Formulation and development of career competency for students of history education major to meet the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution

Nguyen Thi Thanh Tung 126 HNUE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE DOI: 10.18173/2354-1075.2017-0182 Educational Sciences, 2017, Vol. 62, Iss. 12, pp. 126-132 This paper is available online at FORMULATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF CAREER COMPETENCY FOR STUDENTS OF HISTORY EDUCATION MAJOR TO MEET THE CHALLENGES OF THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Nguyen Thi Thanh Tung Faculty of Politic Theory - Civic Education, Hanoi University of Education Abstract. The XXI century marks the great transformation of the problem of training teachers of History in universities and colleges in order to meet and adapt with the fundamental and comprehensive renovation of education in Vietnam and the paradoxical effects of the on-going revolution 4.0 worldwide. In addition to the solution of retraining teachers who are teaching general education, an important, strategic and long-term solution to solve the problem of improving the quality of teaching and learning History is to form, and develop a comprehensive career competency for students of History Education major. The following article contributes to clarify the six professional competences and four professional competence-oriented solutions for students of History Education in the new context in order to shape, develop the professional capacity comprehensively for students of history education at universities and colleges. Keywords: Career Competency, Education 4.0, History Education, Fourth Industrial Revolution. 1. Introduction In the past few years, the Faculty of History at Universities and Colleges has contributed a large number of human resources to the country in the fields of politics, diplomacy, education and training. Continuing this tradition, the development of career competency for students of the history education major of the present stage is one of the important tasks in order to meet the requirements of education renovation under the spirit of the Resolution No. 29 of the Party Central Committee's 8th Plenum of the Party (in 2013), the spirit of "shifting the education process from the predominantly knowledge- based to the comprehensive development of the learner's competency and qualities" [8], new general education curriculum and the challenges of the Revolution 4.0 for education. The following article focuses on clarifying the requirements of career competency for the History teacher in the context of educational renovation and the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there by proposing a number of measures to improve efficiency of training students of History education major towards the development of career competency in the trend of renovation and integration. 2. Content 2.1. The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the opportunities and challenges for the training of history education students in the 21st century Received: October 15, 2017. Revised: December 18, 2017. Accepted: December 22, 2017. Contact: Nguyen Thi Thanh Tung, e-mail address: thanhtungsphn@gmail.com Formation and development of career competency for students of history education major to meet 127 The insights and solutions providing to anticipate, renovate the managing, training, and researching to meet FIR requirements has taken place at several large universities but has not been synchronized and has not attracted the interest of the whole higher education system yet. Realizing these opportunities and challenges, at several major training centers of higher education there have been several domestic and international seminars on FIR, such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution Seminar: Opportunities and Challenges for Vietnam, held in Hanoi; 4.0 Higher Education Model Seminar - 20th Century Educational Foundation, held in Ho Chi Minh City; 4.0 Revolution and the application at universities and colleges in Vietnam Seminar, held in Da Nang ... These seminars are held in 2017 so the implementation of solutions, recommendations is still ahead. The work of domestic and foreign experts on this subject is very limited, such as the work of Klaus Schwab, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, translated into Vietnamese and published in 2016, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution Overview of the National Bureau of Scientific Information and Technology announced in 2017... Till now, mankind has experienced several thousand years of history, witnessed many great revolutions. The first major revolution was the revolution that took place in agriculture. By the mid 18th century, human history entered the first industrial revolution with the invention of steam engines. The second industrial revolution took place in the late nineteenth - early twentieth century, with the advent of electric power and models of production and assembly lines. In the 60s of the twentieth century, humans took on the third industrial revolution, associated with such achievements as personal computers, semiconductors, internet... By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the tremendous changes associated with the exploding age of "smart" technology, "virtual" technology has brought all nations and peoples on the world into the first stage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, referred to as FIR. In concept, 4.0 Revolution “is a term that encompasses a wide range of modern automation technologies, data exchanging and manufacturing... is a cluster of terms for the organization’s technologies and concepts in the chain of value that goes with physical systems in cyber space, Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Service (IoS)” [6; p.6]. FIR is the revolutionary "unlike anything humanity has ever experienced in its size, scope and complexity" [4; p.1] by the emergence of technological breakthroughs combined with the widespread use of the Internet, such as AI (artificial intelligence), IOT (Internet of Things), 3D printing technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, medicine, physics, robots, unmanned vehicles The problem is, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, FIR, forces all human beings on Earth to make decisive decisions: to adapt, coexist or to refuse, stand on the sidelines. How will Vietnam's education in general, higher education in particular, identify and deal with the 4.0 Revolution in a respectable, fair and reasonable manner? The 4.0 Industrial Revolution has been going on at a