Dr. Nguyễn Tùng Lâm, a YUP student, shares the changes needed in school management to improve educational quality. The article was published in Dân Trí newspaper.
DR. NGUYỄN TÙNG LÂM: “SCHOOLS MUST ALWAYS TREAT STUDENTS AS KINGS”
Dr. Nguyễn Tùng Lâm emphasized that schools must proactively change their thinking and innovate to improve educational quality in accordance with the laws of the market economy. Teachers must regard students as customers/kings, listening to and respecting them…
Most teachers suffer from “occupational bias”
Drawing on years of management experience, Dr. Nguyễn Tùng Lâm, Principal of Đinh Tiên Hoàng High School and Chairman of the Hanoi Educational Psychology Association, frankly identified teachers’ professional limitations in his paper “Necessary Innovations in School Management to Improve Educational Quality,” submitted to the Education Forum 2017.
The main shortcomings mentioned include always blaming students or their parents, failing to become role models for students, and poor understanding of students' psychology and development leading to mistakes in educational methods…
“Most teachers suffer from an occupational weakness: they chase canonical theories and cling to textbook knowledge, even when it is outdated both scientifically and practically. They fail to connect it with real life, always assume they are right, dismiss colleagues' contributions, and become irritated by students' questions. They talk constantly without listening, always blame students, parents, the school, and colleagues, while considering themselves perfect,” Dr. Lâm explained.
Another limitation is that most teachers have yet to demonstrate the defining qualities of their profession: people who always yearn to learn, continually seek to enrich their scientific and life knowledge, and serve as role models and ‘idols’ for their students.
Dr. Lâm also said successful teaching requires understanding the psychology and development of those being taught, but most teachers pay little attention to this and rarely manage it well.
‘Perhaps educational psychology was not given sufficient importance in teacher-training schools. It was not treated as a core subject for developing teachers’ professional skills, but merely as a general subject like Party History or Philosophy… After graduation, schools provide no further training and simply expect teachers to teach themselves.
‘They only concern themselves with meeting classroom standards during demonstration lessons, inspections, or observed classes. As mentioned above, because they do not understand students’ age-related psychology and physiology, educational methods, or advanced educational experience, they are prone to acting arbitrarily and making mistakes in teaching,’ he explained, analyzing the consequences of teachers not understanding their students’ psychology and physiology.
Provide training and professional certification; eliminate those who do not meet the standards
Viewing teachers as a driver of educational quality, Dr. Nguyễn Tùng Lâm emphasized that the education sector must rethink professional development for teachers. Improving teachers' professional quality must be treated as an urgent task, with human resources focused on addressing it fundamentally and comprehensively for 100% of teachers within the next 3–5 years. Without accomplishing this, educational quality cannot be achieved.
Completing skills training school by school in successive stages requires many instructors and evaluators. He considered the Hanoi Department of Education and Training's pilot approach of building a core team of teachers to improve teaching skills both modern and practical.
“A training system that awards certificates at each stage will gradually select a more capable, professionally skilled, and proficient teaching workforce. Teachers who repeatedly fail to earn certification will have to change careers,” Dr. Nguyễn Tùng Lâm emphasized.
How can teachers ‘truly earn a living from their profession’?
According to the chairman of the Hanoi Educational Psychology Association, the first “lever” for improving teacher quality must be adequate salaries that allow teachers to truly earn a living from their profession and work with peace of mind as professional educators.
Teachers’ work must be clearly understood so they can be fairly rewarded, measured scientifically rather than discussed vaguely. Education’s product is students’ character, and it must develop ways of thinking that let them shape their own character. Teaching involves not only intellect but teachers’ own character, love and sensitivity toward people. Not everyone can become an educator.
“We tend to think that a brief stint at a teacher-training college is enough to make someone an educator. A teacher does more than impart knowledge; what matters is where they guide students and what motivation they give students to learn and live. No machine can replace a teacher in that role. It has been said that an education system cannot rise above the caliber of its teachers. If we want a higher-quality workforce, we must have good teachers. High quality does not mean wooden floors and air conditioning… It lies in the high quality of the teachers,” Dr. Lâm affirmed.
On the other hand, Dr. Nguyễn Tùng Lâm also noted that educational and training institutions must proactively change their mindset. They must creatively and proactively implement solutions to improve educational quality at each school in accordance with market economy principles. Accordingly, each school must be a “brand”; students must always be “customers,” “kings” who are respected and listened to.
Lệ Thu (recorded)
Link to the original article in Dân Trí: http://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc-khuyen-hoc/ts-nguyen-tung-lam-nha-truong-phai-luon-xem-hoc-sinh-la-thuong-de-20170928071610544.htm
