The Status of Organization of Experience Teaching Geography in High School

Th.s Hoang Linh Chi

Tan Trao University

ABSTRACT: In Vietnam, according to the 2018 curriculum, Geography at the high school level belongs to the group of social science subjects, providing knowledge, scientific basis, and practice on natural and economic factors of society and environment on Earth; development and distribution of geographical objects such as population, material production industries, etc. Experiential teaching is an effective method for this knowledge to form for students. The article studies the current situation of teaching Geography at some high schools in Tuyen Quang province according to experiential teaching methods. These are the basis for us to propose appropriate solutions to apply this effective teaching method widely.

KEYWORD: Experiential learning, reality, teaching methods.

1. Preamble

The General Education Program 2018 has had a complete shift from attaching importance to imparting knowledge to a program focusing on developing qualities and competencies as the center. In particular, at the high school level, the Teacher Orientation Program continues to develop the competencies that have been formed at the lower secondary level with higher requirements, providing a full foundation of knowledge for students. In that program, Geography is able to provide students with a rich amount of knowledge about nature, economy – society and skills and techniques; provide students with scientific knowledge about nature, population, social regime and economic activities of people everywhere on Earth. With that knowledge, teachers can provide background knowledge to students in many different forms, including experiential learning activities. This is a teaching method that helps to supplement background knowledge related to lessons and life knowledge in many fields, especially Geography. However, this teaching method has not been widely implemented in high schools.

2. Content

2.1. Experiential learning

Experiential learning has been interesting to researchers since the 1930s with the names of John Dewey (1938), Piaget (1950), and Kurt Hahn (1957) …. to 1984, Kolb proposes a comprehensive model of the experiential learning process. The theory of experiential learning describes the two dialectical modes involved in mastering personal experience – concrete experience and abstract conceptualization; and two dialectical approaches to the transformation of experience – reflective observation and active experimentation.

The experiential learning model of David A. Kolb [2] states that learning is a process in which knowledge is constructed through the transformation of experience.

On the basis of almost completely inheriting the organization of Piaget’s cognitive development model, Kolb gives birth to an experiential learning model that includes four development stages corresponding to the four stages in the model of cognitive development. Piaget: Sensorimotor,Pre-operational,Concrete operational, and Formal operations.

2.2. The actual situation of teaching Geography in some high schools in Tuyen Quang province

2.2.1. Survey object and content

In order to determine the activities of organizing experiential teaching for students in Geography at high schools, we conducted an investigation and survey of the following subjects:

• High school students: Number of 4 85 students. This is considered a good survey sample because this student has studied Geography at secondary school level.
• Teachers participating in teaching Geography at high schools in Tuyen Quang province : the number of teachers is 25 hours . Most of the teachers who participated in the survey had 5years of teaching experience or more.

Through investigation, survey, and fact-finding the organization of experiential teaching of Geography at schools within the scope of the study. There are some observations as follows:

The organization of experiential teaching of Geography at schools within the scope of the research has many limitations and inadequacies as follows:

Students do not understand and know much about the organization of experiential teaching of Geography in terms of: Purpose, content, and relationship of experiential teaching methods of Geography.

Skills in organizing experiential teaching of Geography in the direction of innovation in teaching methods are still weak and inexperienced in some of the following contents:

– The question system is not good; not knowing the expected situations that may occur; unable to determine the students ‘ ability to meet cognitive tasks; the student’s activeness and initiative; do not know how to plan and organize teaching activities during class time suitable to the lesson content to practice, consolidate knowledge, improve class quality, and train students’ thinking;

– Do not know how to prepare a system of questions and exercises suitable to the objectives and content of the lesson; the application of geographical knowledge to organize teaching activities, sometimes inaccurate; Improper time allocation.

The ability to choose and use teaching methods In combination with Experiential activities to organize teaching activities in the direction of active teaching, it is still weak: do not know how to choose and rationally use teaching methods corresponding to the content of the lesson. Most students when teaching often use the teaching method of presentation, question and answer and explanation.

2.2.2. Assess teachers ‘ perceptions and attitudes about experiential teaching , the extent to which they use it in practice

1. a) Awareness of the nature of experiential teaching

Table 1 . 1 : Teacher ‘s perception of the nature of experiential teaching

The data in Table 1. 1 shows that teachers have a relatively correct perception of the nature of experiential teaching. Content “ Teachers prepare lesson plans with the core knowledge contained in textbooks. Students listen to the teacher’s lecture and absorb the entire content of the lecture” no teacher selected. In fact, this is the traditional teaching method.

1. b) Awareness of the meaning and importance of experiential teaching

Evaluating the effectiveness of experiential teaching , the teachers of the surveyed schools said that: experiential teaching facilitates the formation and development of the following qualities of students :

– Self-discipline, active and proactive in learning: 81.76%

– Developing creative thinking ability: 78.07%

– Improve communication ability: 84.18%

– Solidarity, love and help each other: 73.65%

– Autonomy and dynamism in social activities: 70.65%

– Creating excitement in studying and working: 93.27%

In addition, some teachers believe that experiential teaching contribute to improving self-study ability, helping students to understand deeply, remember for a long time, and apply learned knowledge to better practice.

