Identifying inadequacies in training fine arts students in education universities

187 HNUE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE DOI: 10.18173/2354-1075.2017-0188 Educational Sciences, 2017, Vol. 62, Iss. 12, pp. 187-197 This paper is available online at IDENTIFYING INADEQUACIES IN TRAINING FINE ARTS STUDENTS IN EDUCATION UNIVERSITIES Nguyen Thu Tuan Faculty of Fine Art and Music, Hanoi National University of Education Abstract. Improving the quality of training Fine Arts pedagogical students in the current period is an urgent task of the Fine Arts universities/pedagogics in order to meet the requirements of renovating general education in the context of international integration. The article analyzes the causes of inadequacies in terms of: recruitment, facilities, training programs, pedagogical skills training, examination and evaluation of student learning outcomes and performance of fine arts lecturers. On the basis of this, the leaders of the Fine Arts universities/pedagogics can analyze and evaluate the limitations of training of their units objectively and scientifically in order to work out effective solutions to improve the quality of training of Fines Arts students meeting requirements of society in the context of globalization and international integration today. Keywords: Training; universities; pedagogics; Fine Arts lecturers; Fine Arts students. 1. Introduction - The quality of higher education is always a matter of concern for the whole society and the universities themselves - because their training products are critical to the development of each country. In the context of globalization and of Vietnam's integration into international higher education, apart from achieving their goals and mission, universities need to reach the regional and the world quality standards [1]. - Currently, pedagogical schools are facing challenges in the process of sustainable development. Although there are positive innovations and initial confirmation of the quality of their training, these changes are still small in the traditional training mode. Therefore, innovation under orientation to professional training is becoming an indispensable trend, an urgent requirement for pedagogical schools, considered as a breakthrough to achieve the objectives of fundamental and comprehensive reform of education today [2]. - The current reality shows that the training of Fine Arts students in schools is a lot of inadequacies, not deep and comprehensive innovation to fit the reality, so makes training quality severely decline. Improving the training quality of this specialty is the concern of many teachers and educational managers dedicated to "education work". - Reflecting on the training work of Fine Arts students in Vietnam, up to now, many authors have not published their articles and researches on this issue. In my article, I give the inadequacies in training of Fine Arts students today, namely: enrollment and the need to recruit high school teachers; training method; training program; teaching methods; examining and evaluating learners' outcomes; Received: October 12, 2017. Revised: December 12, 2017. Accepted: December 18, 2017. Contact: Nguyen Thu Tuan, e-mail address: [email protected] Nguyen Thu Tuan 188 teacher staff; organization and management of training; practical work, pedagogical practice; facilities, teaching aids, etc. For these shortcomings, we would like the training institutions of Fine Arts to look directly at the truth objectively and scientifically to analyze and evaluate these shortcomings of their training, on the basis of that they propose breakthrough solutions to improve the quality of Fine Arts student training in order to meet the social requirements in the context of globalization and international integration today. 2. Content Looking back on the Fine Arts student training for many years it has shown that this has achieved certain results, but has still revealed many limitations. These inadequacies are reflected in the following points: 2.1. Inadequacies in the recruitment Enrollment is an important step affecting the quality of training. In recent years, due to many objective and subjective reasons, the number of candidates applying to universities in general and the pedagogical schools in particular decreased significantly (mainly uncertain about opportunities to get the job and the treatment regime of the State for teachers is still low), many good candidates do not apply to pedagogical schools. Fine Arts pedagogical education is confronted with many difficulties the most worrying is because many students are not interested in teaching Fine Arts in General schools. This obscure situation giving a difficult problem to training institutions of Fine Arts students in order to tackle a harsh conflict between enrolling gifted students (synonymous with very small number of “input” students) with non-gifted students (meaning that if these students take part in entrance exam they will are eligible to pass). These inadequacies suggest that from the initial selection stage, if only get successfully students with average capacity in addition to motivation for taking part in of many candidates were reluctant – we can affirm that for four studying years, these students are hardly able to meet the training requirements and the constant innovation of high school education. It will be difficult to get high outputs if the inputs are not good [3]. So recruitment of which subjects? How to enroll? What are the entrance qualification criteria?... these are issues that need to be studied seriously. 