MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VIETNAM INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES --- NGUYEN THI THANH NGA DEVELOPING CREATIVE COMPETENCE FOR LOWER SECONDARY STUDENTS IN TEACHING OF READIN
Trang 1MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VIETNAM INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
-
NGUYEN THI THANH NGA
DEVELOPING CREATIVE COMPETENCE FOR LOWER SECONDARY STUDENTS IN TEACHING
OF READING COMPREHENSION OF LITERAL TEXTS
Trang 2The thesis is completed at: Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences
Scientific supervisors: 1 Assoc Dr Tran Thi Hien Luong
2 Assoc Dr Nguyen Thi Hanh
Reviewer 1:
Reviewer 2:
Reviewer 3:
The thesis will be defended before the Institute level Scientific Council at Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, 101 Tran Hung Dao str Hanoi At hour date
The thesis can be found at:
- National Library
- Library of Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences
Trang 3LIST OF AUTHOR’S PUBLICATION RELATED TO THE
THESIS TOPIC
1 Imagination and some techniques to develop creative imagination capacity for elementary students, Journal of Education, Issue No 371, term 1 (12/2015)
2 Developing creative competence for students in High School Literature through project-based teaching, Journal of Education, special issue, April 2016
3 Several issues on textbooks and some features on Literature textbook by MC Dougal Littell Publishing house (USA), Journal of Educational Science, No 6/2018
4 Structure of student’s creative competence in reading comprehension of literal texts, Journal of Educational Science, No 13/2019
5 Assessing student’s creative competence in reading comprehension of literal texts, Journal of Education, No 464 (Term 2 – 10/2019)
6 Developing creative competence of lower secondary students in reading comprehension of literal texts through organizing experienced responsive activities, Vietnam Journal of Educational Science, No 26, February 2020
Trang 4INTRODUCTION
1 Rationale
1.1 Domestic and international social contexts have posed demands and challenges for an innovative education The education has been transformed from the content-and-knowledge-oriented approach to competence-based one with focus on forming and developing creative competence of learners
1.2 Meeting the requirements of the reality of Vietnam's educational innovation, the 2018 General Education Curriculum has been developed, marking a major change in education goal Accordingly, education has turned from the content-oriented and knowledge-equipped goal towards developing qualities and competencies of learners, including problem solving and creative competence Along with other subjects, Philology is responsible for helping students develop specific competencies and a number of professional competencies identified in the 2018 General Education Curriculum 2018, including creative competence
1.3 The creative competence in each subject as well as in each subject should be concretized based on its own characteristics For Philology, the creativity is not only required in reading comprehension but also in writing and speaking-listening Training creative competence in reading literary texts is important and possible to develop as literary texts make a considerable proportion in Philology curriculum On the other hand, literary text with its own characteristics is a great opportunity for creativity in its reception Therefore, it is very important to study how to teach reading comprehension towards developing creative competence to meet new requirements
many shortcomings: Content-oriented curriculum and textbooks have bias towards academic knowledge, attach importance to theory with little practice and application In recent years, though teaching methodology in schools has been innovated, generally, students have been absorbing knowledge passively Education has not really exploited the activeness, initiative and creativity of learners Therefore, as mentioned, in order to have creative learners, it is necessary to have a creative education and a synchronous innovation in all stages of the teaching process from content, methods, testing to teaching organization Like many other subjects,
Trang 5teaching reading comprehension of literary texts in schools is also in this trend
1.5 Research on creative competence has begun to be of interest in such subjects as Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics - science subjects where student’s creativity can be easily seen and measured With Philology subject, there have been some studies but there is no elaborate scientific work on this issue, especially in the field of reading comprehension The requirements of the new General Education Curriculum and the current context of Philology teaching show that the topic "Developing creative competence for lower secondary students in teaching and learning reading comprehension of literary texts" is a necessary and meaningful study, contributing to the development of competencies for learners
2 Research issue history
2.1 Research on creative competence and teaching to develop creative competence
* International research
