New features in textbook selection

Teachers at Quang Minh Secondary School (Gia Loc) are focusing on researching new 8th grade textbooks.

Choose books early

Last school year, the time for selecting textbooks was short, while teachers were busy with their professional duties, so some teachers did not conduct in-depth research, leading to a rough evaluation. The textbooks were delivered to teachers late and incomplete. Most teachers only read online, so it was difficult to compare, comment on, and evaluate each textbook in detail. There were e-books that could not be accessed for research.

The leader of a district-level Department of Education and Training said that last year, within the same district, there was a situation where a single school chose its own set of textbooks. Some schools were still missing documents in the process of proposing and selecting textbooks. This also shows that the process of selecting textbooks in a few schools was haphazard and not systematic.

To overcome these limitations, this year, the Hai Duong education sector has proactively implemented the program earlier. In February, the Department of Education and Training coordinated with the Vietnam Education Publishing House to organize a workshop to introduce textbooks for grades 4, 8, and 11 and provide training on how to select textbooks for educational institutions in the province. Compared to previous years, this year's textbook selection was implemented about 1 month earlier to help teachers have more time to research, evaluate, and select appropriate textbooks for application in their locality and unit.

Immediately after the workshop and training of the Department of Education and Training, many schools immediately started to develop a plan to propose the selection of new textbooks for their units. The schools evaluated the results of the proposed selection and use of textbooks for the previous school year, and implemented tasks in selecting books for the 2023-2024 school year. The schools thoroughly grasped, disseminated, and guided the regulations on textbook selection, selection criteria, and the list of books approved by the Ministry of Education and Training to teachers; required subject teachers to read, research, and evaluate; professional groups met to discuss and propose book selection, etc.

At Tu Ky Town Primary School, immediately after receiving the hard copy textbooks, teachers in the subject group of grades 4 and 5 divided them up to read and study. Teacher Nguyen Van Thung, the school's principal, said that in addition to reading the hard copy textbooks, teachers also studied e-books. The school required teachers to allocate time to thoroughly study, discuss, and evaluate each book, then vote by secret ballot to select at least 1 textbook for each subject.

“The school will hold a meeting with the Principal, Vice Principal, Head of the professional group and representative of the Parents' Association to discuss and evaluate the list of textbooks proposed by the professional groups. Then, the school will create a list of textbooks proposed by the school for grade 4 and report to the Department of Education and Training,” said teacher Thung.

Experimental teaching

When choosing new textbooks, spending time on in-depth research to accurately assess which set of books is suitable for the characteristics of the locality and unit plays a very important role, but in order to apply them to practical teaching, experimental teaching of the sets of books also needs to be considered. In fact, in previous years, experimental teaching of new sets of books was very rare.

Learning from previous years' experiences, this year many schools have planned experimental teaching, from which they have made reasonable proposals and recommendations to superiors to select the most optimal sets of books.

According to teacher Vu Tien Cong, Principal of Quang Minh Secondary School (Gia Loc), the school has organized an evaluation of the proposed selection and use of textbooks for the 2022-2023 school year, reviewed all types of records, arranged and stored them fully according to regulations. This year, the school requires teachers to compare some typical lessons of the textbooks, how to systematize and arrange knowledge areas to gain experience in choosing the best textbooks for students.

“The school is asking teachers to select a number of lessons from the 2018 general education textbooks that are similar to the 2006 general education program to conduct a trial teaching and compare the results to find the most suitable textbook set,” said Mr. Cong.

The representative of the Department of Education and Training said that they have thoroughly grasped and instructed schools to strictly and correctly implement the process of proposing and selecting textbooks according to Circular No. 25/2020/TT-BGD&DT of the Ministry of Education and Training. The Department noted that teachers must spend time reading and carefully studying all the textbooks of the publishers. If any school has the conditions to teach experimentally before proposing and selecting textbooks, it will be even more effective.

New textbooks according to the new general education program 2018 have been implemented for primary school from grade 1 to grade 3; secondary school from grade 6 to grade 7; high school grade 10. The 2023-2024 school year will continue to implement new textbooks for grades 4, 8 and 11. The following school year will implement new textbooks for grades 5, 9 and 12.

THE ANH