rapid pace. A number of questions have arisen over the past few years, but only when analyzing FIR's paradoxes will we find satisfactory answers. "It took 10 years, at a cost of $2.7 billion, to complete the human set of Genes project. Today, a set of genes can be decoded in just a few hours and costs less than a thousand dollars" [4; p.17], and that is the basis for rewriting the structure of DNA in the way we want. Therefore, being the highest in the national education system, having a history of thousands of years with great achievements, Vietnamese higher education needs to innovate right from the thinking, perception of the opportunities and challenges of FIR to find the appropriate developing direction. Nguyen Thi Thanh Tung 128 It can be seen that the Fourth Industrial Revolution offers a number of opportunities, and challenges to the education sector in general and to the training of History teachers in particular. Technological breakthroughs, changes in the organization of training institutions due to the influence of FIR will be opportunities to develop the competency of a future History teacher by leveraging the achievements of digital technology in teaching. In the twenty-first century, a History teacher will not be able to attract his/her students if he/she does not know how to create a connection between Historical knowledge and the achievements of Revolution 4.0. In a period when people are increasingly dependent on smart devices and virtual worlds, there can not have a good place for a History teacher who only knows how to hold a lesson plan, A0 sheets for drawing maps, schematics of battles, and campaigns. Teaching and learning activities of History teachers in the 4.0 era will be able to take place anytime, anywhere, including a variety of teaching methods such as classroom teaching, creative experience, online teaching. Most pupils and students in recent years have been using virtual applications, so if a History teacher who gains comprehensive competency will know how to take advantage of the virtual world to plan, assign History activities, assignments, documentary information, and film for students to complete and consider them to be one of the foundations involved in evaluating the instructors and learners. It shows that the problem of training History Education students at universities and colleges needs to change in order to formulate and develop comprehensive competency for the generations of students in the education era 4.0. In other words, in order to develop comprehensively the competency of high school students, the teacher training itself must be geared towards the full development of competencies, not just teaching ability. 2.2. Competencies need to be formed, and developed for History education students in the new context Inheriting the views of Resolution 29, the Resolution of the 12th National Assembly Congress also determines the definition and education of Vietnam in the new context that it must have a strong transformation "Continue to renovate ... the basic elements of education and training in the direction of attaching importance to the development of learners’ qualities and competencies" [9; p.115] aiming to strive for the education of Vietnam to keep pace with the advanced education of countries in the Southeast Asia region by 2030. The overall general education curriculum also identifies the goals of the social sciences, including the integration of History, that "enable students to shape and develop common qualities and capacities on the basis of mastering the basic knowledge system.... and the development of some specific competencies of the subject such as competency for intercultural dialogue, competency for self-inquiry, self-discovery, community, society, thinking and practice competency of social sciences and humanities, step by step enhance the competency to interpret phenomena and specific social processes" [5; p.20]. Thus, it is possible to see that in the new general education curriculum, historical knowledge integrated in the social science subject. However, not due to that reason, the position, and the role of the training of history teachers in the teacher training institutions decline. Regardless of what proportion of the integrated curriculum is required, students of the History Education major will need to be equipped and develop their common and specific occupational competencies so they can be ready to fulfill the challenges of History teachers in the era 4.0. Specifically: Firstly, develop empathy competency. A young teacher who teaches History after graduation certainly cannot finalize their in-depth profession in an immediate manner. Therefore, for each lesson Formation and development of career competency for students of history education major to meet 129 to be evaluated successfully, first, it is necessary to equip students of History Education with competency for empathy, the sixth sense to understand the heart, aspirations and characteristics of students... to develop appropriate lectures and teaching methods. Secondly, develop the competency of teaching and fluently using teaching techniques. In the age of Industrial Revolution 4.0, education will have the interplay of various forms of organizing teaching activities, even the teaching of history without borders. Teaching History is the transmission of diverse and comprehensive knowledge of history, so history education students in the course of training must grasp the knowledge of Vietnamese History, World History and complementary sciences; known to integrate the teaching process, and the learning process in a logical way, to integrate teaching into education, combine the use of various forms, methods, teaching aids, differentiated teaching with History contents and knowledge ... Under no circumstances, in order for students to understand and appreciate events, phenomena that have been or are occurring, it is important for students who teach and learn history to make themselves known as knowledge masters and have the ability to use teaching methods and techniques. For example, when teaching about the founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam, students only need to know where the unification conference took place in Hong Kong (China), but students of History education need to be equipped with more issues such as "Why is Hong Kong the place to be chosen for the integration conference?"; When teaching about the August Revolution in 1945, students only knew that the August Revolution took place in a ripe time but for students of History education, they needed to fully understand the process of formation, development