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The Current Situation of Vocational Education for High School Students and Orientation in Developing Differentiated Teaching Based on The New National Curriculum

Dao Thi Oanh, Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, Ha Thi Lan Huong*, Truong Thi Bich, Nguyen Thi Hue

Insitution for Educational Research, Hanoi National University of Education, Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract: Differentiated teaching is a current trend that emphasizes the ideology of democratizing schools, contributing to the diversion of students. Differentiated teaching develops capacity, creates learners’ interests, and turns passions into learning motivation. Thereby, career orientation for students was formed. This study aims to understand some aspects related to vocational education for high school students in Vietnam and suggesting some directions for developing differentiated teaching based on the new national curriculum. Participants were 146 teachers, 33 managers, and 366 students at high schools in Vietnam. Findings revealed that vocational education at high schools had some limitations and was unable to support students in choosing career according to their interest, capacity, and personality. Difficulties shared by teachers and managers in vocational education were both due to subjective and objective reasons, including challenges of the educational system and related social problems. Based on our findings and the references from other countries, we suggest three different orientations in developing differentiated teaching based on particular subjects or credits.

Keywords: differentiated teaching, high school students, national curriculum, vocational education

Received January 06, 2020; Revised March 16, 2020; Accepted April 05, 2020

Citation: Dao Thi Oanh, Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, Ha Thi Lan Huong, Truong Thi Bich, Nguyen Thi Hue, The Current Situation of Vocational Education for High School Students and Orientation in Developing Differentiated Teaching Based on The New National Curriculum. American Journal of Educational Research, 8 (4). 200-207. January 2020. doi:10.12691/education-8-4-2

1. Introduction

Vietnam is actively participating in the globalization and regionalization, especially in the era of industrial revolution 4.0 [1]. The fourth industrial revolution, which was founded based on the digital revolution and the combination of many technologies, has changed all social aspects along with an individual’s thoughts, learning, working, and communication. According to many economic and educational experts (cited by [2,3]), a human cannot adequately cope with the new era’s challenges unless mobilizing the brain, heart, soul, and physical [2,3]. This also strongly affects the method and content of vocational education in every country due to changes in the labor market and new requirements on competency and professional quality among workers. Within this line, the World Economic Forum's Founder and Executive Chairman - Klaus Schwab, suggested some references for many countries, such as job market, technical needs after the year 2020, probabilistic distribution of computerized careers in the US, ... [4].

However, in the big picture, the competition between countries for survival and sustainable development is becoming fierce. Providing the international and regional labor market, high-quality human resources, sufficient qualifications, and professional skills is a difficult problem in Vietnam. In this context, the promotion of vocational education in the education and training system has become a key idea, an urgent need in Vietnam’s human resource development strategy, focusing on developing an individual’s dynamism, creativity, and skillfulness. Each individual can orient, choose, and build their career professionally, effectively, and scientifically [1]. In developed countries, career orientation for students is often done through differentiated teaching. Differentiated teaching creates a student-centered teaching environment that turns the learning process into a self-study process, developing independent thinking, activeness, and initiative. Learners’ ideas are supplemented, which creates opportunities for them to improve their abilities to orient their careers and develop their known knowledge in the future.

Currently, vocational education at high schools in Vietnam is carried out through the following ways: teaching basic science subjects, formal professional education program; technology and manufacturing labor; fieldwork, extracurricular activities, and career counseling [5]. All paths aim to promote students' interests, trends, and competencies.

Although vocational education and the process of grouping students after graduation through teaching and educational activities have been conducted recently and achieved initial results [6,7,8], the occupational education activities are still formal, unpractical, and have not yet met the requirements of career-oriented for high school graduates [9,10,11].

Some teachers were not fully aware of their roles in vocational training. Parents’ awareness of career orientation for students was superficial. Most parents asked their children to enter a university. Besides, students were lack of information; therefore, they chose their future career based on luck, trendy, personal emotions, adults’ imposition, the attractive name of the job, great jobs, or easy-to-make-money jobs without considering personal interest, capacity or conditions. Most students have little interest and understanding of the jobs that are in high demand locally [12]. There were difficulties in the selection of teachers specialized in career orientation. These teachers were required to have deep and broad professional practical knowledge in various fields, have excellent communication and presentation skills. However, there is no licensed program training staff in vocational orientation. Most teachers working in this area were form teachers or teachers taking charge of other subjects in schools. Before the academic year of 2009-2010, the amount of time devoted to vocational education activities in grades 10, 11, and 12 was 27 sessions/school year/class (3 sessions/month/class). Since 2009-2010, the time spent on vocational education has decreased to nine sessions/school year/class due to the integration of topics related to career orientation into extracurricular activities and the technology class in grade 10. It was hard for teachers to implement all needed contents in vocational education program fully. These shortcomings made professional training in high schools not practical, causing significant waste of human resources and finance, contributing to the high unemployment rate [12]. The imbalance and the low quality of human resources were some of the weaknesses in Vietnam’s education system. The above results show that vocational education at high schools in recent years was inadequate and has not achieved the desired results.