The first researches on creation were carried out in the 3rd century with the mathematician Paspos (Greece) He named this science Heuristic with the meaning as the science of creation or creative science After Paspos, some scientists continued to develop it such as Descacters, Leibnitz, Bolnzano Real researches on creativity were revived in the twentieth century with the awakening of an American psychologist J.P.Guilford In addition, some other studies on creativity can be mentioned as the study of Pipping (1988), Torrance (1962), Robert J Sternberg Mednick (1962,
1964) and Malz Mann (1960) Hand book of Creativity by Robert J
Sternberg is a fairly complete synthesis of creative research issues - a report on the development of creative research over the past 50 years since
1950 with Guilford's appearance from a psychological perspective The authors have argued that creativity was important to society and that research on creativity has been facing at least six approaches
The issue of developing learners' competencies, especially creativity in teaching, is mentioned in the programs of many countries such as British, American, and Australian In addition, many researchers have also expressed their interest in the development of creative competence for
Trang 6students with a number of works That was Penick with "Developing creativity in the classroom"; Reid and King with "Research on student creativity"; Torrance with "Early-School Discovery of Creative Thinking"; Yamamoto Kaoru "The role of creative thinking and intelligence in academic achievement"
* Domestic research
In terms of domestic research, such studies on creativity can be listed
as ones by Huynh Van Son, Tran Thi Bich Lieu In addition, in recent years, a number of theses have developed the creative competence in some specific subjects such as Chemistry, Mathematics The authors have tried
to look for manifestations of creative competence in students, giving definitions and different measures to develop creative competence in the subject, e.g Nguyen Thi Hong Gam (2011 ), Tran Thi Hue (2011), Dinh Thi Hong Minh (2013), Hoang Thi Thuy Huong (2015), Pham Thi Bich Dao (2015), Dang Thi Thu Hue (2019)
From the perspective of educational science, many researchers are interested in training and developing students' creative thinking in subjects Those can be included with researches by such authors as Pham Van Hoan; Hoang Chung; Nguyen Canh Toan, Nguyen Van Le, Chau An; Nguyen Canh Toan; Nguyen Trong Hoan; Duong Thi Mai Huong; Tran Thi Hien Luong
It can be confirmed that there have been researches on teaching to develop student's creative competence in both psychological and educational aspects However, the researches have mainly focused on natural sciences subjects, there has not been any methodical and systematic study on the development of students' creative competence in reading comprehension of literary texts
2.2 Researches on creativity and creative competence in teaching of
Philology and reading comprehension of literal texts
2.2.1 Researches on creativity and creative competence in teaching
Trang 7teaching creative writing in all grades in recent years There are also studies by Deirdre Fagan (2010), Tompkins (1982)
Researches on creative writing have also been mentioned in Vietnam Based on the analysis of such concepts as creative writing, teaching of creative writing and the current situation of creative writing teaching in schools in Vietnam, Tran Thi Hien Luong has given a number of suggestions on teaching of creative writing skills for students In terms of creativity in text reception, there are studies by such authors as Nguyen Thanh Hung, Tran Dinh Su, Hoang Hoa Binh, Hoang Thi Mai, Nguyen Trong Hoan The authors have focused on activities and mechanism of creative reading of literary texts
In addition, there are a number of studies focusing on the development of
creative thinking in teaching Philology such as: Training creative thinking
in teaching literary works (Nguyen Trong Hoan); Training creative thinking for students through writing units at high schools (Duong Thi Mai
Huong) In terms of creative competence in Philology, there is a research
by Nguyen Thi Hong Van (2017) in a scientific paper Identifying structure
and development track of some competencies in Philology at schools
Thus, there have been a number of studies on creativity, creative competence in teaching Philology in both creating and receiving texts In general, the researches have placed more focuses on creative writing, proposed ways to develop creative writing abilities for students In terms
of creative reception, the authors paid their attention to the explanation of the creative reading activities by students From the above studies, it can
be confirmed that there has not been a really elaborate and systematical research that typically focuses on students' creative competence in teaching Philology in general and at creative competence in particular
2.2.2 Researches on creativity and creative competence in teaching of reading comprehension of literal texts
*International researches
The issue of creativity in teaching of reading comprehension of literary texts has been mentioned in a number of studies Accordingly, the reader is not only the recipient of the text but also a co-creator and the one who make dialogue with the author With those concepts, studies have