and maturation of the August Revolution (1945) in order to see the ingenuity and lucidness of the Party in making policies and decisions in line with the requirements of Revolution... And in each unit of knowledge, depending on the content, subjects taught ... students of History education need to determine the optimal promotion methods, ensure that class time of the History subject is rich in emotions and diverse in teaching and learning techniques. Thirdly, develop research competency. A student of history education not only simply teaches the basic unit of knowledge but also needs to identify something new in the contents and knowledge that the student needs to know, and discover. Hence, research competency is an indispensable element during the four years of training, enabling future history teachers to forge their scientific thinking to study modules, subjects, and design research outline and implement a research project on History. Having developed self-learning ability, self-study science, new young teachers are not confused in developing the ability of students in each of their lectures after graduation. History is the process of discovering, recreating and finding rules and lessons to apply for oneself, for working and for life, thus, in order to make students be interested in understanding History, and exploring History; it is important and necessary to stimulate scientific thinking, and ability of both the teachers and learners. Fourthly, develop the competency of History education. In an education system 4.0, a history teacher is not only an educator but also a psychologist. A lecture or lesson on history does include not only knowledge of stereotypes, but also soulful numbers and events, the students need to have emotions, be educated with patriotism, ideals, longings to reach out to build and defend the country. Therefore, students of History Education should be equipped with the competency to educate, develop and implement a student-centered, student-centered, experiential and innovative learning experiences suitable for learners, with real conditions of schools and localities; know the rational use of various forms and methods of education, differentiation to affect the feelings of students and the formation of students with patriotism, ethical clarity, collective consciousness, community consciousness and civic Nguyen Thi Thanh Tung 130 duty, sense of discipline in studying and in labor; appreciate and pay tribute to the sacrifice of the ancestors in the history of nation building and defense. Fifthly, developing communication, presentation and social activity capacities based on readiness for adaptation and open thinking. A future history teacher is not just a teacher, educator, and researcher but also a social activist. Fundamental renovation of history education of Vietnam is set in the context of the powerful destruction of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which makes the entire career of the history teacher is based on communication with the very complex and various objects. In recent years, the status of history in the school has a lot of disturbance. Inclusion of integrated contents in the Social Studies at the upper secondary level makes it harder to enroll and train students of History Education. Thus, the students of History education must constantly improve their teaching ability in order to express their ideas in a clear way, to combine the techniques of verbal and nonverbal communication and medium of communication in a reasonable manner in relation to people, positive listening from the learners, if so, in any circumstances, it is possible to catch up with the requirements of the curriculum, and create positive changes. Sixthly, develop the competency for self-assessment, peer evaluation, teacher and school evaluation: In the traditional model of education in the past, and history education students often conducted self-evaluation after each module, and subject. However, the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and the requirements of the fundamental and comprehensive renovation of Vietnamese education will undoubtedly open the door for more comprehensive self-assessment. The development of software and scales and standards for students to be able to evaluate themselves, evaluate classmates, lessons, teachers and instructors ... right after each completed lesson or module, which has positive effects on the development of comprehensive competency of the teachers and learners. On that basis, the view from the society and from the learners on the History Science will be fair as other sciences. The education of the twenty-first century is an education system that produces less quantity but higher quality. Whether wanted or unwanted, history education students will face the same harsh movement and the only way is to adapt to changes and catch up to change through the development of the self-assessment ability and other assessment. 2.3. On some solutions to the formation and development of professional capacity for students in the history education major in the 21st century to meet the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Even in any society, the role of the history teacher is still very important. To have a quality education product in the digital age and virtual world for a student of History Education is a combination of the elements: Knowledge of History + Research Ability in History and history education + foreign language + information technology. Therefore, in order to establish and develop a sustainable professional capacity for students of History Education, the following training institutions should focus on the following solutions: Firstly, the necessity to change enrollment training thinking, and input quality assurance. Input quality is a fundamental factor in gaining learning and maturing curve. Whether enrollment in the Literature-Geography-History or Mathematics-Literature –History, along with the total admissions review, consideration should be given to the process of history learning at general education level and specific requirements in the History scores of the enrollment register. At the same time, there is a need for students to commit to maintain their academic performance during the training process if they do not want to be excluded from the training. Formation and development of career competency for students of history education major to meet 131 Practice shows that students after passing the entrance exams, they will not keep passion and enthusiasm. History learning is hard, good history teaching is harder. Therefore, if history departments dare not