In December 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training issued a new national education program that included some new subjects and new specialized electives related to career-oriented, and experiential activities in teaching. These subjects promoted differentiated instruction [13,14]. This innovation challenged Departments of Education and Training, educational managers, especially classroom teachers and students [15]. To the newly launched national education program better meet the vocational requirements for high school students, investigating the current state of vocational education is necessary, in which the most important was to point out the difficulties and limitations of the school.

2. Content

2.1. Methodology

2.1.1. Research Aims

- Investigate the current situation of vocational education for high school students.

- Suggest some models to teach the new national education program based on differentiation.

The research questions were:

(1) What was the current situation of vocational education at high schools?

(2) Was the orientation of differentiated teaching organized under the new national education curriculum in Vietnam?

2.1.2. Participants

Participants were 146 teachers, 33 managers and 366 high school students (122 grade 10, 116 grade 11, and 128 grade 12) from 12 high schools (Binh Xuyen, Vinh Yen, Bach Dang, Hon Gai, Nguyen Tat Thanh, Hop Thanh, Thai Phien, Tran Phu, Vo Van Kiet, Binh Chanh, Suong Nguyet Anh, Nguyen Dinh Chieu) in six cities/provinces in Vietnam, including Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Vinh Phuc, Danang, Hochiminh and Ben Tre. All participants agreed to participate in the survey voluntarily after understanding the purposes and the information of the study. The study received approval from the Hanoi University of Education.

Participants included 54.5% male managers (18/33); 83.9 % of managers had 14 years or over experience (28/33). Included teachers taught Math, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, History, Geography, Biology, Computer Science, Citizen’s education, and English. There were 21.2% male teachers, 75.3% female teachers, and the rest did not provide information. The proportion of grade 10 teachers was 9.6% while that of grade 11 and 12 were 23.3.% and 61.0%, respectively. 6.2% of teachers did not answer this question. Approximately 68% of teachers had more than 15 years of teaching experience.

Regarding students as participants, there were 42.1% males and 57.9% females. The rate of students in grade 10, 11 and 12 were 33.1%, 31.7% and 35.0%, respectively.

2.1.3. Measurements

Survey and in-depth interviews were used to collect data. There were three different questionnaires used for managers, teachers, and students and one semi-structured interview questionnaire for managers.

The questionnaire using both closed and opened questions covered the following contents: (A) Demographic information: sex, current working place, current teaching class, contemporary teaching subjects, years of teaching/managing experience, working position, grade; (B) The vocational education at their high schools; (C) The plan to implement elective teaching based on the new national education curriculum.

2.1.4. Collecting Data and Data Analysis

The study was conducted from October 2018 to March 2019. The preparation of designing questionnaires, developing in-depth interviews, selecting survey samples, seeking for approval have been standardized from May to September 2018. The data collection was conducted at the beginning of the second semester of the school year 2018 - 2019. The data was aggregated, quantitative and qualitative analysis using SPSS version 20. The descriptive statistical parameters were frequency, percentage, mean, spearman correlation coefficient and histograms were used to present the obtained results.

2.2. Results

2.2.1. The Current Status of Vocational Education for High School Students

The current status of vocational education for high school students was explored among students, teachers and managers. Findings are as followings:

a) The level of interest in vocational education among high school teachers

Table 1 shows that most of the teachers and managers in question assessed the level of interest of subject teachers in vocational education was high. Both teachers and managers thought that the level of art teachers' interest in career guidance for students was the lowest (Mean = 1.65 and 1.24). The potential explanation is that the current high school curriculum excludes Art. Some activities were formed via group education; however, the color of vocational education in these activities has not been focused on.

The results also show that the level of interest in vocational education through the subjects assessed by students had a lower mean score than that evaluated by teachers and managers. This result might explain that teachers and managers believed that vocational orientation had been included in various subjects at schools by teachers; however, the quality has not met the requirements. Findings suggest that it is necessary to organize career-oriented differentiated teaching more effective to develop the capacity for students and support students in choosing the proper career.

b) Methods to implement vocational education for high school students

To investigate which methods should be used to perform professional training for high school students, we divided subjects into groups and organizational activities in school. Results are described in Table 2.

