Vietnam – Netherlands Higher Education ProjectThainguyen University of Education

Profed BookletMaking changes

to cope with changing challenges

Thainguyen, May 2008

Preface

This booklet describes the development process of a new Bachelor’s degree course, English teacher

training. It is based on our experience of setting up the course, although it is not a detailed

description of the process.

English Teacher Training was a pilot project for redesigning the 4 other degree courses in the Faculty

of Foreign Languages and later on the 12 other degree courses in Thainguyen University of

Education. In the redesigning project, the conclusions and results gained from the English Teacher

Training have been elaborated upon in combination with experiences from other degree courses and

projects within the Faculty of Foreign Languages. This has resulted in several documents and

guidelines for redesigning degree courses in general. This booklet is based on those improved

documents, not on the exact step we took and the exact versions of the documents we produced in

the English Teacher Training projects.

The description of the professional profile of the English Teacher Training has evolved over the

years, as has the development of the curriculum concept. The main ideas have remained the same,

but the detailed elaboration has gradually taken shape over the four years in which we have been

working on the course so far. We give you the latest version of our insights.

We do not expect that this version will be the final one, since our perceptions and the world around

us keep on changing, hance the title of this booklet. With it, we hope to inspire colleagues to work

on innovative projects, to keep changing according to the newest insights in educational theory and

practice.

Thainguyen University of Education

University Project Team

1. Timely Change

In the last decades, Higher Professional Education in Vietnam was faced with a number of problems,

especially English Teacher Training. The intake of first-year students was high and competitive, but

the output was not worth the entrance hardship. What could be said could be ‘the game is not worth

the candle’. Complaints were heard all around, even without authentic reasons, such as 40% of the

graduates are deab, 50% dunmb, 70% fluent in Vietnamese. The common reasons are backward

teaching and learning methods, irrelevant curricula, all leading to emphasis on English teacher

training innovation. One of the problems that was most clearly specified in the Vietnam Netherlands

Higher Education Projects was the loose linkage between the university and the world of work,

sometimes there was no such kind of linkage.

At the same time, the media were focusing much attention on the growing demands of English

speakers who are not likely to get to work in a day, especially for adults. What is needed is a long

time of appropriate practice and the time to start is as early as possible. Besides, the Vietnamese

learners are heavily inflluenced by the passive learning at the schools, going to class, sitting silently,

and taking notes for all subjects, not only foreign language class. That entails the dead context of

living language teaching and learning. It is partly because of the current testing and evaluation

strategies, all to test what the learners can remember about languages, not the skills and

performances that the learners can do. Several reasons have been used for explanation, such as large

classes, lack of budget. Above all, most of the things are decided from the top and now what needs

changing is the opposite direction, from the bottom, the users or the world of work.

To address those problems, the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thainguyen University of Education

was chosen to participate in the Vietnam Netherlands Higher Education Project to develop a more

profession-oriented curriculum. The project started on the first meeting with NUFFIC and HBO-

raad in late 2003, and then after several Vietnamese staff’s study visits to the Netherlands and Dutch

missions to Vietnam, the curriculum has been developed and experiemented since 2006 on the basis

of learning by doing approach. So, the first English teachers will graduate in July 2010. This

booklet describes the developmental process and gives an account of how the degree course was run

for the first time.

The English Teacher Curriculum is introduced in Chapter 2. It starts with the world of work surveys

to define the professional profile, the competence profile as well as to develop the curriculum

concepts . And then the whole year 1 and year 2 syllabuses will be introduced in chapter 3 and 4.

Chapter 5 will be the appendix.

2. The English Teacher training curriculum

Thainguyen University of Education (TUE) is one of the eight founding institutions of

Thainguyen University. There are 14 faculties with a staff of nearly 700 and over 10.000

students. The English Department of the Foreign Languages Faculty was chosen to

participate in the Vietnam-Netherlands Higher Education Project. In order to institutionally

strengthen the capacity in a more profession-oriented program, it is a must to establish a

close relationship with the world of work. This can be first done by surveys in the contexts

where the graduates are working.

One pilot study was done in the Autumn of 2005. The study was named ‘TUE English-

Major Graduate Destination Survey’ which was designed to help TUE staff evaluate the

worth of its courses to TUE English major graduates and their expected demands with an aim

to gradually adapting and innovating the curriculum and teaching strategies. This was done

into only four typical schools in Thainguyen, Baccan, and Tuyenquang. It was first

concluded that the knowledge and ability taught at university was not highly valued. Second,

although there was a difference in opinions among different groups of respondents, most of

them expressed a great demand for all the major skills required by school teaching practice.

Clearly, it was high time to have to reconsider the curriculum and the training process in

order to improve the graduate quality. And it was also clear that the study should be

expanded to more schools to make it more valid and reliable. But it should be noted that the

study had focused itself more on the content of the program.