2.2. Inadequacies in the curriculum Looking back on the training process over past several years has shown that Fine Arts curriculum of schools has achieved certain results, but has still revealed many limitations. These inadequacies are reflected in the following points: - Although many adjustments have been made, the curriculum of Fine Arts student training has not been closely linked and updated with reality and has not met the requirements of general schools and society in the context of international integration and globalization. Varied and lively educational situations, trends of innovation in general education have not been included in the training programs of many pedagogical schools. Therefore, when students participated in the teacher practical training and pedagogical practice activities in general schools, they often were confused about constantly changes of the reality. In fact, in order to become a good Fine Arts teacher as well as a professional educator who can meet the requirements of society in addition to basic knowledge and pedagogical ability, Fine Arts Identifying inadequacies in training Fine Arts students in education universities 189 pedagogical students should be equipped with in-depth knowledge of Fine Arts; they should innovate thinking, innovate creativity; innovate self-studying; they should be capable of solving artistic problems in accordance with society and the times. - The curriculum of fine arts pedagogical student training is also heavily academic with many theoretical lessons far from the social reality and educational reality of general schools; there is an overload in some subjects; the training content is independent of each other, lack of interdisciplinary integration [4]. - The modules on teaching methods of a subject have tried to equip students in order to master the system of teaching methods and update the problems of innovating teaching methods in general schools, but there is still a long distance between theory and practice, between the training in pedagogical schools and the reality of teaching in general schools. Many students when practicing pedagogy are amazed at the requirements of instructors. - Integrative-oriented subject design is currently being studied and applied at many levels of general education [5]. While many pedagogical schools have not paid much attention, they have not been quick enough to innovate their training program in order to suit the practical needs to be worthy of being a "mainframe" that leads ahead to guide the direction of education reform, innovation of teaching methods in the general school levels [6, 7]. - Programs of Fine Arts student training, teaching practical training and pedagogical practice in general schools are very important in the structure of professional training content. However, the position of pedagogic practice is so modest in the teacher training program (pedagogical practice accounts for just under 4.5% of the total duration of the entire training program) [8]. - The Fine Arts pedagogical training program of the schools has not been thoroughly and comprehensively reformed to suit constantly changing reality. The curriculum is limited in terms of teacher training for general schools, while in fact there are many students graduated from fine arts schools worked in Fine Arts professional units. Because of the knowledge of fine arts pedagogy students is not fully equipped, not expanded during school time they are very confused, embarrassed when working in Fine Arts professional units. Because of these inadequacies, I think in addition to basic theoretical knowledge, teaching methods, pedagogical skills and basic practice (Graphic, Layout, Decoration, Fine Arts History, etc.), the content of the program of specialized pedagogical training of the schools should be expanded to introduce all kinds of visual arts, update new artistic trends of the time such as artistic installation, performance art, video art, graphic software etc. This is a very necessary knowledge for students of fine arts pedagogy when approaching teaching practice in general schools, colleges and universities. In the content of the training program, students should be given the opportunity to learn and accumulate knowledge in various forms (such as direct communication, regular training, learning from the library, get information via internet etc.), at the same time, fine arts pedagogical students should be given practical experiences in artistic activities to help them improve their appreciation of artistic content and ideas. 2.3. Inadequacies in pedagogical skills training One of the most important training contents of the pedagogical schools is the practice. This is the basis of development of career skills for students meeting the requirements of Standards after graduation. Nguyen Thu Tuan 190 The pedagogical skills training in pedagogical schools despite remarkable successes, it still has many shortcomings, not achieved the desired effect – it is said that to be weak. This is the result of many reasons of which the main reason is training methods of the fine arts pedagogical training institutions which are not suitable and do not keep up with the changing practices of general schools. This responsibility is clearly attributed to the leaders of the fine arts schools/pedagogics. If they are not self-renewal, not dynamic, not creative in the management, the lag - even self-dissolution of training institutions is also understandable. - The aim of training in fine arts pedagogy is to provide the fine arts teachers for general schools. Therefore, equipping students with knowledge of teaching methods and pedagogical practice as well as scientific research for students plays a very important role (not less than teaching professional practice). For this issue not all Fine Arts teachers are interested in paying attention. The misconceptions of some of these teachers have had some impacts on learners, making some students have the misconception that if they learn their specialty well, they will teach well after graduating. Of course: well-drawn, good specialty are needed and very worth encouraging - but that are not enough for a Fine Arts teacher in general school –for drawing teaching in general and for Fine Art teachers in general schools in particular: If you draw well does not mean you teach well (except some people are gifted in teaching). In order to teach well, apart from the pedagogical skills, it is impossible to have no knowledge and professional skills. - One of the most important reasons for the weaknesses in pedagogical skill training is the awareness and responsibility of many school’s leaders who do not pay due attention to professional training for students. In particular, they do not consider pedagogical skills training as one of the two main contents of basic science and pedagogical science in the curriculum of the pedagogical universities, do not consider as the decisive factor in shaping the qualification and professional capacity of students; the amount of time spent on training on pedagogical capacity of students is too small (less than 25%) – for such modest amount, it is difficult for learners (and also teachers) to ensure the level needed for pedagogical capacity meeting the minimum requirements in teaching and learning innovation of general schools [8]. The investment for pedagogical skills training, teaching practical training and pedagogical practice is not