THE CURRENT STATE OF HIGH SCHOOLS’ HOMEROOM IN HO CHI MINH CITY IN THE CONTEXT OF GENERAL EDUCATION RENOVATION Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City ) Abstract Regarding to the homeroom teachers’ duties, the homeroom session is a once a week event when the teachers officially meet with their students and have face to face conversations with them The homeroom could be more important for high school students who should be m[.]
Trang 1IN HO CHI MINH CITY IN THE CONTEXT
OF GENERAL EDUCATION RENOVATION
Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung
(University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City )
Abstract: Regarding to the homeroom teachers’ duties, the homeroom session is a once-a-week event when
the teachers officially meet with their students and have face-to-face conversations with them The homeroom could
be more important for high school students who should be mentally prepared for a next stage of life In the context
of general education renovation, the homeroom is required to be changed towards encouraging students’ self-discipline, improving their independence and competency in communication, collaboration, problem solving and creativity The paper presents the research results of the current state of holding homeroom sessions in public high schools in Ho Chi Minh City The research aimed to create a practical basis to propose measures for enhancing the quality of homeroom activities in high schools in Ho Chi Minh City to meet the requirements of general education renovation The survey was conducted by a combination of in-depth interviews and questionnaires among 46 school managers, 472 homeroom teachers, and 6837 students of public high schools in 11 urban districts and 3 rural districts of Ho Chi Minh City The results show that the teachers and students might not
be aware of the important role of homeroom sessions Teachers mainly spend time on overviewing classroom situation for the previous week and deploying students’ work for the next week rather than performing integrated educational activities for students in homerooms Teachers are still in controlling the classrooms instead of letting students being self-disciplined and independent This makes homerooms unattractive for students The research results could be used as a reference for pedagogical colleges and high schools in teacher training or continuing professional development to enhance the competency of handling homeroom duty
Keywords: homeroom, high school, general education renovation, Ho Chi Minh City.
1 INTRODUCTION
In pre-higher schools in general and in particular, in high schools, homeroom work plays an important role in educating and teaching students It is more crucial for high school students who are in the final stage of pre-higher education and in the age of having many worries and excitements for a next stage of life They must improve their knowledge, skills, self-confidence and be ready for studying in vocational schools or universities, or getting to work early
Regarding to homeroom teachers’ work, homeroom is the only time of the week for teachers to officially meet their students This allows teachers to receive information from students, listen and discuss their issues timely, and consequently educate them in a more proper way
Homeroom becomes increasingly important in the context of general education innovation
The General Education Curriculum (Ministry of Education and Training, 2018) defines students’
common core competencies including competency in self-discipline and self-studying, competency
Trang 2in communication and collaboration, and competency in problem solving and creativity (section IX) Weekly homeroom sessions might help teachers creating oppotunities for students to be self-disciplined, which contributes effectively to the development of these competencies for students
However, in practice, many homeroom teachers in high schools organize the weekly class meetings with monotonous forms and boring content Since Ho Chi Minh City is the largest and the most populous city in Vietnam, large classes seem to be a common problem in most of high schools, where homeroom teachers are under pressure of monitoring and controlling student behaviors Consequently, there is a tendency that teachers use homeroom for administrative purposes and addressing student misconduct, and in case of negative punishment, students get tired of being insulted in front of the class from teachers’ reprimand and punishment Morever, teachers sometimes allow students to do their homework
in homeroom
In Vietnam, a considerable amount of literature has been published on homeroom work and homeroom teachers However, there is a shortage of studies that focus on weekly homeroom sessions
in high schools
Therefore, it has become increasingly necessary to study on the current state of the homeroom session in order to create a practical basis to propose measures for enhancing the quality of homeroom in high schools in Ho Chi Minh City, which improves students’ activeness, proactivity and creativity, and contributes to the development of students’ competencies to meet the requirements of the new general education curriculum
2 CONTENT
2.1 Literature review
* Homeroom teacher in schools
In many countries around the world, there are a number of names referring to the position of
homeroom teacher such as “homeroom teacher” (United States, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, China, South Korea), “form teacher” (Singapore, Australia, Austria), “class teacher” (India, Bangladesh…),