In such a context, the second study, the World of Work Survey, was carried out in the early

Spring 2006 with a more specific objectives and more profession focus. Specifically, the first

objective was to explore the relation between what graduates learned at university and the

demands they meet in their professional career as a teacher. The second objective was to

collect graduates opinions on the way that university curriculum has to be revised in order to

make the courses more profession oriented.

1. Development and implementation of World of Work questionnaire, analysis of survey outcomes and elaboration of end-results

MethodologyInstruments

The instruments used in this study were composed of two parts. Part A was in the form of a

questionnaire, whereas Part B was an Interview Schedule (see Appendix 1).

It should be noted that the twenty one elements in Part A were sorted out into 5 categories as

follows:

Category One (element 1 – 4): teacher as a person

Category Two (element 5 – 9): pedagogical attitude

Category Three (element 10 – 15): knowledge and didactics

Category Four (element 4 – 18): organization

Category Five (element 19 – 21): Cooperation within school

The Interview Schedule in part B consisted of four open questions in which respondents were

asked to give their own opinion. Such a qualitative approach was believed to bring about

more valid and reliable information.

All the instruments had two versions: the English one was for the graduates and the

Vietnamese one for management staff who could not speak English.

Data collectionThe survey was done in 8 out of 13 TUE enrollment provinces including 34 educational

institutions (30 schools and four provincial Departments of Education and Training, DoET,

which appear in the table as so gd).

Participants of the study totaled to 200 including 62 managers and 138 graduates who were

further classified into four groups of full-time, part-time, and upgraded (see Appendix 2)

First, selected TUE staff went in a group of three to the previously agreed-upon institutions to

conduct the survey. All the information was collected in the presence of the TUE staff, and

explanation was immediately given if necessary.

Data would be collected and partly analyzed with the help of SPSS.

Findings

Part A: Opinions on university studiesAs you can see in Table 1, only one fifth of the respondents (21%) thought the practice at school in the university curriculum was enough. Most of the respondents (79%) insisted on more practice at school

Table 1: Practice in schoolsFrequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid

m 4 2.0 2.0 2.0

e 38 19.0 19.0 21.0c 100 50.0 50.0 71.0n 58 29.0 29.0 100.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

The similar demand was expressed for the pedagogical attitude. Table 2 shows the need for

more understanding of the learning problem. More than two thirds of the respondents

(76.5%) chose the third option (could be more) and the last one (absolutely not enough).

Table 2: Learning problems

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Vali

dm 6 3.0 3.0 3.0

e 41 20.5 20.5 23.5c 109 54.5 54.5 78.0n 44 22.0 22.0 100.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

It was not a surprising finding when the demand for the information, communication and

technology (ICT) was very high as seen in Table 3. One hundred and sixty-six respondents

(83%) thought that they wanted more training in ICT. It could be explained that ICT was

introduced into the curriculum only several years ago, that is to say only the newly graduated

respondents could enjoy it in their learning at university. Honestly speaking, the so-called

ICT was just a few basics, so it is still hard for graduates to use it in order to help make their

lessons more interesting as intended.

Table 3: ICT

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Vali

dm 2 1.0 1.0 1.0

e 32 16.0 16.0 17.0c 87 43.5 43.5 60.5n 79 39.5 39.5 100.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

There was not so much interest in the organization element but more interest was recorded in

the cooperation one. It is shown in Table 4 that 45.5% of the respondents thought there

should be more training in the class management whereas this demand for the training in the

way how to cooperate with other organizations in their teaching was much higher (75.5% in

Table 5)

Table 4: Class management

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Vali

dm 9 4.5 4.5 4.5

e 100 50.0 50.0 54.5c 62 31.0 31.0 85.5n 29 14.5 14.5 100.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

Table 5: Cooperation with organizations

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Vali

dm 7 3.5 3.5 3.5

e 42 21.0 21.0 24.5c 80 40.0 40.0 64.5n 71 35.5 35.5 100.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

So far, it is worth exploring any difference among the respondents, the graduates and the

managers. This was done by crosstabulation.

Table 6: Training/post * Practice in schools Crosstabulation

Practice in schools

Total

m e c n Training/pos

tfull-time Count 2 12 39 16 69

% within Training/post

2.9% 17.4% 56.5% 23.2% 100.0%

part-time Count 2 15 14 31% within

Training/post6.5% 48.4% 45.2% 100.0%

upgraded Count 1 6 18 13 38% within

Training/post2.6% 15.8% 47.4% 34.2% 100.0%

manager Count 1 18 28 15 62% within

Training/post1.6% 29.0% 45.2% 24.2% 100.0%

Total Count 4 38 100 58 200% of Total 2.0% 19.0% 50.0% 29.0% 100.0%

Looking at Table 6, we can see that there is a rather high demand for more practice at school

as it is previously shown in Table 1 (79% of all the respondents). When the column ‘c’

(could be more) and the column ‘n’ (absolutely not enough) are added up, it is clearly seen

that there is not so much difference in the opinions of the full-time students (79.9%) and the

upgraded (81.6%), but the difference is seen in the part-time students’ opinions when 93.% of

them express their demand for more practice at school. And a less demand for this is

expressed by the managers (69.9%).

