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11PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
THE DIFFICULT REALITY SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS HAVE BEEN FACING WHEN DESIGNING AND ORGANIZING EXPERIENTIAL CAREER - ORIENTED ACTIVITIES
Vü Thanh Hoa, Tran Thi Hoa
Department of Pedagogy Ha Long University, Quang Ninh Province
Abstract
In this article, the authors analyzed the difficult situation that secondary school teachers in Quang Ninh province have been facing when designing and organizing experiential and career-oriented activities, thereby some ideas were proposed to help the teachers overcome the situation.
Keywords: difficult, experiential, career-oriented, secondary schools, teachers.
1. Introduction
The general education program 2018 of Vietnam started implementing at the secondary level in academic year 2021-2022. Under this program, experiential and career-oriented activities are compulsory educational activities with a certain duration of 105 periods per year in which the duration for each content of the activities is specifically regulated [1]. Previously, at secondary and high schools, there were no the so-called experiential activities regulated as a certain number of compulsory lessons in the curriculum, but only some extracurricular activities, practice, picnics, visits, community labor, and local education. Contents of the extracurricular activities were associated with the school subjects, of a short duration in the curricular, actively designed and developed by the teachers. Therefore, the experiential and career-oriented activities, which has
been applied at secondary school since academic year 2021-2022, under the general education program 2018 is completely new when compared to the previous ones, and have inevitably caused certain difficulties for teachers in the process of implementation. In this article, we analyzed the difficult situation that secondary school teachers in Quang Ninh province have been facing when designing and organizing experiential and career-oriented activities, thereby some ideas were proposed to help the teachers overcome the situation.
2. Contents
Learning about the difficult situation that secondary school teachers have been facing in Quang Ninh province when designing and organizing experiential and career- oriented activities, we obtained the results as follows:
Table 1.
Difficult situation secondary school teachers have been facing in Quang Ninh province when designing and
Difficulties Quantity %
Subjective difficulties
1 Inadequate understanding of the experiential and career-oriented activities 371 97.6
2 Lack of enthusiasm and attachment to the profession 118 31.1
3 Incompetency for organizing the activities 370 97.4
4 Idleness and fear for innovation in education 192 50.1
Objective difficulties
5 School managers and leaders were not much concerned about the experiential and career-oriented activities 53 13.9
6 Students' parents and families were indifferent to the school's educational activities 289 76.1
7 Immense work pressure for teachers 297 78.2
8 The school's facilities did not meet the requirements for organizing the experiential and career-oriented activities 269 70.1
9 Students'awareness was generally limited and they were passive while participating in educational activities 236 62.1
The results of the table above showed that: Secondary school teachers in the survey all encountered certain difficulties in designing and organizing experiential and career-oriented activities subjectively and objectively. The percentage of teachers who admitted to having difficulties ranged from 31.1% to 97.6%.
* Subjective difficulties
- In this group of difficulties, the most identified difficulty by many teachers was Inadequate understanding of the experiential and career-oriented activities (97.6%). The program of experiential and career-oriented activities, which was issued on December 26, 2018, stated the main contents as below:
Characteristics of the program, perspective of building the program, objectives and requirements to be achieved in the program, contents of the program,
methods of organizing, types of activities, educational equipment and implementation of the program. Thus, in comparison to the previous extracurricular activities, the experiential and career-oriented activities have many new features, especially being compulsory and assessed. Therefore, it requires teachers to be methodically designed and organized in order to achieve objectives of the activities.
When surveying school administrators and teachers' understanding of experiential and career-oriented activities under the general education program 2018, we found out that only approximately 1/3 of the surveyed had a proper understanding whereas the rest of the surveyed just got a vague idea of the activities. In addition, the survey results showed contradictions in the perception of some surveyed objects as they equated the experiential and career-oriented activities with extracurricular activities of the previous program and with experiential teaching [1]. Secondary school teachers' limited awareness of experiential and career-oriented activities under the general education program 2018 was also revealed when their perception of the targets of these activities was shown in our survey. Thus, it could be seen that there was a close relationship between secondary school teachers'awareness of experiential career-oriented activities and the difficulties they identified when performing these activities at school in Quang Ninh province.