“class mentor” (Netherlands), or “form tutor” (United Kingdom, Spain) While the names are different,
the duty is similar, which includes managing the class, assisting students in learning and school activities, keeping in touch with families and holding homeroom sessions, which are daily or weekly, depending
on school regulations
In Vietnam, every class in secondary and high schools has one homeroom teacher The school’s headmaster can assign this role to any type of teacher without depending on the seniority and educational experiences Several researchers have investigated the teacher’s homeroom competency, for example, Nguyen Duc Quang (2010) with the paper “Discussion on educational competency of secondary and high school homeroom teachers” (p.23-27); Phan Thanh Long (2011) with the article “The necessary competencies of a homeroom teacher in the current era” (p.133-137); Mai Trung Dung (2017) with PhD thesis “Developing homeroom competency for pedagogical university students in Northern mountainous region” (Hanoi National University of Education) The authors found that the homeroom competency associated with the responsibilities of planning for educational work, monitoring student progress and classifying students, organizing team building activities for students, and deploying various comprehensive educational contents
Trang 3The responsibilities of a homeroom teacher are stated in The regulations of secondary schools, high
schools and multi-level schools (Ministry of Education and Training, 2020, Article 29, Paragraph 2) The
regulations in Career standards for teachers of school education (Ministry of Education and Training,
2018b) also outlined some important responsibilities such as advising and supporting students (Standard
2, Criterion 7), building educational environment (Standard 3), and developing relationships among school, family and society (Standard 4) Additionally, the Ministry of Education and Training (2018) also emphasized that, in the time of Industrial Revolution 4.0 with the great progress in technology and science, and rapid changes in economy, culture and society, the homeroom teacher’s guiding role for students has become increasingly important The homeroom teacher needs to “provide guidance so that students do not get lost”, and “one day in the future, robots will probably replace teachers, but sense and sensibility, sacrifice and devotion, abilities to connect and motivate will always be the great mission of teachers, especially those with homeroom work (Ministry of Education and Training, ETEP Program Management Unit, 2018)
Taken together, from the research results and the legal documents of Ministry of Education and
Training, it is possible to identify that the homeroom teacher has to play multiple roles of a student
manager, an educator who organizes educational activities for students, and a social activist who
establishes relationships and coordinates all educational resources inside and outside of a school to educate students
* Homeroom work in schools
Several studies have been carried out on homeroom work in schools Ha Nhat Thang (2001)
outlined the content and methods of homeroom work in his books The work of homeroom teacher in
general education schools and The development of efficient work methods for homeroom teacher in high school More recently, Nguyen Thanh Binh (2011) investigated the detail in homeroom work in his book Current issues in homeroom work in high schools.
The homeroom work was introduced and discussed in training materials of teacher training
organizations such as “Training materials for homeroom work in secondary and high schools” of the
Institute of Educational Managers Ho Chi Minh City (2010) It was also presented in legal documents of
Ministry of Education and Training, for example, “Training materials for homeroom work in secondary
and high schools” issued in 2011 by Ministry of Education and Training, which was used for enhancing
the competency of homeroom teachers (Ministry of Education and Trainning, 2011)
In summary, based on the researches and the official documents, we can collectively describe the framework of homeroom work, which includes planning educational activities for students; performing educational activities as planned; collaborating with subject teachers, students’ families, and organizations such as Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Ho Chi Minh Young Pioneer Organization, or other social organizations in providing education to students; recording and assessing student progress for each academic term or year
* Homeroom session in schools
Currently, there is a shortage of studies that focus on homeroom sessions in schools in general and
in particular, in high schools Just a small number of school managers and teachers write about their homeroom innovations in the form of reports of teaching experience and publish them on the websites
of district department of education However, these reports do not reach the required quality standards
of a scientific paper
Trang 4A research on homeroom session in schools was conducted by Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung (2019) with
a scientific paper “Developing the homeroom competence for students in secondary and high school
teacher training” in Proceedings of International Conference New issues in educational sciences:
Inter-Disciplinary and Cross-Inter-Disciplinary Approaches (p.343-355).