Little difference can be seen in the respondents’ opinions in terms of the demand for ICT

training. As in Table 7, when the two columns ‘c’ and ‘n’ are added up, the average

percentage of the respondents who demanded for ICT is 83. In a greater detail, the

percentage of the full-time, part-time, upgraded, and the managers are 81.2, 87.1, 86.8, and

80.7 respectively.

Table 7: Training/post * ICT Crosstabulation

ICT Totalm e c n

Training/post

full-time Count 1 12 28 28 69

% within Training/post 1.4% 17.4% 40.6% 40.6% 100.0%part-time Count 1 3 13 14 31

% within Training/post 3.2% 9.7% 41.9% 45.2% 100.0%upgraded Count 5 17 16 38

% within Training/post 13.2% 44.7% 42.1% 100.0%manager Count 12 29 21 62

% within Training/post 19.4% 46.8% 33.9% 100.0% Total Count 2 32 87 79 200

% within Training/post 1.0% 16.0% 43.5% 39.5% 100.0%

One more crosstabulation was done into the opinions on methodology taught at university.

As can be seen from Table 8, the respondents thought there could be more on methodology,

but the demand was not so high. Only 59.5% of the respondents chose ‘c’ and ‘n’ answers.

Another fact was that there was not a big difference between the graduates’ opinions

concerning this element: 56%, 51.6%, and 57% were recorded for choice of the full-time,

part-time, and upgraded respectively. On the contrary, a greater demand for methodology

was recorded on the part of the managers. A little more than sixty-seven of the managers

chose ‘c’ and ‘n’ choices.

Table 8: Training/post * Methodology Crosstabulation

Methodology Totalm e c n

Training/post

full-time Count 1 29 28 11 69

% within Training/post

1.4% 42.0% 40.6% 15.9% 100.0%

part-time Count 3 12 11 5 31% within

Training/post9.7% 38.7% 35.5% 16.1% 100.0%

upgraded Count 2 14 13 9 38% within

Training/post5.3% 36.8% 34.2% 23.7% 100.0%

manager Count 3 17 31 11 62% within

Training/post4.8% 27.4% 50.0% 17.7% 100.0%

Total Count 9 72 83 36 200% within

Training/post4.5% 36.0% 41.5% 18.0% 100.0%

More evidence can be seen in Appendix 3, but it could be concluded that the world of work is

rather demanding. They often expressed high demand for the university training element.

Another conclusion is that there is little difference in opinions on university studies among

the different respondents; the biggest difference recorded is 24.2% between the opinion of

the part-time graduates and that of the managers concerning the practice at school. Very

often this gap is less than 10 percent.

Part B: Opinions on revision

This interview schedule was composed of four open questions which asked for the

respondents’ own opinions on possible university curriculum revision. The questions are

labeled ‘More’, ‘Less’, ‘Cooperation’, and ‘Responsibility’ (see Appendix 1 for full details).

Opinions were collected and grouped into categories in the four table below.

Table 9: More

Being asked about 3 priorities to which university should pay more attention to in order to

improve teacher training and prepare students better for their professional career, answers

were collected and listed in the following eleven categories.

Category number percentage

1 Professional knowledge 124 62

2 School practice 138 69

3 ICT training 49 24.5

4 Material development 45 22.5

5 Test design 27 13.5

6 Project work 122 61

7 Team/group work 52 26

8 Seminar 27 13.5

9 Progress test 53 26.5

10 Field trips 13 6.5

11 Extra-curricula activities 22 11

Clearly seen from the table are three priorities 1, 2, and 6. Two of them (1 and 2) refer to

practical teaching practice. It is consistent with the quantitative questions in Part A. Only one of

them (6) refers to methodological change in the curriculum, i.e. more project work, an active way

of teaching and learning.

Concerning the opposite priorities that university should pay less attention to, answers are

collected and arranged as in Table 10. Five categories were recorded focusing on the reduction

of academic knowledge in the curriculum and the organizational strategies for teaching. More

than a half of the respondents (50.15%) demanded less foundation knowledge load. In the

opinions of 58.5% of the respondents, the lecture time had to be reduced. A similar demand

(57.5%) for less essay test was also mentioned.