- Being incompetent in organizing experiential and career-oriented activities was another obstacle that secondary school teachers in Quang Ninh province encountered with a rate of 97.4%. The difficulties and obstacles on the requirements for carrying out experiential and career-oriented activities under the general education program 2018 faced by teachers are understandable as according to the theory of experiential learning, for this kind of activities to be effectively implemented, the designer and organizer of the activities are required to follow an appropriate process, including: Identifying and ascertaining the topics, objectives, and contents of experiential career-oriented activities, designing specific experiential and career-oriented activities, designing criteria and tools to test and assess students. In order to help teachers overcome those difficulties in designing and organizing experiential and career-oriented activities, in our opinion, it is essential to foster teachers with the process of organizing these activities.
The rate of 50.1% said that idleness and fear for innovation was also an obstacle for themselves when performing experiential and career-oriented activities. This psychological factor has affected teachers' professional activities, the quality of education in general, and the quality of experiential and career-oriented activities in particular, which is a new form of educational activities that requires research investment, great efforts and dedication from teachers to ensure its effectiveness. Discussing this matter, a secondary school administrator in our survey shared:
In order for the new general education program generally, and experiential career-oriented activities particularly, to be successfully performed as expected,
teachers play an esstentially important role in the process of implementation. Teachers must be correctly aware and highly responsible, have solid pedagogical skills and a wide knowledge of life, especially, have the determination for any changes in teaching. However, in reality, a big number of the current teaching staffstill show their serious idleness when they fear to learn, fear to innovate, but instead, they often complain and make excuses to avoid new tasks. Among them, some are quite old teachers, some are old enough to be about to retire, others are young, even some of them are those who just started their teaching profession right after graduation. They tend to oppose everything related to innovation in education because they are unwilling to move on for changes. They feel insecure of hard work and often criticize or decline the plans that the school intends to implement due to their fear of taking new tasks. Moreover, they are declined in all activities as they often refuse to learn more about expertise but stay the same. The experiential and career-oriented activities under the general education program 2018 are completely new and compulsory. Therefore, the idleness and fear for innovation among teachers is a tremendous obstacle to the implementation of the activities.
This situation requires schools to take remedial measures to change the way of thinking, to motivate teachers at work, and ensure essential conditions for the experiential and career-oriented activities to be successfully implemented.
- Lack of enthusiasm and attachment to the profession was also a subjective difficulty, which was admitted by 31.1% of the surveyed teachers. This factor negatively influenced on teachers' organizing experiential and career-oriented activities as love for the profession and dedication to the profession could create motivations for teachers to work enthusiastically, helping them to constantly strive for the development of education. This is also a quality stated in the document on teacher ethics, which was issued in 2008 in Vietnam. However, the actual situation showed that the mood of feeling fed up with the teaching job has become common among a number of teachers nowadays. In the article titled "the mood of boredom in the teaching profession" by author Dao Ngoc De, published on the e-newspaper Giaoduc.edu.vn [2], it stated: ...Most of the teachers are enthusiastic and responsible for the teaching profession. However, there is a very concerning fact - a "hidden reality " which very few people dare to speak out and the society knows very little about - that is the mood of boredom in the profession among many teachers. According to a recent sociological survey, up to 60% of teachers have felt insecure and bored with their jobs. They said: If I could choose my profession again, I would never be a teacher. The article also analyzed the causes, which led to a number of teachers feeling tired and less enthusiastic in the profession, were due to immense work pressure and long working time but low income. This situation requires the educational administrators to take appropriate measures to overcome the above-mentioned problems and positively motivate teachers at work better.
* Objective difficulties
- Immense pressure at work and the indifference from students'parents andfamilies to the school's educational activities were the difficulties mentioned in the survey by many teachers. The percentage of the surveyed teachers choosing these items accounted for 78.2% and 76.1%, respectively. A teacher in Quang Yen town expressed herself as follows : As a teacher, normally, professional work takes us a lot of time. Besides, a series of new requirements for diplomas and certificates have been issued recently, requiring us to meet. Specially, in the context of educational innovation, teachers have been participating continuously in training courses to implement the general education program 2018, which is making us even more tired than ever, we have no time to rest.