Table 2 showed that both teachers and managers believed vocational education had been exploited in different subjects and educational activities at high schools from frequent to occasional level (the lowest Mean was 1.18). There was no difference in vocational education for students through natural and social sciences. The highest recommended methods from teachers and managers were exploiting through career-oriented education activities (Mean = 1.56 and 1.70), Extracurricular educational activities (Mean = 1.60 and 1.67), through classroom activities (Mean = 1.58 and 1.64), through Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union activities (Mean = 1.39 and 1.61). The lowest effective methods, according to teachers and managers, were exploitation through the school's club activities and the experience activities. This result revealed that teachers and managers believed that other subjects beyond career guidance activities were not good enough in orienting careers for students, even club activities or experience activities.

Table 1. Opinions of teachers, managers and students about the level of interest in vocational education for students through teaching

Table 2. Opinions of teachers and managers about the level of implementing vocational education for students via teaching and educational activities

Table 3. Opinions of students about the level of conducting vocational education via teaching and education in schools

The level of implementation career orientation through teaching and educational activities at school was assessed by students with four options "always", "sometimes", "never", and "unknown ". The results were illustrated in Table 3.

Findings from Table 3 show that most students felt that career-orientation was delivered the best through subjects related to natural sciences and social sciences (the first and second rankings), while vocational education activity ranked 6th. Students’ opinion was different from that of teachers and managers (both teachers and managers thought that occupational education activities were the best options to guide students in choosing a career). This difference might be explained that both teachers and administrators believed vocational education activities should be the most quality and effective methods, and the aims of other subjects were not career guidance for students. However, in reality, students were not taught carefully about careers through vocational education activities. They found their potential in studying natural or social sciences, which guide them from choosing a career that best suits their academic ability. This finding also revealed that managers and teachers believed that subjects at school provided basic knowledge for students but vocational training. Nonetheless, experience from other countries suggested that through differentiated teaching (elective subjects, elective sessions), teachers helped students develop their learning capacity, which in turn help them orient their careers. This finding is worth considering in organizing teaching courses for students, especially the new general education program.

c) References for vocational counseling for students

Questions related to recommendations for professional counseling for students were included in the questionnaire for teachers and managers.

Table 4 reveals that, to provide career guidance for students, managers and teachers believed that they based the most from personal experience (Mean = 1.74 and 1.70), Current labor/job market demand (Mean = 1.67 and 1.64), students' interests and hobbies (Mean = 1.81 and 1.70). Career guidance for students was underestimated by adults when considering learning capacity through the subject taught by teachers (Mean = 1.58 and 1.45); ethical qualities and personality of students manifested in class and other activities (Mean = 1.66 and 1.58). And the lowest method was information from the domestic startup movement (Mean = 1.05 and 1.00); opinions from local labor managers (Mean = 1.21 and 1.36); books on vocational orientation in school’s library (Mean = 1.27 and 1.39).

Table 4. Opinions of teachers and managers about the level of using reference sources to counseling professionals for students

The same question was used to ask students; results were as follows:

Figure 1. Opinions of students about the level that teachers used references for vocational counselling for students

Five sources of information that students used to choose career were: self-study on books and online (299/366 students); advice from parents and relatives (260/366 students); counseling of teachers through classroom lessons (195/366 students); information from friends (175/366 students); counseling programs on radio and television (161/366 students).

It was the finding from this study that teachers were based mostly on their own experience to support students in choosing a future career. Other frequent references were the current labor market needs and students’ interest. However, the students' academic ability and personality qualities have not been focused yet. Even the vocational guidance for students based on the needs of the labor market was still at a superficial level. Domestic industries were suggested, and international sectors were limited in the introduction to students. The use of school resources to guide students' career is underestimated. The reason for this was that teachers and managers believed there is a shortage of books on career counseling for students in the school library (open source question). Regarding students, more than 50% of them said that the career choice was not conducted through career counseling in class. Students admitted that they mainly chose careers based on the experiences of teachers, parents, friends, and current attractive jobs through books and newspapers. The results also showed that developing competence and understanding students’ personality qualities in class has not been adequately focused in Vietnam. At the same time, these activities were believed to be the core factor in career orientation in other countries. It is a crucial orientation to organize differentiated teaching in the new national education program.

d) The career choice of high school students

High school students’ career choices were surveyed on teachers and students using open-ended questions. Teachers believed that the most chosen careers by students were economics, tourism, information technology, business administration, banking, media, law, accounting, mechanics, automation, and pedagogy. The least selected professions were agriculture and food technology. Within this trend, the university that students chose the most was economics, finance, law, construction, polytechnic, and information technology.

