Chu Van An Junior Secondary School students visited the heritage sites (Photo taken prior to the COVID-19 outbreak)
Students' creativity
Two 8th-grade students of Chu Van An Junior Secondary School, Nguyen Dai Phuc and Ho Ha Phuong Trinh, enjoyed special attention upon engaging the Provincial Youth and Children's Creativity Contest 2021 with the theme "Learning about the honoring of learners at Văn miếu-Quốc Tử Giám Huế (Hue Temple of Literature).
The product for the contest included a video clip about Hue Temple of Literature and a handbook for collecting and summarizing the contents of 32 stelae at Hue Temple of Literature. With great effort, their project won the second prize at the Provincial Youth and Children's Creativity Contest 2021 and was selected for the upcoming national contest.
Student Nguyen Dai Phuc said the school organized a study tour of the local history at Hue Temple of Literature. He thought and asked many questions, especially when observing and learning about the doctoral stelea. The difficulty was that they could not read and understand the contents of the stelea because those were engraved in Chinese characters and were very blurry. That motivated them to desire to know, learn about and research where those honored here studied and what exams they passed, so they started doing a research on the topic.
During 9 months, Phuc and Trinh had many enjoyable experiences at Hue Temple of Literature, and the gradual absorption of lessons about the national history helped them carry out the topic close to students.
Dai Phuc and Phuong Trinh learned about the history at Văn miếu - Quốc Tử Giám Huế (Hue Temple of Literature)
I watched a clip made by Phuc and his friend Phuong Trinh under the guidance of history teacher Pham Thi My Hanh. It was a well-prepared clip with a coherent layout and beautiful images. The MCs were also the two authors. Despite many limitations of the clip, with Hue's accent, the authors attracted many viewers.
Hue Temple of Literature was vividly introduced from many diverse and rich perspectives, from the history of formation to the changes in the development process, from the current situation with many worrying manifestations to the contemporary cultural and educational activities such as the first time recent ceremony of honoring students of the school in Hue.
The handbook is also an elaborate collection of 32 doctoral stelea at Hue Temple of Literature. It not only serves as a learning tool for Chu Van An Junior Secondary School students in the process of learning about the local and national history but also can be shared with schools inside and outside the province.
Phuc and Trinh said that the tough nut for both of them in compiling the handbook was to collect documents. My group had to ask for the recommendation of the school and the opinions of many parties and then had to go to the Hue Monuments Conservation Center to borrow books. The time for researching the topic was very urgent: having to do a lot of practical research while their group had to ensure the study at class.
Learning from heritage
Organizing for students to visit, experience and then do research the projects like 2 students of Chu Van An Junior Secondary School is viewed as one of the methods of using heritage in teaching. In response to diversifying forms of teaching organization, increasing the experience activities, linking learning with practice, over the years, the Department of Education and Training has developed this method in the secondary schools. This method is being effectively applied by many secondary schools mainly in subjects: history, geography, music.
The co-author of the topic "Learning about the honoring of learners at Hue Temple of Literature", Nguyen Dai Phuc also proved very mature in his thinking when saying that his involvement in the project originated from his passion for history.
“I feel comfortable when learning and researching history because it helps me understand the cultural values and heroic history of our nation whereby I strive to study to become a useful person for the country in the future. I desire to study history well to prove that this is not a secondary subject, but a subject teaches us many useful things both in the past and in the present,” said Phuc.
Phuong Trinh also revealed the secret to learning history well by watching the videos of history summary and learning this subject with mind maps because the mind maps will help her remember longer and memorize the lesson easily.
According to Mr. Nguyen Tan, Director of the Department of Education and Training, from the correct awareness of heritage in teaching, the teachers at the senior and junior secondary schools have actively incorporated heritage into specific lessons, extracurricular activities or organized experience-learning classes at a heritage site.
Through this, many teachers’ capacity has been increased, reflected in the ability to design the teaching process and organize students' cognitive activities in a rich and vivid way. The lessons are built in accordance with the use of heritage in teaching, the knowledge and skill standards of the general education program.
Ms. Le Thi Hong Giang, Principal of Chu Van An Junior Secondary School, said in order to facilitate the students in the research process, the school organized the visits for students to Hue Temple of Literature.This enabled the school students to have a better understanding of the Temple of Literature.
In late 2020-2021 school year, the school will organize to honor students with excellent achievements, especially those won big prizes in the competitions for excellent students in the subjects in general and in history in particular.
Many students said they are waiting for the lessons in order to be able to access and learn about the lesson content through the heritage. Each lesson is an enjoyable experience which arouses passion, motivates them to learn and create.
Story :Hue Thu. Photos: Dai Phuc