Homeroom is the time when homeroom teacher officially meet the students in class The homeroom teacher needs to invest in the class meetings, and should have knowledge and skills to effectively organize these meetings such as planning and deploying class meetings with innovative contents, methods and forms:
- In terms of homeroom content: in addition to overviewing classroom situation for the previous week and deploying students’ work for the next week, the teacher should integrate educational contents such as life skills education, sexuality education, career education, or teaching the value of local history, traditions and cultures
- In terms of homeroom methods: the teacher should use various active methods in homeroom, giving students the chance to improve self-discipline, proactivity and creativity, while only guiding and assisting students when needed
- About the form of homeroom: in addition to class meetings inside classroom, the teacher could organize extracurricular activities outside classroom, student competitions, team work projects or engagements with special guests
In summary, innovation in homeroom gives students the opportunity to gain self-discipline, communication and collaboration, problem solving and creativity to meet the requirements of current general education innovation
2.2 Overview of the survey
* Survey objectives: to clarify the current state of homeroom in public high schools in Ho Chi Minh
City in order to create a practical basis to propose measures for enhancing the quality of homerooms to meet the requirements of general education innovation
* Survey content: homeroom teachers and students’ awareness of the role of weekly homeroom
sessions, and the current state of the use of methods, forms and content in those sessions
* Survey area and survey sample:
The survey was conducted in public high schools in Ho Chi Minh City of 8 urban districts, 3 districts of Thu Duc City, and 3 rural districts
The following table presents the survey sample of 7355 individuals chosen by stratified random sampling method (Table 1):
Table 1 Survey sample
TT Districts Managers School Homeroom Teachers Students Total
Trang 55 District Binh Tan 1 13 635 649
* Survey methods: The survey was conducted by mixing in-depth interview and questionnaire methods
The questionnaire was used for gathering information from 7355 school managers, homeroom teachers and students, which required participants to evaluate the homerooms using the 5-point Likert scale as follows: 5 (= Strongly Agree), 4 (= Moderately Agree), 3 (= Slightly Agree), 2 (= Slightly Disagree), 1 (= Strongly Disagree) To represent the mean figure, the cell ranges were determined as follows: from 1 to 1.80 (= Strongly Disagree), from 1.81 to 2.60 (= Slightly Disagree), from 2.61 to 3.40 (= Slightly Agree), from 3.41 to 4.20 (= Moderately Agree), and from 4.21 to 5 (= Strongly Agree)
To clarify the questionnaire results, in-depth interviews were then conducted with 6 school managers (from CBQL1 to CBQL6), 12 homeroom teachers (from GVCN1 to GVCN12) and 12 students (from HS1 to HS2)
2.3 Survey results
a) The homeroom teachers and students’ awareness of the role of homeroom
By the end of the survey period, data had been collected from 46 school managers, 472 homeroom teachers and 6387 students, and the results obtained from the analysis of the role of homeroom are presented in Table 2
Table 2 Evaluation of the role of homeroom in high schools
No Questionnaire items
School Managers Homeroom Teachers Students Total
Mean Mean Mean Mean Standard deviation Rank Agreement Level of
1
Weekly homeroom sessions help homeroom
teachers receive information of student
progress in order to update their education
techniques and propose relevant teaching
methods to subject teachers.
2 Homeroom gives the chance to build strong relationships between teachers
Moderately Agree
3 Homeroom gives students the chance to improve self-discipline, activeness,
Moderately Agree
Trang 64 Homeroom gives students the chance to learn life skills and participate in
Moderately Agree
5 Homeroom contributes to creating a safe, healthy and friendly learning environment,
Moderately Agree
As shown in Table 2, school managers scored all questionnaire items at the level of Strongly Agree (Mean > 4.21) It suggested that they had strong awareness of the crucial role of homeroom in high schools
However, there were only two items, “Weekly homeroom sessions help homeroom teachers receive
information of student progress ” and “Homeroom gives the chance to build strong relationships ”,
that homeroom teachers gave scores at the level of Strongly Agree They just evaluated the role of homeroom in increasing students’ self-discipline and creating an effective learning environment at a lower level, Moderately Agree Additionally, students responded to all of the five questions at the level
of Moderately Agree, and they also gave the lowest score to the role of homeroom in enhancing their independence and building a good environment for them to study
The study found that homeroom teachers and students, who directly involve in the homeroom, might not be entirely aware of the role of homeroom in developing students’ qualities and competencies towards the general education innovation in Vietnam The managers of high schools in Ho Chi Minh City should take this issue into account and concentrate more on enhancing their awareness
b) The school managers, homeroom teachers and students’ evaluation of the homeroom contents
Table 3 below shows the summary statistics for the contents of homeroom evaluated by school managers, homeroom teachers and students
Table 3 Evaluation of homeroom’s contents
No Questionnaire items
School Managers Homeroom Teachers Students Total Mean Mean Mean Mean Standard deviation Rank Agreement Level of
1 In homeroom, reviewing class situation for
the previous week was well-performed. 4.17 4.14 4.08 4.08 0.97 2 Moderately Agree
2 In homeroom, assigning tasks for the next
3 In homeroom, teaching life skills for
4 In homeroom, sexuality education for students
5 In homeroom, career education for students
6 In homeroom, teaching the value of local