Students agreed that they were more likely to choose the following jobs: economics, hotel/restaurant administration, actor/actress, singer, educational technology, tour guide, policeman, law, and engineering. According to these, students tended to choose the following universities: National Economics University, University of Technology, University of Education, and Vietnam People’s Security University. Findings revealed that there was consistent between teachers’ opinions and students’ choices.

e) Difficulties in teaching vocational orientation for high school students

Teachers listed five challenges based on their experience including (1) Limited time for professional direction at school; (2) Information on social industries that meet the current and future social requirements was not accurate and updated; (3) The content was lack of practice and information to help teachers equip the students' skills, capacity development, aptitudes, and professional qualities; (4) Students chose a career based on their interests, experiences from their teachers and parents, the short-term social needed career; (5) Lack of experience in social careers, especially local traditional jobs.

Regarding managers, four problems led to the limitation of vocational orientation activities at schools:

- Facilities were inadequate, weak, and backward; Some of the facilities were degraded and damaged. Some specialized classrooms had not been formed, such as music, art, foreign languages, technology, physical training, and sports. There was a shortage of computers, projectors, screens for vocational education. Besides, schools and classrooms were small in contrast with the high number of students.

- Although information technology infrastructure has been invested, the quantity and quality were sketchy and under standards. The unstable network connection and the lack of instruction website prevented students and teachers from conducting vocational education effectively.

- There was a severe lack of human resources, in which those who are in charge of vocational education at schools had limited knowledge and practice related to professional guidance.

- Limitation in cooperation between the local business community and vocational education for students at school was another drawback. The problem was that local businesses did not enthusiastically support the school. They hesitated in cooperating for new generations due to their worry in downing working effectiveness and labor safety. Teachers were not active enough in collaborating with schools and local businesses; parents did not care sufficient about vocational education of their children at school. The correlation between high schools between clusters, districts, and provinces was loose. The number of local businesses was limited.

2.2.2. Some Orientations for Organizing Differentiated Teaching According to the New National Education Program to Promote Vocational Education for Students

The new curriculum is expected to be implemented by the Ministry of Education and Training from 2020. Accordingly, the career orientation will be applied at high school from grade 10 to grade 12. One of the main goals at high school is to help students select a suitable career based on their abilities and interests, family conditions and circumstances, to be able to continue their studies, or to learn an occupation or to participate in productive labor; and be able to adapt to changes in the context of globalization and revolution 4.0.

To implement the new national education program, many issues need to be solved, including differential teaching. The primary phase includes developing various subjects in modules and topics for students to choose based on their aspirations as well as the organizational capacity of the school. The career-oriented education phase of high school is divided into two parts, which are selective teaching and learning by topics. Besides learning compulsory subjects (Math, Literature, Foreign Language, Physical Education, National Defense and Security Education, Career Orientation Experience, and Local Education), students can select other subjects (Social Sciences Group: History, Geography, Economic and Legal Education; Natural Sciences Group: Physics, Chemistry, Biology; Technology, Art, Computer Science, in which students selected five subjects from three groups, and there is at least one subject in each group; elective subjects (Ethnic minority languages, Foreign languages)) [15]. Choosing elective subjects of each group will meet the requirements of differentiation in education, which in turn meet the needs of career orientation.

Findings from this study revealed that vocational orientation was limited at high schools. There was a lack of support activities for students in choosing their future career professionally. To overcome these limitations in the stage of implementing the new school education program towards differentiation teaching, we propose some suggestion for vocational orientation at high schools as follows:

a) Preparing conditions for the deployment of differentiative teaching in career-orientation.

i) The school should compile guidance documents to help students choose a suitable career as well as subjects that suit their preferred career orientation. These documents should be available on the official website of the school. Teachers, students, and parents are allowed to access quickly. Also, relevant links may be included for reference when needed.

ii) Ensuring that there are enough teachers to implement the new program, including teachers for both compulsory and selected subjects in the direction of developing the capabilities and qualities of each student. The vocational counselor team should include form-teachers, subject teachers, and professional teachers that are equipped with basic knowledge about the national education programs, the current career trends, and the requirements of the various jobs. Besides, school must invite experts in career counseling, business owners, and local industry talk and share vocational information for students and parents.

iii) Ensuring sufficient facilities, practice rooms, laboratories, computer rooms, equipment, and information technology infrastructure for organizing teaching as well as vocational guidance activities for students.

iv) Developing funding sources for inviting teachers who are experts in professional orientation working at school. The cooperation between schools and businesses is worth considering as it does promote not only vocational training at school but also encourages local businesses and industries.

b) Organizing for students to register for selected elective subjects based on their capacity and strengths