Table 10: Less

Category number percentage

1 core/basic knowledge 75 37,52 foundation knowledge 103 50.153 class time 75 37.54 essay test 115 57.55 lecture time 117 58.5

When the respondents were asked to suggest practically appropriate activities that university

should pay more attention to in order to improve the cooperation between university and schools

in teacher training, they emphasized the provision of newly updated information. It is unclear

what kind of information they need, but it may be assumed that it is the professional knowledge.

Other activities ever mentioned are the organization of summer refresher courses by the

university for school teachers (49%). Surprisingly, joint workshops between schools and the

university were first expressed by nearly half of the respondents (44.5%). This should be further

specified but the joint workshop could have several advantages such as closer relationship and

more practicability.

Table 11: Cooperation

Category number percentage

1 summer refresher courses 98 492 joint workshop 89 44.53 constant contact between schools and universities 75 37.54 annual meeting between schools and universities 69 34.55 newly updated information 114 57

regular exchanging of ideas 41 20.5more financial support 74 37

One of the natural school responsibilities in teacher training was ‘on-the-job’ training was

mentioned by 62% of the respondents in Table 12. Other responsibilities were not new to

university, i.e. the cooperation in student practicum (47%) and judgment of students (46%). The

new responsibility did not attract much attention, i.e. the local needs analysis. It was chosen by

only 21.5% of the respondents. It is partly because the local needs have not ever been formally

raised by the local authority. Nevertheless, it is a striking idea to initiate better school

responsibility in teacher training at university.

Table 12: Responsibility

Category number percentage

1 on-the-job training 124 622 cooperation in student practicum 94 473 judgement/assessment of students 92 464 local needs analysis 43 21.55 provision of change in curriculum 98 34

In answering to the open questions on possible university curriculum revision, it reveals that the

demand for less academic knowledge and more professional knowledge was recorded. Promising

ideas were raised in terms of improving cooperation between schools and university and

strengthening school responsibilities. Striking initiatives are the organization of joint workshop

between university and school and the analysis of local needs by the school. It should be taken

into careful consideration in the future.

ConclusionClearly seen from the survey, university curriculum should be less academic and more

profession-oriented in order to meet the world of work demands. Reconsideration should be

taken into the revision of the curriculum including the knowledge, understanding, application,

and integration together with aspects of contents such as attitude, method, structure, relation,

notion and fact.

Much more should be done to establish a closer contact between university and school. It should

start with activities to improve cooperation, and then to strengthen responsibilities so as not only

to build up but also to keep a sustainable relationship between the training centre of the labor

source and its market, the world of work.

The most important activity that should start soon is the development of the competency profile

and the professional profile as an immediate step that follows this survey.

Chapter II

Professional Profile

1. Definition and elaboration of a Professional Profile

(1) Description of structure secondary education in Vietnam

1. Educational Goals

Vietnam’s Education Law dated December 11, 1998 has affirmed the goals of education are to

comprehensively develop Vietnam’s human resource, with morality, knowledge, good health,

and loyal to the idea of national independence and socialism; to develop individual personality

and capacity for the building and protection of the country.

The goals set forth for secondary education are students’ all-round development in terms of

morality, physical body, arts, and basic skills so that they can be prepared to pursue further

studies or to become fully responsible citizens contributing to the building of the country.

There are specific objectives designed for each level within secondary education. Basic

secondary education strengthens and enhances students’ achievements gained from lower

education, develop their basic knowledge and introduce technical and vocational skills so that

they can follow their future studies at high schools, vocational college or go to work. High

school education further develops students’ knowledge after basic secondary education with

vocational orientation so that after graduation, high school students can join university programs

or vocation colleges or can directly go to work.

2. Educational Principle and Methodology

To achieve such goals and objectives at the level of secondary education, it is stated in the Law

on Education that the basic principal of education is to incorporate theory and practices, to link

education with production, and school education to be cooperated with family and society

education.

Educational methodologies for secondary students should develop students’ creativeness and

pro-activeness, to build up and enhance their self-study, to instruct them to use their knowledge

for practical purposes and need to initiate the students’ desires, and interests in studying.

3. Secondary Education Structure

The secondary education encompasses two levels:

+ The basic secondary education lasts for four years from the sixth form to the ninth. Those in

the sixth form must be eleven years old and have primary education diplomas.

+ The high school education completes in three years from the tenth to the twelfth forms. Those

in the tenth form must be fifteen years old and have basic secondary education diplomas.

The budget for secondary education comes from different sources such as basic construction

budget, objective programs, various aids (both non-reimbursable and loans from WB and ADB)

combined with other sources mobilized from the society. There have been improvements in the

infrastructure of schools, some of which have achieved national standards; however, figures

show that both the quantity and quality of secondary education schools in Vietnam are

insufficient.