history, traditions and cultures was well-
Moderately Agree
Trang 7As can be seen in Table 3, “reviewing class situation for the previous week” and “assigning tasks for the next week” were the highest- ranking contents, which were evaluated at the level of Moderately Agree
by all type of respondents Additionally, school managers and homeroom teachers evaluated the item “In
homeroom, assigning tasks for the next week was well-performed” at the level of Strongly Agree (4.37
and 4.38) Meanwhile, it seems that the integration of educational contents in homeroom was not highly rated, and especially, the content of sexuality education, which is considered important to high-school-aged students, stood at the lowest ranking in all responses (Mean= 3.25) Homeroom teachers and students just slightly agreed that sexuality education for students was well-performed in homeroom
In addition, the above questionnaire results were also aligned with data collected by the in-depth interviews, where there was a great similarity between the opinions of the participants including school managers, homeroom teachers and students as follows:
Since the homeroom teacher is usually a subject teacher in his/her class, he/she has a chance to see the students during the week However, homeroom is reserved for homeroom work, where teachers officially meet the students of his/her class;
Because homeroom only occurs once a week, it is the time for teachers to overview the classroom situation for the previous week and to deploy students’ work for the next week.
Additionally, a range of noticeable responses were elicited during the in-depth interviews:
Every week, school managers deploy a key educational topic to homeroom teachers to intergrate in the homeroom session However, they never check whether the teachers actually did it” (6/6 school managers); Because homeroom teachers are facing the pressure of ensuring students’ learning performance, during homeroom, they spend most of the time correcting students’ mistakes, and pushing them hard to learn (10/12 homeroom teachers);
Sometimes, homeroom teachers allow students to perform extracurricular activities, but the they spend most of the time correcting mistakes and pushing students hard to learn, especially prior to the period of term examination (12/12 students)
Our study has led to the conclusion that due to a number of objective and subjective reasons such
as the teachers’ awareness of homeroom, the lack of managerial control in deploying homeroom, and the pressure of ensuring students’ learning performance, the teachers are less likely to concern about integration
of innovative educational contents in homeroom, such as life skills education, sexuality education, career education, or teaching the value of local history, traditions and cultures
c) The school managers, homeroom teachers and students’ evaluation of methods used in homeroom
Table 4 illustrates how school managers, homeroom teachers and students evaluated the implementation of methods used in homeroom:
Trang 8Table 4 Evaluation of the implementation of methods used in homeroom
No Questionnaire items
School Managers Homeroom Teachers Students Total
Mean Mean Mean Mean Standard deviation Rank Agreement Level of
1 In homeroom, teachers were well-performed
in providing advice and guidance, and
assisting students in educational activities. 3.72 4.01 3.95 3.95 1.08 2
Moderately Agree
2
In homeroom, teachers were well-performed
in providing assessment, learning from
experiences, and encouraging students in
educational activities.
3 Students were well-prepared for activities in
4 Students were well-performed in
self-organizing acitivities in homeroom. 3.61 3.71 3.73 3.73 1.10 4 Moderately Agree
It can be seen in Table 4 that homeroom methods which encourage student to actively participate in homeroom activities and the role of teacher in guiding and supporting were not highly evaluated, and all respondents just moderaly agreed that the methods were well-performed The students’ self-organizing method was rated the lowest among all respondents’ evaluation (3.73)
In addition to the questionnaire, we also carried out in-depth interviews with some homeroom teachers and students to explore their insights about methods used in homeroom:
In homeroom, teachers mostly talk about what should be done and needs to be done Students just listen and take notes (12/12 teachers);
In homeroom, students usually report or answer teachers’ questions about weekly learning progress, or students can ask teachers for more information However, teachers always control the session (12/12 students);
“Sometimes, we organize competitions in the class ourselves, or we report teamwork projects launched by the school However, there was usually not enough time for us to prepare for these activities because we were so busy in learning” (HS 2)
Therefore, the analysis results of in-depth interviews and questionnaire were similar and collectively illustrated that homeroom teachers were less likely to attach special significance to the methods which activate students in homeroom, and there was less chance for students to be self-organizing Additionally, everything in homeroom is controlled by the teacher Homeroom teachers should give students the opportunity to gain self-discipline, collaboration, problem solving to meet the requirements of current general education innovation
Trang 9d) The school managers, homeroom teachers and students’ evaluation of forms of homeroom
Table 5 shows the summary statistics for the evaluation of school managers, homeroom teachers and students for various forms of homeroom
Table 5 Evaluation of the implementation of homeroom forms
No Questionnaire items
School Managers Homeroom Teachers Students Total Mean Mean Mean Mean Standard deviation Rank Agreement Level of
1 Holding homeroom in the classroom was
2 Holding homeroom outdoor activities at
school campus, school lobby, or playground
Moderately Agree
3 Organizing homeroom competitions following
4
Organizing homeroom teamwork activities
such as performing dramas, dancing,
singing, doing projects, collecting sources
of history was well-performed.