Besides, it could be seen that educational activities are only effective when there is a close cooperation between students' families and schools. It is especially difficult to organize family-themed experiential and career-oriented activities in an effective way without the companionship from students' parents. Moreover, there are the activities that need funding to organize, but it is impossible to work out without the contribution from parents. Additionally, the sense of responsibility from parents for the educational activities at school have certain influence on teachers' work motivation. Therefore, the indifference from parents to the school's educational activities is a psychological factor that can make it difficult for teachers to organize experiential and career-oriented activities.
- The other difficulty that more than / surveyed teachers pointed out was the school's facilities did not meet the requirements for organizing the experiential and career-oriented activities (70.1%). In order to ensure effective experiential and career-oriented activities, the secondary schools must have all the necessary facilities and conditions for organizing these activities. If there is a lack of manuals on experiential activities, of a career guidance bookcase, and no funding for these activities, it is difficult to organize and implement the activities. However, according to our observations, in many schools, the facilities did not meet the basic above-mentioned requirements, including learning materials and Internet connected computer systems. Especially, for schools in rural or mountainous areas, due to the family financial status, students'parents could not contribute to the fund for their children to participate in experiential and career-oriented activities outside the school. This was a big obstacle for schools generally and teachers particularly in carrying out experiential and career-oriented activities in an effective way as expected.
- Students' awareness was generally limited and they were passive while participating in educational activities was also a challenge that teachers coped with when organizing those activities, which was confirmed by 62.1% of the teachers in the survey. Students' capacity is formed and developed in these activities and is also a condition for performing the activities. However, if their capacity is limited, it will be difficult to conduct the activities and negatively affect the outcome of the activities. In fact, the old curriculum is theoretically
hard but practically slight. Thus, teachers get used to traditional teaching methods and paying little attention to promoting the activeness and initiative in learners. Similarly, students get used to the method of one-way teaching. As a result, they become quite passive in their learning process. The inevitable consequence is that students will have difficulty adapting to the activities that require to be active, positive, and self-reliant like experiential and career-oriented activities.
- Managers were not concerned about experiential and career-oriented activities was also a factor that made it difficult for teachers to organize the activities as affirmed by 13.9% of teachers in the survey. At school, the administrators are the those who direct and instruct all activities, who play an important role in motivating teachers to work and in mobilizing all resources to promote educational activities of the school. Therefore, if managers are less interested in experiential and career-oriented activities, it will inevitably lead to difficulties and confusion for teachers to organize the activities because they are lack of proper orientation and support when in need while organizing the activities.
3. Conclusion
The research results showed the situation that, with the new nature and requirements for experiential career-oriented activities under the general education program compared to previous extracurricular activities, secondary school teachers in the province Quang Ninh have been encountering a plenty of difficulties when organizing the activities, both subjectively and objectively. The major subjective difficulties were their inadequate understanding of experiential and career-oriented activities, their incompetency to organize these activities, no passion and attachment for and to their jobs, serious idleness and fear for innovation. Besides, certain external obstacles were identified as well. For example, educational managers were unconcerned about the experiential and career-oriented activities, students' parents and families were indifferent to the educational activities of the school, immense pressure at work for teachers, the school's facilities did not meet the requirements for organizing the experiential and career-oriented activities, students were generally limited in being aware and passive when engaging in educational activities. This situation requires schools to use measures to raise awareness of experiential and career-oriented activities for teachers, to foster the capacity of organizing experiential and career-oriented activities, to motivate teachers at work, to strengthen physical facilities, to mobilize resources for organizing career-oriented activities for students, to set the mentality for students to be the real subject of educational activities.
References
1. Bo Giao due va Bao tao, Hoat dong trai nghiem va Hoat dong trai nghiem, huong nghiep, Ban hanh kem theo Thong tu 32/2018/TT-BGDBT ngay 26 thang 12 nam 2018.
2. Bao Ngoc Be, Tam trang chan nghe trong giao gioi, https://www.giaoduc.edu.vn/tam-trang-chan-nghe-trong-giao-gioi.htm