In terms of teaching resource, ninety six point seven percent of secondary education teachers

have reached national standards. Still the ratio of teachers per class is still high at 1.54 teachers/

class of basic secondary education and 1.64 teachers/ class of general secondary education.

Therefore, the system is still in lack of about 18,700 teachers for secondary education.

4. Further Development of Secondary Education

1. To improve curriculum for secondary education, to improve the contents and methodologies

for secondary education as designed by Resolution 40/QH10 – dated 29 December 2000 by the

National Assembly.

2. To push up the process of universalization of education to achieve the goal of completion by

2010 nationwide.

3. To define responsibilities and rights attained by Ministries, agencies, and authorities at all

levels in the administration of education and training to assure the government’s roles combined

with line management and territorial management.

4. To develop plans and conduct the enhancement of training capacity for secondary education

teachers in line with changes in the curriculum designed for secondary education.

5. To further invest in the improvement of schooling infrastructure to better serve the

development needs of the country.

(2) Description relevant schools the TUE students are trained for.

Most of TUE graduates are going to work at the secondary schools in both the mountainous

and the countryside. Some of them are going to work at the primary and vocational schools

in the northern areas of Vietnam. Naturally, the learners are disadvantaged ones, aged from

12 to 17 years old. They are usually said to be rather slow and passive in learning. One of

the striking features of the learners in such areas is the ethnic minority, who can have

influences over the other major learners in the same areas.

(3) Translation of the results of the World of Work survey into a Professional Profile

From the WoW survey it became clear that the professional profile needs to be strengthened

in the perspective of changing needs and demands of the educational infrastructure.

Interpersonal and pedagogical field:

- class presentation

- communication with pupils

- create a good atmosphere

- practice in schools

- pupils background

- independent work

- motivate pupils

- learning problems

- psychology

Subject field

- core knowledge

- active and passive skills

- methodology

- teaching aids

Organizational field

- class management

- material development

Professional interaction

- teamwork

- cooperation with colleagues

- cooperation with other organisations

Chapter III

Competency Profile 1. Definition and elaboration of a Competency Profile

It was an important period in the implementation of the project including the following main

activities:

(1) Formulation of the new curriculum concept;

(2) Finalization of the new curriculum framework;

(3) Introduction and development of Service Learning and Project-based Learning;

(4) Implementation of the first year curriculum;

(5) World of Work Council meeting with internship focus;

(6) Cooperative activities for Dutch junior teachers

1. Activities carried out

(1) Formulation of the new curriculum concept.

The curriculum concept is a position paper including the basic starting points and assumptions. It is

important not only for the internal curriculum development, i.e. within the faculty but also for

external relationship, i.e. communication with the outside world, for example other faculty, other

university, and especially the world of work. This was done by the consensus method to encourage

the shared opinions of the participants that resulted in a 17-item list of concepts in order of priority.

It doesn’t mean that the most important is the first, but simply some concept is more general and

important than the other and is worth more attention.

(2) Finalization of the new curriculum framework.

Given insights into the curriculum development course in Hanoi (April 2006) and the Netherlands

and also the field work in the partner university, Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden (May ¡ª June

2006), a new curriculum framework was developed and reported to the Faculty Council and

University Council. After several revisions during summer 2006, it was given a fresh start for the

first year in September. There was a coincidence that all faculties and universities had to revise their

curricula this year, so we took the advantage to start our new curriculum. It was agreed that the new

curriculum is to be implemented on a step-by-step experimental development and to be evaluated

every semester.

(3) Introduction and development of Service Learning; Project-based Learning. Both service learning

and project-based learning are conducive to language learning in a profession-oriented curriculum,

especially in an experimental basis.

First, Service learning brings about not only learning outcomes but also personal outcomes and

social outcomes. It is reported to have a positive impact on students academic learning. More

importantly, it helps improve students’¯ ability to apply what they have learned in ¡®the real

world¡¯. Besides, Service learning has a positive effect on student personal development such as

sense of personal efficacy, personal identity, spiritual growth, and moral development. The positive

effect is also recorded on interpersonal development and the ability to work well with others,

leadership and communication skills. Concerning the social outcomes, Service learning has a

positive effect on reducing stereotypes and facilitating cultural and racial understanding; It has

positive effect on sense of social responsibility and citizenship skills, commitment to service as well.

Volunteer service in college is associated with involvement in community service after graduation.

The second concept is Project-based learning which has clear advantages over learning and teaching

at university. Major points are the allowance for a variety of learning styles, ‘real’ world oriented-

learning, risk-free environment, encouragement of using both higher order thinking skills and

learning concepts as well as basic facts, utilization of hands-on approaches, provision for in-depth

understanding, etc.

