Professional Documents
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The Causes of Passiveness in Learning of Vietnamese Students
The Causes of Passiveness in Learning of Vietnamese Students
2(2013)7284
1. Inroduction\\
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Tel.: 84-964521559
E-mail: tuyettt@vnu.edu.vn
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2. Students
Vietnamese and other Asian CHC students
do not appear to appreciate passive learning
style. In many research projects, Asian students
start raising their voice about the learning style
that they currently have to adopt but are not
necessary in favour of. Littlewood [17]
conducted research with the participation of
2,307 students studying at tertiary level in eight
East Asian countries: Brunei, mainland China,
Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia,
Thailand, and Vietnam, and 349 students in
three European countries: Finland, Germany,
and Spain. The study found a similarity in study
attitude between these two groups. The
students responses indicated clearly that:
The stereotype of Asian students as passive
and obedient listeners - whether or not it is just
a reflection of their actual behaviour in class does not reflect the role they would like to
adopt in class. They do not see the teacher as an
authority figure who should not be questioned;
they do not want to sit in class passively
receiving knowledge; and they are only slightly
on the agreement side that the teacher should
have a greater role than themselves in
evaluating their learning [17].
In Vietnam, Thompson [1] also reports two
different learning styles matched with two
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(1)
See
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=133803095681&top
ic=13702 for more details (Facebook Discussion, 2009).
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3. Family expectation
A distinctive characteristic of the
Vietnamese HES is the significant involvement
of a students family. Students in Vietnam, even
in HE are traditionally too dependant on their
family [24]. While this may not be a negative
factor, it is a cultural feature of education in
Vietnam. Important decisions such as: which
university their children should apply to, should
children study in the community colleges, or go
to large cities, or go abroad to study, are made,
in most cases, by parents. While students may
have their own voice, parents are considered
more mature, more experienced, and are the
ones who will pay for children to study, so their
opinions are often considered the priority.
Moreover, the cultural tradition of Vietnam is
to respect elders, and the career of the child is
the common concern of the whole family [25].
These all reinforce the important role of parents
in Vietnamese childrens lives.
The cultural tradition of respecting elders is
itself not necessary harmful, but this tradition
can sometimes be dangerous, especially when
parents often lead their children by their own
thoughts and experiences which were suitable
for students more than twenty years ago [24].
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(3)
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the
level
of
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(4)
5. Lecturers
Lecturers make an important contribution to
HE institutions and play an important role in
delivering quality teaching for students. That is
why lecturers seem to have most responsibility
in student learning, and they also receive most
complaints and blames from the government,
researchers and bureaucrats for the existing
situation in the HES. The low level of staff
qualifications and outdated teaching method
which are considered as the main hurdles for
the innovation of the system are found in many
articles about the HES in Vietnam. Nguyen
Thuy Anh [41] suggests that both quality and
quantity of lecturers in the HES in Vietnam is
not sufficient, and that many lecturers do not
have the means or necessary conditions to
upgrade their skills, then are left no choice but
to engage in a myriad of income-generating
activities to supplement a meagre teacher
stipend. Hoang Tuy looks at the problem from
the other angle, and suggests that the problem
originates from a wrong perception of the
teachers mission and role in contemporary
education:
Upon reactions on the outdated philosophy,
ultimate privilege and power are given to
teachers as traditionally known by No one can
be successful without teachers. Education is
interpreted as a process of knowledge
transmission and passive reception Studentcenteredness is sometimes the key importance
of the educational system; textbooks and
materials are sometimes called the educational
soul, leading to the assumption that the poor
quality of HE is due to the materials, not the
teachers [43].
The argument I am developing here neither
agrees completely with Nguyen Thuy Anh, nor
Hoang Tuy, but the points instead to look at the
context and environment where the teachers are
T.T.Tuyt/VNUJournalofEducationResearch,Vol.29,No.2(2013)7284
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and
regional
universities,
where
the
qualifications of teaching staff is quite high,
and where many lecturers have studied overseas
and are familiar with the more interactive
teaching methods. What stops them from
applying the skills and knowledge they have
acquired and have been encouraged to apply by
various educational policies and regulations? If
academics in these universities are not able to
lead the change in teaching and learning, it is
unrealistic to expect the change from other
smaller institutions.
In looking for reasons for the situation,
Stephen at als [2] argument sounds reasonable
when they claim that the main reasons for the
slow change in teaching practices are the result
of time constraints on teachers. Because of
particularly low salaries, most lecturers in the
HES have more than one working commitment
with more than one employer. University
teachers report that they have to find something
else apart from their main teaching in their
faculty to make a living [1, 42].
MOET stipulates that each lecturer working
in a university needs to teach 260 lessons a
school year, which is approximately 10 of 45
minute lessons each week. Other time is
allocated for academic teaching preparation and
research activities. However, lecturers do not
have set office hours or office in which to work
in universities. Beside this, as there is a chronic
shortage of teaching staff, it is not difficult to
find university lecturers who teach more than
30 lessons a week, both for their own
universities and in their private teaching. A
MOET university survey finds out that almost
50% of academic staff who work in the nonpublic sector, work as on part-time contracts
and they are highly likely to also hold positions
in the public sector [43]. Lecturers receive
salary for the main course teaching (10 lessons
a week); for all other teaching activities they
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6. Concluding remark
The findings of this study obviously
contrast with the repeated opinions about the
Asian passive and obedient learning style made
by Holliday [9], Jone [3], Stephen at al [2], and
Subramaniam [11]. It also contrasts with the
literature which simply attaches the passive
learning style of Asian students to the
Confucian heritage culture, proposing that
Vietnamese student learning style is typically
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