Trang 8suggested measures and ways of influencing students so that they could be more creative in reading In terms of reading creativity, Phylliss J Adam's research in a report presented at Boston International Reading Association
(1993), Rosenblatt (1978), Ruddel (1984) have emphasized an important feature of reading of literary text: reading is an interactive process between readers themselves, readers with texts and with the environment in which the meaning of the text was created That interaction helps students construct textual meanings, draw useful life lessons and create opportunities for students to open horizons of creative imagination
*Domestic researches
The key point in the research on teaching reading comprehension of literary texts in recent years is that the authors have studied in depth the nature of the student's reading process, affirming that student is a creative reader, hence developing the reading competencies and reading skills of students Discussing about the learner's creativity in reading comprehension, the authors Tran Dinh Su, Nguyen Thanh Hung, Nguyen Trong Hoan have recognized the requirements on the meaning creating ability in reading The authors affirmed that the purpose of literal reading
is to understand the core general meaning of the text On that basis, each reader has his or her own ideas from personal experiences to be able to create new meanings for the text A notable thing in the research on reading comprehension in recent years is that the authors are interested in reading comprehension strategies, reading instruction measures to help students become independent and creative readers Those are researches by Pham Thi Thu Huong, Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong
Thus, there have been a number of researches on teaching of creative reading comprehension In general, the authors mainly explore creative reading, creative reception in teaching literary works in the school and there has not been any work directly discussing the development of creative competence in reading comprehension of literal texts Therefore,
it can be confirmed that the question of how to teach reading comprehension to contribute to the development of creative competence for learners is still needed to be solved
Trang 93 Research objective
The thesis aims to build a scientific basis and propose measures to develop creative competence for lower secondary students in teaching of reading comprehension of literary texts
4 Object and tasks of the research
- Survey the current situation of Philology teaching at some creative competence
- Propose measures for developing student’s creative competence in teaching of reading comprehension of literal texts in Phillogy subject at lower secondary schools
- Conduct pedagogical experiment to test the feasibility of the stated scientific hypothesis
5 Research scope
competence for lower secondary students in teaching and learning of reading comprehension of literary texts
- The thesis limits its experimental scope in the genre of story and on the 9th grade students of some creative competencies
6 Research methodology
The following methods are used in the thesis:
6.1 Methods of theoretical research:
6.2 Methods of practical research:
6.2.1 Method of observation
6.2.2 Method of educational investigation
6.2.3 Method of pedagogical experiments
6.2.4 Methods of data analysis
Trang 107 Scientific hypothesis
One of the limitations of the current teaching of reading comprehension is that the focus is not placed properly on the development
of student’s creative competence
In that context, if pedagogical measures are applied as proposed by the thesis, the teaching of reading comprehension would contribute to the development of creative competence for lower secondary students with more effective manner
8 Contribution by the thesis
- In theoretical terms:
The thesis has systematized the research achievements on the development
of creative competence, presented the conception of creative competence, identified creative manifestations of lower secondary students in reading comprehension of literal text, hence putting forwards relevant impacts The research results of the thesis have supplemented theoretical studies on creative competence, creative competence for lower secondary students in general, and creative competence in reading comprehension of lower secondary school Philology in particular
- In practical terms: The thesis has proposed measures to develop creative competence for lower secondary students in reading comprehension of literal texts The measures ensure that the teaching
of reading comprehension of literal texts would contribute to the development of creative competence for learners On other hand, the proposed measures hopefully will have important significance in teaching and learning of Philology under 2018 Curriculum
9 Structure of the thesis
Apart from Introduction and Conclusion, the thesis is structured with three chapters:
Chapter 1: Scientific foundation of creative competence development for lower secondary students in teaching of reading comprehension of literal texts
Chapter 2: Measures to develop creative competence for lower secondary students in teaching of reading comprehension of literal texts
Chapter 3: Pedagogical experiments