It should be noted that both Service learning and Project-based learning are, to a great extent,

learner-centred learning because the students are completely responsible for their own learning and

they have ownership of their learning within the curriculum.

(4) Implementation of the first year curriculum

The early implementation of the new curriculum was marked by the careful preparation of the first

year curriculum which fits the whole framework. In general, attention was paid to the needs analysis

which was done in April 2006 (the world of work survey, the world of work council meeting, and the

competence profile) to formulate the objectives. Special attention was paid to the analysis of the

starting situation with the characteristics of the student population in mind. The essential step is to

structure the learning contents. On the one hand, we had to keep the whole general educational

subjects structured by the Ministry of Education and Training, on the other hand we had to follow the

educational tradition of the university. However, we were allowed to make changes at will for the

professional subjects. The first change made so far is the subject ICT integration in language

teaching and learning (taught and learned in English) instead of Informatics that is quite theoretical

in nature and taught and learned in Vietnamese. Other changes are the inclusion of the subject Study

Skills, the restructure of language practice subjects into Proficiency modules, the introduction of

Teaching method module to promote the first internship in the second year. The most remarkable

changes can be seen in the integration of knowledge, skills and attitude in several projects that are

made available for the students¡¯ choice. It is the most professionally oriented part of the curriculum.

Other activities were also done concerning the selection of educational methods, organization of

teaching and learning, development of teaching and learning aids, design of assessment and

examination regulations. The implementation of the first year curriculum has been in progress to be

evaluated by the end of the semester.

(5) World of Work Council meeting with internship focus.

The second WoW Council meeting was held with the presence of the key persons in the University

Council, the English staff The focus of this meeting was to further discuss the concept and the

framework of the curriculum, especially the internship activities to be organized next year. The

Project School Network was initiated and discussed in order to encourage greater involvement of the

schools into the project and easier communication between university and school.

(6) Cooperative activities for Dutch junior teachers.

The role and position of the NHL junior teachers were discussed in the TUE visit to NHL in June.

The last decision was made after the students¡¯ application was approved. It is important for the

TUE staff to have direct experience and longer contact with those who are from the profession-

oriented education. The hands-on approach proves to be effective in the first stage of the curriculum

implementation.

2. Achievements

Major achievements during one and a half year include the development of the whole framework and

activities for the project, the competence profile, curriculum, new learning ¡ª teaching concept

introduction and experimentation, installation of basic equipments.

First, the project framework was developed in accordance with the PROFED for 8 selected

Vietnamese universities. Major strategies and time frame for the activities were clearly specified and

timely modified to make the project more beneficial for the recipients. The competence profile was

systematically developed basing on the results of the two WoW surveys, the short-list method among

both Vietnamese and Dutch staff and students. In the end, it was reported to the WoW council

meeting with the key University Council members and passed with on-the-spot adjustment.

Second, the curriculum has been developed as a result of the insights into several meetings and

workshops, especially the results of the four previous experimental projects of teaching and learning

method innovation by TUE volunteer staff and students in Winter and Spring 2005. Given insights

into all these results, the Curriculum Concept was formulated using mainly the consensus method

among both Dutch and Vietnamese staff (see Annex 1). After the starting situation being considered

and analyzed, the curriculum framework was developed (see Annex 2), especially the first year

courses have been developed in greater details and implemented since September 2006. However, it

was only done on a trial basis. More efforts are still needed for perfection.

Remarkable achievements are seen in the development of a series of projects such as the Language

Project including various options, for example the Magazine, the Culture Quiz, the Drama. One of

the service projects, the Professional Orientation, is compulsory for all the first year students who are

required to do a language needs survey into TUE first year English non- majors. Results are then

analyzed to help develop a syllabus, or minimally a lesson plan, to be presented / taught in the

second semester. This is done for double purposes. The first is to help the English majors to get

themselves acquainted with the job of preparing lessons and teaching, and more importantly, the idea

of community service which is very important in the teaching profession. The second is to help the

English non-majors improve their English before learning it in their curriculum in the second year.

All the projects are done in groups with the selected teachers¡¯ supervision and to be evaluated by

Rubrics.

Achievements from the second World of Work Council meeting include the agreement on the

organizational strategies for TUE first traineeship, the activities, and also the role of the school

teachers and TUE staff in a bilateral assessment system. Agreement was also reached concerning the

plan to set up a PSN (Project School Network). It was strongly suggested that the more effective

communication between the school and the university via a stable network would be exceptionally

important and efficient in a long-term relationship (the proposal for PSN is being developed).

The activities by the two Dutch junior teachers at TUE and a project school prove to be practically

beneficial for both TUE staff and students who are exposed to the ¡®live¡¯ performance of

professional-oriented education. Additionally, the ICT skills of the staff are being given a boost to

develop.

7. Challenges and bottlenecks faced when attempting to start implementation of the new

curriculum

(1) Loose relationship with the world of work which seems to be forgotten in terms of academic

exchange. The world of work is used to employing university graduates without any voice to what

and how they are trained. It is a long time since they were students so they have vague idea of what

is happening at university. Other obstacle is the management system which still leaves a long way

from university to school, the real employer and / or ¡®direct boss¡¯ of the graduate. There are

several organizational bodies such as the provincial and district departments of education and

training in between. In other word, there is still a gap between the training institution and the school.

On the other hand, the school teachers seem to be easy-going in traineeship assessment. Average

students are likely to become excellent junior teachers who will likely be criticized by poor

performance later. There may be some sudden change for the better, it is, however, not always the

case. Complaints are often heard about the downgrading of the training system, but obviously, it is

not the university who is to blame. As a matter of fact, gaps often create misunderstandings.

(2) Top-down approach in curriculum development. The curriculum was developed, to a great

extent, by experts, both at university and ministry levels. In this case, the world of work plays a little,

even no role at all. Everything is decided from the top including the formulation of objective(s), the

structure of the learning contents, even the selection of educational methods and evaluation. Experts

are always excellent in terms of academic knowledge. They are, however, not always sensitive to the

changeable demands of the world of work, the general competences as well as the specific skills

required by specific working contexts.

(3) Insufficient awareness of the profession-oriented education. Profession-oriented education

has been in the news now and then but few experiences are recorded concerning not only the

university staff, the learner, but also the school teacher. Most university staff is rather slow in

changing their firmly established working habits. They are often afraid of changes in their previous

¡®effective teaching strategies¡¯. The first reason is psychological. It is always difficult to exchange

an ever-good habit for a challenging one which is still, to some extent, unpredictable. The second

reason is pedagogical. It is not easy to abdicate the active role of the ¡®talk-and-chalk¡¯ ruler to

become the passive ¡®servant¡¯ to the active learner. How difficult it is to face with the dynamic

generation who is always exposed to a variety of information sources, both formal and informal.

There is a comparative lack of understanding on the part of the learner who has been used to

traditional learning activities at the secondary school for 12 years or more. It stops them from

becoming a new person who is responsible for their own learning, who is to design their own

personal development plan. It is quite difficult for the learner who thought of entering university to

‘get’ something from the lecturers who turn out to be only a source of support and strict supervisors.

As a result, complaints are often heard from both teachers and learners, especially at the start of the

curriculum implementation.

The school teachers are given roles that they might not be properly trained, for example, coach for

traineeship or co-trainer which require updated knowledge, skills, and also attitude.

(4) Lack of supportive management and learning environment. It is not necessary to mention the

rigid mechanism that is used to following rules and regulation decided by the top, which is not

always reasonable. It is not necessary to mention the poor learning environment, either. Most of the

classrooms are ‘big rooms with desks inside’ and ‘many people’. How can all these be improved? It

is beyond our capacity. Imagine, there is only one multimedia room for the whole faculty. Learner-

centeredness, groupings, task-based and project-based learning, and ... are likely to come back to

papers and books.

- Suggestions for solutions

(1) To bridge the gap, or to re-establish the closer relationship, more frequent contact between the

training institution and the school will improve the situation, leading to better mutual understanding

as well as bilateral responsibility. Although it may take time, the game will be worth the candle.

(2) Bottom-up approach in curriculum development will satisfy the world of work demands. A

curriculum developed on the basis of the agreed-upon competence profile between the university and

the world of work will be certainly of greater help for the both sides.

(3) More publication, frequent training workshops, and scheduled experience sharing seminars will

help fill the knowledge gap of profession-oriented education. Conceptual change will lead to

physical actions.

(4) More flexible management strategies and sufficient e-learning environment.

2. Translation of the Professional Profile into a Competency Profile

The new curriculum for English majors designed in summer 2006 was firstly applied in September

2006 at FLF. The following innovations have been found in the development of the new curriculum

for year 1.

I. The introduction of new content areas, which are (i) Integration of ICT in Foreign Language

Learning and Teaching, and (ii) Study Skills

1. Integration of ICT in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

- This subject is aimed at getting students to have basic skills in using computers and to be able to

apply certain computer software for their learning of English.

- The innovative side of the subject is that it is not carried out in the traditional way, i.e. ICT contents

taught by teachers from Mathematics Faculty, but by language teachers who act as facilitators to

students with skills in using software.

- This innovation is seen as a success in curriculum development, as students can obtain sufficient

skills with computers for their own use in their language study, and the students’ products are seen as

promising.

2. Study Skills

- This subject is aimed at long-term development of students. It provides students with basic

knowledge and skills in (and right attitudes towards) the concept of active learning (i.e. self-study,

co-operative learning, life-long learning).