1. c) Teachers ‘ attitude towards experiential teaching

Due to the relatively correct and complete awareness of the content, meaning and position of experiential teaching in practice, teachers are very supportive of putting this teaching method into practice in high schools . Specifically: Very necessary (63.66%); necessary (26.89%); not necessary (9.45%); unnecessary (0.00%).

The above data shows that the teachers are very enthusiastic and actively respond to the innovation of teaching methods in general and towards experiential teaching in Geography in particular.

1. d) Regarding the purpose of using experiential teaching methods

The teachers interviewed said that when using experiential teaching , they aim to help students : Review and consolidate old knowledge, skills and techniques (65.58%); Acquiring new knowledge (15.56%); Generalization and systematization of knowledge (4.99%); Forming skills and techniques (13.87%).

Thus, when using experiential teaching, teachers mainly help students Participate in fact-finding activities. From there, students can analyze and evaluate the problem and make accurate conclusions. This method helps learners to receive knowledge creatively and proactively.

2.2.3. The current situation of organizational models of teaching Geography in high schools

The current situation of organizational models of teaching Geography in high schools through questionnaires is as follows

Board 1.2: Actual situation of using teaching organization models

Geography

From the data in Table 1.2, the following observations can be drawn: The use of different types of teaching organization by teachers is still monotonous, most teachers only use one form, which is the whole class form and the form of the whole class. individuals, groups of almost any interest. This is a huge limitation.

2.2.4.Advantages and limitations of teachers when organizing Teaching experiential learning to students

About the advantages: Teachers have highly appreciated the effectiveness of experiential teaching and have a supportive attitude towards the application experiential teaching in teaching Geography in high school. This is an advantage to bring experiential teaching into practice in teaching and learning in high schools.

Characteristics and cognitive needs of high school students are suitable for experiential teaching. Here, the children can exchange and discuss to share their own concerns, thoughts and experiences together to build new awareness and especially, they can present their opinions individually in front of the group class. When introducing experiential learning into teaching Geography, the students responded with great enthusiasm and interest in learning.

2/ About limitations: teachers have a habit of using old forms and methods of teaching – collective teaching by a part of old trained teachers , they have been teaching in the old way, the way that they consider the safest. . This habit has been deeply ingrained, becoming a teacher ‘s professional attitude and is not easily changed.

Table 1.3: Limitations of teachers when organizing Teaching experiential learning to students

The question is why? Experiential teaching is widely applied in high schools in many countries around the world and is highly effective. But in Vietnam, this teaching method has not been widely used in high schools , when applied, the effectiveness is not high. Through practical research, we find that the application of experiential teaching in Geography in high schools is not really successful because of the following main reasons:

– About perception: Many teachers understand very simply, they think that Students will be introduced to a real situation through video clips or lectures . Teachers will guide students to approach the lesson by asking questions. Asking is enough.

– About the qualifications and skills of teachers when applying the method Experiential teaching : Due to the limited pedagogical capacity of teachers in general, new teaching methods in particular. This is also consistent with the teacher ‘s self-assessment . Usually teachers apply experiential teaching in a mechanical way. In addition, teachers lack some necessary skills to apply experiential teaching .

– Students also lack some skills in experiential learning, such as : skills to find information from data , skills to work in groups; communication and interaction skills; skills to create a collaborative environment; trust-building skills; conflict resolution skills…

– About the selection of content teaching : Not all learning content can become topics for effective experiential teaching .

– Regarding learning environment conditions: With the fact that the class size is quite large (most classes have from 30 to 35 students ), the classroom structure and space are usually from 40m2 ^to 54m2 ^, equipment and fixed tables and chairs… All of which cause certain obstacles to the re-arrangement of mobility as required by experiential teaching . Therefore, the implementation of experiential teaching hours Teachers need to be very flexible and creative.

• CONCLUDE

From the survey results, it is shown that teachers are directly involved in teaching Geography to students In high schools, there is quite a full awareness of experiential teaching. Teachers have established a unit of lessons in teaching and a system of experiential teaching skills. This is considered a very important premise to deploy the research idea that is to organize experiential teaching of Geography, because only when the teacher knows what the content that learners need to understand is. can organize them to take possession of that content.

Although the results of the organization of experiential teaching of Geography for students in high schools in the surveyed schools are not very positive. But it can be said that the basic directions and methods to train this important skill for teachers have been formatted. Most of the teachers interviewed said that the main methods for experiential teaching of Geography are through group discussions, case studies, role-playing games, and so on from actual activity.

ACKNOWLEDGE: This research is funded by Tan Trao University in Tuyen Quang, Vietnam

REFERENCES

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2. Kolb, D., 1984. Experiential Learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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