5 Engagements with special guests such
as inside or outside experts or parents in
Moderately Agree
Table 5 shows that 5/5 forms of homeroom were evaluated at the level of Moderately Agree that they were well- performed All respondents evaluated outdoor activities (mean = 3.49) and engagements with special guests (mean = 3.41) at the lowest ranking (4th and 5th respectively) Meanwhile, school managers and homeroom teachers gave evaluation to the form of guest engagemenrs just at the level of Slightly Agree (2.83 and 3.19 respectively), which were even lower than the students’ evaluation (3.43 point) There are several possible explanations for this result collected in the in-depth interviews:
Homeroom are primarily organized in classroom because the school campus is not large enough for a number of classes doing outdoor activities at the same time (5/6 school managers);
“Sometimes, I want to organize homeroom at school yard, or playground near school, but I hesitate
to ask for permission from school managers On the other hand, a homeroom session lasts only 45 minutes, which is too short for students to move between room and campus, and they even cannot get to the next class
on time” (GVCN 7);
“Inviting inside or outside guest speakers to the class is a form of homeroom, which can get students interested and engaged in learning However, it is not easy to find the right guest speaker for the homeroom which lasts only 45 minutes Additionally, sometimes the school invites guest experts to talk about various topics such as sexuality education, or career education Therefore, inviting them to homeroom is not necessary (GVCN 4)”
Trang 10On the other hand, all 12/12 students who were interviewed stated that:
If teachers remind or educate students in homeroom by organizing more interesting activities such
as outdoor activities, or inviting special guest speaker instead of holding homeroom in the classroom, it would definitely be the greatest time of the week for students to learn.
In summary, organizing various forms of homeroom for high school students would make the session more interesting, non-monotonic and unboring to students Although there are still a number of objective problems, school managers should try to make school schedule more effectively, make school campus resources more accessible, financially support, or assist in inviting guest speakers, which can encourage homeroom teachers performing a range of attractive forms of homeroom
3 CONCLUSION
In this paper, the theoretical research has underlined the importance of homeroom session, which
is one of the crucial duties of homeroom work in general education schools, and particularly in high schools In the time of general education innovation towards improving student competencies, there is a need to reform the homeroom in schools This requires the teachers’ awareness of the important role of homeroom in developing students’ self-discipline, communication and collaboration, problem solving and creativity To obtain this objective, teachers should enhance the content, methods and forms of the homeroom
The practical research with the combination of in-depth interviews and questionnaire, which was conducted among school managers, homeroom teachers and students in high schools in Ho Chi Minh City, shows that the teachers and students have not been fully aware of the role of homeroom session In terms of the content of homeroom, teachers primarily concentrate on summarizing and deploying school work instead of integrating various educational contents Teachers still play a key role in controlling the class, while students are less likely to be active and self-organized Additionally, students were hardly ever engaged in homeroom which was held only in the classroom The research results could be used
as a reference for pedagogical colleges and high schools in teacher training and continuing professional development to enhance the competency of handling homeroom session for high school teachers
REFERENCES
1 Ha Nhat Thang (2001) The work of homeroom teacher in general education school Hanoi:
Vietnam Education Publishing House
2 Ha Nhat Thang (2001) The development of efficient working methods for homeroom teacher
in high school Hanoi: Vietnam National University Press.
3 Institute of Educational Managers Ho Chi Minh City (2010) Training materials for homeroom
work in secondary and high schools Ho Chi Minh city
4 Mai Trung Dung (2017) Developing homeroom competency for pedagogical university
students in Northern mountainous region Educational Science PhD Thesis Hanoi National
University of Education