- This subject is a new element in comparison to other existing programs at TUE, as most other

programs consist of subjects with a heavy focus on content areas.

- The knowledge and skills from this subject are integrated into a project, which is a first direct step

for the students to be well-prepared for their profession.

II. The reorganization of teaching and learning activities, which includes (i) (sub-)modules and (ii)

the integration of knowledge and skills from related subjects and modules in to projects

1. Modules

- In the first year at university, students are familiar with 3 (sub-)modules: oral proficiency, written

proficiency, and Language teaching methodology, of which the knowledge and skills are integrated

into 2 compulsory projects done in groups of 3-5

2. Projects: In year one, students have to do 2 projects (i) Professional Orientation, and (ii)

Language Proficiency

(i) Professional Orientation

- This project can be seen as an example of service learning, with a primary objective of introducing

the teaching profession to first year students.

- The tasks for students are (i) conducting a survey among a group of first year students at TUE (in

different faculties) on their language learning needs, (ii) analyzing their needs, (iii) designing and

planning (simple) language activities to meet, to a certain extent, these needs

- The results of this project are not yet seen, but students are really involved in professional activities

(ii) Language Proficiency: For year 1, students chose 1 out of 10 suggested projects to do in groups

of 3-5; there are 4 common projects found among students. All these 4 projects have the same

language aims, i.e. as the practical side of knowledge and skills students obtain from the 2 language

(sub-)modules, but they assign different tasks to students.

- Magazine: the tasks of the project include (i) students working in groups, discussing and deciding

on a magazine type to develop, (ii) students deciding their own tasks for the magazine, (iii) columns

of the magazine being designed and written by individuals, which is followed by further discussions

and editing, (iv) students having the product printed and organizing a ‘press conference’ introducing

the magazine (for evaluation). The main role of the teacher in charge of the project is that of the

facilitator. Certain drawbacks would be the students’ lack of computer skills and the unequal division

of tasks among group members.

- Drama

- Cultural Quiz

- Foreign Study Consultancy: the tasks of this project include (i) groups of students gathering

information about different aspects of an English-speaking country, (ii) preparing a brochure with

information collected with different individual and group tasks, (iii) organizing a consultation day for

other students from other groups who want information about studies in those countries, (iv) self-

assessing and peer-assessing among the group members. The main role of the teacher in charge of

the group is that of the monitor and the facilitator. The drawbacks for the students are identified as

their poor English pronunciation, and the over-dominance of several members in the group.

2. Report on Project School Network (PSN)

Following the WoW council meeting last November, the idea of a Project School Network was

initiated by the TUE UPT and NHL experts. It was encouraged by both sides, PMU and the

University. Preparation was well done with eight schools being chosen to be PSN members, 4 from

Thainguyen and the other four are from Baccan, Bacgiang, Langson, and Quangninh. A PSN

proposal was also written for financial and technical support. The first meeting was held to all

participants’ satisfaction with the presence of the Chief Technical Advisor, the Rector, seven school

principals and seven school teachers of English from seven secondary schools, and also a

representative from Thainguyen DOET. The meeting ended up with promising results such as

innovated internship, investment, and closer cooperation in order to improve teacher training in

university (see Appendix 3)

3. Workshops on teaching methodologies

A two day workshop was held in TUE, just before the April mission. It was a tailor-made to meet

the limitation of time. Anyway, it is not too difficult for TUE staff and it proved to be very practical

and useful for the staff.

TUE Curriculum Concepts

1. Our students must learn to create a well-organized, orderly and task-oriented learning

environment in order to create a good living- and working climate

2. We must cooperate better with teachers of secondary schools and give them a role in our

training program

3. We use a variety of evaluation methods, not only written tests, but also presentations,

logbooks, peer assessment etc.

4. One of the most important tasks for a teacher is to communicate with pupils and to create a

good atmosphere in the classroom

5. We support ‘powerful learning’ using ICT-related methods

6. The content of our curriculum is related to the professional context

7. In our didactical methods we focus on stimulating students’ activities

8. We stimulate our students to behave as independent and reflective practitioners, analysing

their own learning process

9. We focus on new didactical methods, in which students have to be active themselves

10. In our curriculum we choose to put more emphasis on practice learning and internships

11. Knowledge is important, but in our curriculum we must focus strongly on skills and attitudes

12. We want students to learn to collaborate effectively with colleagues and the outside world

13. Interpersonal and pedagogical competencies are the core business of the future teacher

14. We believe projects with schools and with social institutions contribute to students’

professional skills

15. Development of educational material and teaching aids is very important for our students

16. In our curriculum we must pay more attention to active language skills

17. Our ambition is to develop a close relationship with the World of Work