Hanoi Principal Shares Journey to Make Debate an Official Subject

9 years of experimentation, making debate a subject

During the process of teaching literature according to the 2006 general education program, teacher Hoang Thi Man realized that: in each literature class, teachers try to impart knowledge to students, while students listen attentively and take notes, so they rarely express their personal opinions about the work. When working as a manager, having many opportunities to observe classes, Ms. Man felt more clearly that literature teachers talk a lot; while in reality, each literary text has many meanings and to understand the content of the work, students must have a multi-dimensional perspective. From that reality, the idea of ​​​​incorporating debate into the curriculum to support and improve the quality of teaching and learning literature began to grow in her.

Teacher Hoang Thi Man took a souvenir photo with members of the Review Board and colleagues .​

According to Ms. Hoang Thi Man, debate is not only suitable for the specific characteristics of literature, but also suitable for the trend of learning and taking literature exams according to the 2018 General Education Program. The purpose of debate is for students to know how to express their personal opinions on a certain issue from many multidimensional perspectives; from there, they complement each other in terms of life experience, knowledge, and argumentation... However, debate is only popular abroad, while in Vietnam, people only know about debate in some playgrounds and competitions.

The idea of ​​teacher Hoang Thi Man was highly appreciated by the Hanoi Teachers' Award Review Council for its dedication and creativity.

With the desire to strengthen and develop students' language skills in the two subjects of English and Literature, Ms. Hoang Thi Man and the Board of Directors of Newton School spent a lot of time researching and exploring, from which they boldly decided to gradually make debate an official subject, a period of in-depth practice of language skills, especially speaking skills for students.

To do that is a 9-year journey with different levels; initially organizing an English debate playground for students; establishing a Debate Club; building a Vietnamese version of the debate competition applicable to both teachers and students; implementing a debate topic; piloting debate with 15 classes and officially becoming a subject from the 2023-2024 school year.

Rich in influence

To implement on a large scale, Newton School has built a system of debate topics that are consistent from grade 6 to grade 12 in both English and Vietnamese. Debate topics are proposed by subject groups; then the school board reviews, carefully edits, approves with electronic signatures and puts them into the school's shared database. This is followed by training in debate teaching skills for teachers and training in debate rules for students through introductory debate learning. All debate topics are made public to students, providing channels of information for them to refer to before each debate match.

Teachers of Newton Secondary and High School enthusiastically participated in the debate competition.

According to Ms. Hoang Thi Man, after a short time of implementing debate, the effectiveness and quality of teaching and learning English and literature at Newton School have been improved. Instead of having to listen a lot, students now speak 80% of the time in a debate period, truly being the center of the lesson. In the high school graduation exam, 90 - 95% of students had IELTS certificates that met the standard, the average score in literature increased by 0.7 points compared to the previous year.

Teacher Hoang Thi Man - Principal of Newton Secondary and High School at the opening ceremony of the 2024 - 2025 school year.

Sharing about the pioneering and somewhat bold decision with the debate subject at Newton School, Ms. Hoang Thi Man said: “If the debate is organized within the framework of a competition, held once a year, it will only be a playground for excellent students, with talent and interest in debate to compete. Thus, it will not be possible to personalize and cover all students. On the contrary, when debate is widely deployed to classes, both articulate students and those who do not have good critical thinking skills will have the opportunity to participate in debates, share to gradually reveal, develop their abilities and progress compared to themselves.”

Ms. Hoang Thi Man presented her report at the Final Round of the Hanoi Dedicated and Creative Teacher Award 2024.

In the process of introducing debate into a subject, Ms. Hoang Thi Man also clearly recognized the limitations of this activity, which is that there are only two sides, Support and Oppose; while there are issues in society that cannot be absolutely opposed or completely supported, but must combine and synthesize the two viewpoints. At that time, the teacher's guiding role is extremely important, helping to orient students' viewpoints and comprehensive views on an issue.

As a member of the Hanoi Teachers' Award Review Council for creativity and dedication, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc An, Chairman of the Vietnam Education Trade Union (Ministry of Education and Training) highly appreciated the creative ideas and dedication of Principal of Newton Secondary and High School Hoang Thi Man.

Dr. Nguyen Ngoc An commented: “Debate, or in other words, debate for and against, is a good but difficult teaching technique. This technique trains students to listen actively and give constructive feedback. I believe that the way Principal Hoang Thi Man and Newton School are doing it will bring good results and will have an increasingly stronger influence.”

 

“The determination and creativity of Ms. Hoang Thi Man have contributed significantly to the school's achievements. For many years, students of Newton Secondary and High School have always been at the top of Bac Tu Liem district, Nam - Bac Tu Liem cluster and in the top of the city in excellent student competitions, 10th grade entrance exams and high school graduation exams. In her role as Principal of the school, Ms. Hoang Thi Man has contributed to creating a vibrant competitive atmosphere, helping teachers to constantly innovate, achieving outstanding achievements in excellent teacher competitions as well as emulation movements of the industry...”, Enthusiastic and creative teacher Le Thi Bich Dung, Vice Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Newton Inter-level School.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/hieu-truong-ha-noi-chia-se-hanh-trinh-dua-tranh-bien-thanh-mon-hoc-chinh-thuc.html