Trang 11CHAPTER 1: SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION OF CREATIVE COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT FOR LOWER SECONDARY STUDENTS IN TEACHING OF READING COMPREHENSION OF LITERAL TEXTS
1.1 Competence and creative competence
1.1.1 Competence and competence structure
There are many researches in the world on competencies with different aproaches In general, the following approaches are found popular: According to Mulder, Weigel & Collins, researches on competencies can be categorized into three main approaches: behavior approach, general approach, and cognitive approach The approaches can also be classified with two directions: psychological and educational
In this thesis, we choose the approach of the 2018 General Education Curriculum as foundation for proposing conception on creative competence, explaining manifestations of creative competence in reading comprehension of literal texts The 2018 General Education Curriculum confirmed: “Competence is a personal attribute formed and developed by existing qualities and learning/training process, allowing people to mobilize all knowledge, skills and other personal attributes such as excitement, belief, will to successfully implement a certain type of activity, achieving desired results under specific conditions.” This conception is consistent with view points on competencies by authors, researchers and international organizations in identifying the 3 following issues: 1/competence is a personal attribute; 2/competence is obtained through the mobilization and synthesis of elements of knowledge, skills and other personal attributes to effectively solve a certain type of activity; 3/competence is shown through activities in specific conditions and contexts
Regarding competence structure, there are conceptions by authors Hoang Hoa Binh, Nguyen Van Cuong, research groups of Lương Viet Thai, Hoang Hoa Binh, Nguyen Thị Lan Phuong The approach of competence structure based on behavior approach forwarding output manifestations of the competence is used by the thesis as the direction for determining manifestations of creative competencies in reading comprehension of literal texts
Trang 121.1.2 Creativity
Creativity and creative competence are issues of current concern in education of many countries in the world Those nations possessing many creative individuals would become powerful That is why the creative competence is one of the core competencies in educational goal in many countries such as Singapore, Finland, Australia, France…Viewing creativity as a psychological attribute, Pippig (1988), Torrance (1962) confirmed that creativity is an ability with that men create new, unique and unprecedented ideas being relevant to the posed problem Mednick (1962, 1964) and Malz Mann (1960) also made great contributions to the psychology associated with creativity
Based on the authors view points and from the perspective of the
thesis, we believe: Creation is an activity of thinking in order to create the
new, which was previously inavailable to individuals and society And it must be really meaningful
related to creative competencies, we determined: The creative competence
is a personal attribute basing on the mobilization of knowledge, skills and other elements such as excitement, as excitement, belief, will to create new things including new ideas, new solutions, new products at different levels in learning and life situations in a unique, new and effective way
There are different views on the characteristics and expressions of people with creative competencies, but it is easy to see the common point
in those concepts Creators are people who transcend ordinary thoughts, have unique, new ideas, have a rich, creative imagination It is also the person who dares to pursue ideas, despite obstacles, risks, and even ignores common judgments, bravely defends his views against even contrary thoughts of public opinion In order to perfect, specify new ideas,
Trang 13turning them into real products in practice, that person must work hard and passionately, never give up
1.1.3.2 Concepts and manifestations of creative competence by lower secondary students
Student’s creative competence have also been mentioned in a number
of studies Pham Thi Bich Dao (2014), Ngo Thi Bich Thao (2003), Hoang Thi Thuy Huong (2015), Dang Thi Thu Hue (2019) have proposed the conception of creative competencies of students It can be seen that the studies are consistent in the concept of creative competencies of students
- Student’s creative competence is shown through learning activities and applying learned knowledge and skills into the real life
From the above studies, we believe that: Student’s Creative
competence is the creation of new things for themselves firstly based on the mobilization of knowledge, skills and other factors such as interest, belief, will The new thing includes new ideas, new ways, new products being applied in practice of learning and life at different levels
On the basis of studies on creative competence, the manifestation of creative competence by Dang Thi Thu Hue, General Education Curriculum
2018, as well as above mentioned studies on competencies; we recommend the manifestations of creative competence by lower secondary students as follows: