My journey in Dthu SEA-Teacher Program Batch 9 – 2023
From late August to mid-September 2023, Dong Thap University collaborated with several universities under the SEAMEO Project to organize a student exchange and internship program for Education majors from ASEAN countries. The SEA-Teacher 2023 program was organized by SEAMEO (South East Asian Minister of Education Organization), in partnership with ASEAN universities. The participating universities would cooperate with local schools to allow education students to engage in various teaching-related activities, including classroom observations, lesson planning, and actual teaching.
A. School
Dong Thap University selected a private international school called Future School (Truong Lai) as the location for student practicum. Future School was established in 2018 under the Info T Company, aiming to expand its educational services. It offers a modern infrastructure tailored to the physiological and psychological characteristics of students of different age groups, including Childcare, Kindergarten, Primary, and Secondary Education. The school provides facilities such as TVs for visual learning, comfortable student desks, whiteboards, blackboards, appropriately sized restrooms, a kitchen for cooking lessons, a library, computer labs, science labs, a swimming pool, sports fields, and gardens for student gardening and harvesting. These facilities are designed to foster a conducive and effective learning environment, promoting both hard and soft skills development through exploration, experiences, and research.
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| Picture 2. School basketball court |
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| Picture 3. School swimming pool |
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| Picture 4. School Toilet |
Future School utilizes an academic support system and implements a curriculum in line with Vietnamese national standards. Each subject is taught in 40-45 minute lessons. Teachers are proficient in utilizing the school's facilities, including wireless TVs and Wi-Fi connectivity for laptops during lessons. The school emphasizes not only academic intelligence but also social skills, ensuring students are equipped with essential life skills for their future. Future School is dedicated to molding students into characterful and high-quality individuals.
The teaching system at Future School emphasizes that each student is the best version of themselves, encouraging them to grow according to their unique abilities without trying to emulate others. To support this, the school offers a variety of extracurricular activities tailored to students' interests and talents, optimizing their diverse intelligences.
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| Picture 5. School plant processing performances by students |
B. Pedagogical Contents
Future School's educators are fully qualified and meet the school's teaching standards. The school employs a teacher-centered learning approach, which involves the transfer of knowledge from teacher to student. While this approach is still needed for certain subjects, it may lack collaborative aspects among students.
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| Picture 6. Observation of the learning process in the classroom |
The comprehensiveness of the curriculum taught by teachers is a notable advantage of Future School. Teachers not only convey the material but also provide practical examples and exercises directly in class. They use TV media to illustrate the real-world applications of the content. The primary learning resource is the textbook, but teachers also prepare additional materials before class. The school's evaluation principles include clear, engaging, and creatively stimulating assessments that do not burden or pressure students. Assessment is not limited to tests but is incorporated throughout the learning process. Teacher assessments are analyzed to provide appropriate follow-up and solutions for future education processes. One of the criteria for students is participation in cultural and artistic activities according to their interests. With the use of English in learning since elementary school, Future School also promises that its students can pursue higher education in Germany with a 0% tuition fee.
C. Teaching Plan
The curriculum used at Future School aligns with Vietnam's national education curriculum. Subjects include language, mathematics, science, arts, technology, ethics, and sports. Future School has three educational program policies: English language use, practical application of theories, and individualized learning tailored to each student, including those with special needs. Students aged 4-5 attend kindergarten, ages 6-11 attend primary school (grades 1-5), ages 12-15 attend junior high school (grades 6-9), and ages 16-18 attend senior high school (grades 10-12). Future School provides an English-language curriculum starting from primary school, with the aim of preparing students to be fluent in English upon graduation. Therefore, I designed my learning using English with the help of Vietnamese translation in PowerPoint presentations that I made.
Chemistry specifically has not been taught to Junior High School students, but chemistry is included in Science subjects. I teach Atomic Matter for 7th grade, Chemical Reactions for 8th grade, and Acids for 9th grade. I designed my teaching materials in less than a week. This included lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, student worksheets, and chemistry terminology sheets in both Vietnamese and English. Based on my classroom observations, I noticed limited student interaction and cooperation. To address this, I designed cooperative learning lessons with a game-based learning approach. Specifically, for chemistry lessons, I implemented a discovery learning model. In discovery learning, each student group conducts different experiments under the teacher's supervision, including dissolving sugar, burning sugar, burning paper, and burning candles. Each learning model has its own stages, so I planned my lessons accordingly, including time allocation for each stage, to optimize teaching time.
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| Picture 7. Learning Media |
D. Teaching Practice
During classroom observations, I observed that students enjoyed playing, talking, and moving. Therefore, I designed lessons that emphasized student collaboration, ensuring every student had the opportunity to be active in class. Each lesson had a duration of 40 minutes. In the first 5 minutes, I conducted warm-up activities to introduce the day's topic and spark students' curiosity. The next 30 minutes were dedicated to the planned learning activities. During this time, I divided the class into four heterogeneous groups consisting of both male and female students. Students gathered and sat with their respective groups. The purpose of forming these groups was to promote teamwork, strengthen communication skills, and enhance creativity through peer discussions. One challenge of this approach was controlling the noise level during group discussions and students chatting while I presented the material. However, when students became noisy and unfocused, I would approach them individually and discreetly remind them to pay attention to the TV screen, ensuring they did not feel embarrassed or intimidated. The last 5 minutes were reserved for evaluation and review of the day's learning. If students had misconceptions, I corrected them during this time. In classes that involved games, I also rewarded winning students as recognition of their team's success, a step in the game-based learning model.
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| Picture 8. Documentation after teaching demonstration |
E. Summary and Suggestions
The goal of this teaching practicum was to enable students to conduct a comprehensive and professional series of teaching activities. The systematic approach provided students majoring in education with the opportunity to achieve the objectives of the practicum. It began with classroom observations to understand student characteristics, school facilities, and teaching techniques. Students were then guided by supervisors to design future lessons. Communication and consultation with supervisors were ongoing to ensure effective, efficient, and enjoyable lesson plans. Supervisors provided feedback on students' lesson plans before they conducted teaching demonstrations in class. Subject teachers at the school assessed students' teaching techniques, methods, knowledge, and attitudes during their teaching practicum. Evaluations were ongoing, and the results were provided to students later on. This sequence of teaching practicum activities offered valuable experiences for education students, enabling them to enhance their competencies and become great teachers in the future.
Teaching in English, an international language, posed a challenge during this practicum. Although it was an international school, most students were not proficient in English, resulting in somewhat rigid and one-directional classroom dynamics. However, students were able to comprehend the material with the help of gestures and signals for less common English vocabulary. The delayed delivery of learning content was one of the challenges I faced, leaving me with limited time to plan and execute my lessons.
Future School has excelled in implementing its educational curriculum. However, it must continue to uphold its principles to remain an outstanding school, focusing on developing content, programs, and methods to ensure the quality of education and become a hub for high-quality resources in Vietnam. My feedback is aimed at improving communication between universities and schools to facilitate coordination, benefiting all parties involved. This way, program participants can have more time to explore knowledge and design more effective and engaging lessons.
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