesson

The entire school or specialized group organizes discussions and shares, focusing on the following content:

+ Student learning activities: the ability to receive and the level of readiness to perform the learning tasks of all students in the class; students' activeness, initiative, creativity, and cooperation in performing learning tasks; students' activeness in presenting, exchanging, and discussing the results and learning products; the accuracy and suitability of the results and learning products; students' attitudes and emotions in each activity.

+ Organizing learning activities for students:

The way of transferring learning tasks; the way of observing, monitoring, and identifying students' difficulties; supporting measures to encourage students to self-study and cooperate; analysis, commentary, and assessment of students' activity results and learning processes.

+ Some factors affecting students' learning activities: lesson plans (required outcomes, teaching aids, learning activities, ...); student-student interaction, teacher-student interaction, student-teacher interaction; students' psychology and physiology; classroom atmosphere, ...

Step 4. Applying the Results of Specialized Activities to Daily Lessons

Based on the results of lesson analysis and the observations and learnings from classroom observations, teachers proactively and creatively apply them to daily lessons.