Besides five compulsory subjects, students are allowed to choose topics from three different groups at school, in which each group has at least one subject. Therefore, students have a various combination of options that can lead to the choice of future university, such as:

i) Social sciences orientation: choosing three subjects in the Social Science group, one subject in the Natural Science group, one subject in Technology - Art group. With this choice, students can choose one of the following majors at university: Social Sciences, Law, Journalism, Propaganda, Diplomacy, Culture, Trade Union, Tourism...

ii) Natural sciences orientation: choosing three subjects in the Natural Science group, one subject in the Social Science group, and one subject in Technology - Art group. With this option, students can choose one of the following majors at university: Natural Science, Education, Polytechnic, Architecture, Transportation, Banking, Finance, Medicine, Law, Economics, Commerce, Electricity, Security, Military Technology, Geological Mine.

iii) Technology and Information Technology Orientation: choosing three subjects in Technology - Informatics group, one subject in the Social Science group, and one subject in the Natural Science group. With this option, students can choose one of the following majors at university: Technology, Informatics, Post and Telecommunications, Education, Agricultural Technology, Industry, Irrigation, Fisheries, Forestry Karma.

iv) Art Orientation: choosing two subjects belonging to Technology - Art group, two subjects are belonging to the Social Science group, one subject belonging to the Natural Science group or two subjects in the Natural Science group, one subject belonging to the Social Science group. With this option, students can choose one of the following majors at university: Art, Theater, Film, Fashion Design, Industrial Fine Arts, Tourism, Culture, Education (preschool, elementary).

c) Developing a plan, organizing teaching, and measuring learning outcomes

After the selection subjects completed by students, the school will arrange the schedule, teachers properly in each semester, week or day depending on the conditions, differences in subject nature, and study time.

In case that a large number of students register in one subject and school is a lack of teachers, inviting teachers or experts from other schools or renting more space is highly recommended.

It is also vital that the school needs to develop an appropriate and authentic assessment plan that is a shred of significant evidence for adjusting and completing the teaching plan.

2.3. Discussion

Vocational education is an essential task in the national education system of developed countries. Not only does it help organize the proper professional network in a country that suits the requirement of socio-economic development, but it also allows students to choose proactively a continued learning pathway that meets their interests, abilities, strengths, personal conditions, and socio-economic development requirements.

Experience from other countries shows that career guidance for students in high schools is usually conducted via three different popular forms: (1) Elective subjects; (2) Specialized class; and (3) Specialized school. The most flexible and comprehensive way in the form of teaching elective subjects, among other differentiated teaching forms. The explanation might come from the freedom and flexibility students have in selecting subjects. Meanwhile, teachers are required to determine and adjust the content of teaching to best suit learners’ needs and abilities, and to promote students' activeness through appropriate learning materials. Teaching based on elective subjects is usually conducted in groups if the number of students interested in the subject is not enough to form one class. According to some experts, this form of differentiated teaching has some limitations. Elective classes might take place in parallel with compulsory classes that sometimes lead to the expansion instead of deepening the content.

Many studies have shown that vocational education in Vietnam recently has showed many limitations that share the same idea with findings from this study. However, results obtained from this study confirmed the most important reason for the ineffective vocational training at high schools is the knowledge-centered teaching with little notice in developing students' abilities. From the choice of a student's career to the reality of vocational education for students and difficulties in career guidance show that developing the self-decision skills in career among students has not been considered. There should be more attention in helping students identify their own personality qualities, thereby make appropriate career choices. The study suggests that it is essential to focus more on vocational orientation for students when the new school program is launched in 2020. Some preparation should be considered more carefully, such as preparation of deployment conditions, organizing for students to register for selective subjects, formulating plans, as well as methods to implement the teaching plan to achieve its goals and objectives.

3. Conclusion

The success of educational revolution depends on many different factors. However, evidence has shown that it is essential to consider existing problems in the old educational program before embarking on innovation. The causes of previous problems as well as the expected outcomes, the objectives of the new situation should be aware of carefully to suggest appropriate adjustments.

The new national education program will be implemented from the school year 2020-2021 with important changes, especially for high schools. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the current situation of vocational education for high school students today to propose appropriate directions in vocational education for students. Findings from this study show that vocational education for students did not achieve the expected results due to lack of vocational knowledge from teachers as well as the awareness of teachers in support students developing vocational orientation skills. The new national education program promotes career guidance for students through vocational education activities and extra-curriculum program that might improve the effectiveness of vocational education for high school students in Vietnam.

Acknowledgements

This study is under financial support of the project: “Research and propose solutions to organize the teaching of elective subjects for high school students under the new national education program”, Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training, code B2018- SPH-55.

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