School students told to learn from real-life experience
VietNamNet Bridge – The traditional teaching method, under which, teachers try to stuff students heads with as much knowledge, has been replaced by a new method, under which students can “learn by experiencing.”
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On the first days of the 2011-2012 academic year, sixth and seventh graders of Marie Curie Secondary School in Hanoi had very interesting lessons. They could wade into the ponds to catch fish, learned to transplant rice seedlings, grow vegetable, feed poultry and pick up tea leaves in the trips to Ba Vi district in the city’s suburb area.
The training course was organized by the Hanoi Center for Youth Support and Development, which aimed to help city students get familiar to the field works and appreciate the value of labor.
The students of the Doan Thi Diem Primary School have also been regularly busy attending the extracurricular activities, which are considered “outdoor lessons”. In mid winter, nearly 200 fourth graders still tried to do the field works. Leaving the crowded streets, “small city farmers” went to the countryside to see with their eyes the things they never saw in the past.
“Teacher, there are so many wild geese here,” a student shouted. “They are not wild geese; they are ducks, who are the relatives of geese,” the teacher replied.
“Teacher, are buffalo yellow?” a student asked. “No, this is a cow. It is yellow. A buffalo is black,” the teacher answered.
So many questions were raised by the students, who could see with their eyes-- the ducks, the buffalos and cows, which they could see on textbooks only.
Thu Ha, a teacher of Doan Thi Diem School, said that one day, she and the third graders worked as farmers at the Hanoi Agriculture University. The students were shown how to soak seeds and told to do this.
“After every lesson, students can feel bigger love to the life, labor and the nature. The images of the farmers working on the rice fields help them understand where the vegetables, meat and rice they eat every day come from,” Ha said.
According to Nguyen Thi Hien, Headmaster of the Doan Thi Diem Primary School, the students go on picnic once a week. Besides, the school also organizes many other extracurricular activities, such as camping, trade fairs and donations.
In general, the extracurricular activities cost every student 500-1 million dong a year. A trip costs every student 100,000 dong. Instead of booking tours, the school designs tours itself and only spends money on coaches.
Renovating teaching method or lagging behind
There are two state owned schools in HCM City famous for their efforts to renovate teaching methods. Visiting a botanical garden, the pottery village in Binh Duong province, giving gifts to humanity centers, or going out to learn traffic safety laws--were the practical lessons the students of Luong Dinh Cua Primary School experienced.
At Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School in district 5, students have also got too familiar with outdoor lessons. Instead of sitting in classrooms, their lessons are given in the park, on the pavement or tens of kilometers far from the school.
Le Thi Ngoc Diep, Headmaster of Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School, said that the new teaching method has been applauded by the parents. The students can see with their eyes the flower garden, the park when they need to write essays to describe a landscape, and they can watch the traffic when they learn about the traffic safety.
When students learn the lesson about how President Ho Chi Minh left the country to look for a way for national liberalization, students were carried to the Nha Rong pier and travel on the Saigon River.
Headmaster of the Luong Dinh Cua Primary School Vu Thi My Hanh said that the outdoor lessons are lively and easier for understanding than any other lesson in classrooms.
Source: Phu nu Thu Do