commensurate with the importance of professional training; the pedagogical training curriculum of most of fine arts schools/pedagogics mainly provides theories of teaching and learning, is not closely linked to the practice of general education; the pedagogical skills training activities are still formal, seasonality, just superficial, not deep; Forms of pedagogical skills training for students are monotonous, hard, with no attractive activities to form students basic pedagogical skills, so students do not have proper sense in learning and pedagogical skills practice. - Many Fine Arts teachers are indifferent and insensitive to training on pedagogical skills for students, they have not really dedicated and not been active in combining teaching with professional training for students, they consider that it is the task of teachers teaching methodology. The consequence of this neglect is that Fine Arts students do not have the proper sense of learning and pedagogical practice [8]. - For pedagogical practice, Fine Arts students are often entrusted to general schools. Grading of high school teachers is often easy (even irresponsible) to let students submit a "beautiful transcript" to their schools. That easy assessment leads to students not realize their true ability leading to aberrant attitude and behavior (subjective, complacent, they think that they are capable of teaching, thus they neglect the pedagogical skills practice); The more serious damage is to the management levels (the Identifying inadequacies in training Fine Arts students in education universities 191 Dean of the Faculty, the teaching methodology team...) are complacent and mistakenly proud about the training products of their units. - Because the evaluation of pedagogical skills training results of students is only the condition it causes pedagogical skills training is not really practical for students. Because it doesn’t have impact on assessing students' graduation, the effectiveness of pedagogical skill training is still limited [9, 10]. 2.4. Inadequacies in professional capacity and pedagogical skills of teachers The capacity building requirements for pedagogical teachers are still not new, but it is becoming more urgent as modern education must meet the rigorous requirements of society in the context of globalization and international integration. Because general school teachers and university teachers are important factors in the success of innovation of general education and higher education. Whatever the educational program or educational model, how advanced it may be, if it is done by a person with weak qualification, problem will not be solved. If education reform is not linked to the improvement of skills, without regard to the quality of general school teachers and university teachers, education reform will fail. This is an inherent weakness that has been occurring for decades in Vietnam, which is very disturbing whenever the education sector changes its curriculum [11]. Our current survey shows that the current Fine Arts teacher staff in fine arts schools/pedagogics is trained from a variety of sources, with varying degrees of professionalism and pedagogical skills. This causes many teachers of fine arts schools/pedagogics do not catch up and do not meet the requirements of higher education reform in the current international integration. Thus being less dynamic, less progressive, refusing to innovate teaching methods and update new information etc. are inevitable consequences for these teachers. This is a great challenge for Fine Arts teacher staff. This is one of the inherent existences for many years but until now Ministry of Education and Training have not been proposed solutions to improve. These inadequacies of this situation are reflected in the following aspects: - For teaching methods: At present, the teaching methods of many Fine Arts teachers are too biased in providing academic theoretical knowledge; separate from reality; disregard practice; heavy on the one-way knowledge transmission in the "monologue" style that make students passive when receiving knowledge. In many places, there is still an old-fashioned way of teaching "teacher reads and students write down" in most theoretical teaching hours; teaching hours for practice in a "on the job training” manner, in favor of the "giving craft" type, "impart the experience". For such a teaching, a large Fine Art students are still learning passively. Therefore, over the past few years, the consequences of the training of Fine Arts students of some universities have created many products without creativity, less adaptable to the requirements of society. On the other hand, many Fine Arts teachers still do not use or apply unsuccessfully teaching methods; The use of modern teaching facilities is not effective etc. (account for 44.51%) [8]. Therefore, these teachers can not be a good example for students to imitate and follow the path of educational innovation. - For scientific research capacity: The fact that the scientific research activities of Fine Arts teachers in general and the capacity of scientific research of Fine Arts pedagogical teachers in particular really did not meet the requirements of scientific research in education reform and international integration today. In detail: + Many Fine Arts teachers are not aware of their responsibilities and obligations for scientific research activities in the university teaching environment. Many teachers are not fully aware that Nguyen Thu Tuan 192 scientific research plays an important role in the synergy of teaching quality and for themself development in improving their level of scientific research. + There are quite a number of fine arts graduates who are not trained in the pedagogic field, so they have not reflected their capacity of scientific research, they really do not have the method of scientific research. Some teachers when forced to do scientific research they do not know what they can study and what can be studied. If they have the idea of research, they do not know how to interpret the problem to let others understand. When embarking on a scientific research topic, these teachers are very confused and expose many restrictions because they do not know the basic skills in scientific research, do not grasp the approach to research problems, research direction, how to determine research topics, research methods; they do not know how to build a research protocol, where to start and how to do it; they do not know how to build the strict and