Developing Differentiated Teaching Capacity for Primary School Teachers

Authors Nguyen Ke Hao and Nguyen Quang Uan believe that: " Capacity is a combination of unique attributes of an individual, suitable for the requirements of a certain activity, ensuring that the activity has results " [19].

Thus, it can be understood: The ability to combine individual psychological attributes to ensure effective implementation of activities in practice.

Differentiated teaching capacity: From the concept of capacity and the concept of differentiated teaching mentioned above, it can be understood that:

Differentiated teaching capacity is a combination of individual psychological attributes to effectively carry out activities: design and organize teaching based on the actual situation of students, based on personal characteristics, psychology, physiology, needs, motivations, interests, aspirations, circumstances... of students to develop students' personalities.

The ability of a teacher to differentiate teaching is demonstrated through the following aspects:

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- Have deep professional knowledge, broad interdisciplinary knowledge and a deep understanding of society (general culture). This is a very important foundational factor, because without it, teachers will not be able to connect knowledge related to teaching content.

- Have a deep understanding of differentiated teaching , specifically: teachers must clearly understand the nature of differentiated teaching; integration methods, levels of integration (vertical, horizontal; by content/topic; interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary...).

- To have the ability to differentiate teaching, teachers need to have the following skills:

+ Have skills to research and classify students: teachers classify students according to their abilities, interests, learning styles and pace.

+ Have the skills to identify topics/ or differentiated content; the skills to exploit content and elements that have close connections with the lesson content.

+Design differentiated teaching plans (in terms of content, activities, etc.).

+ Know how to choose differentiated teaching methods and approaches to help students update and renew their knowledge, develop their creativity and solve complex problems, while conveying educational content to students in a lively, natural, gentle and attractive way.

+ Implement well the differentiated teaching process in the classroom as well as outside the classroom (library, school yard, park, museum, historical and cultural relics, factory...) with

diverse teaching methods, techniques, means and forms of teaching organization.

+ Have the skills to exploit and use information channels effectively, especially through the Internet to enrich and diversify lecture content. Create conditions for students to learn through diverse and abundant learning resources in society. Thereby developing self-study capacity and preparing students for lifelong learning.

+ Have the ability to solve problems and situations that arise in differentiated teaching .

+ Ability to combine theory with practice . The nature of differentiated teaching is to organize teaching that combines theory and practice in one lesson content. Therefore, teachers must have this necessary ability.

+ Have skills to use a variety of tools, techniques, and assessment methods according to differentiated teaching.

1.2.5. Fostering differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers

Developing differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers is essentially a process of updating and supplementing knowledge and skills to improve the level of differentiated teaching of teachers through training or self-study (training and self-training). The purpose of developing differentiated teaching capacity is to improve professional expertise so that teachers have the opportunity to consolidate, expand or improve the system of knowledge, skills, and available professional techniques to improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching activities.

1.2.6. Management of training in differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers

Inheriting the concepts of management, training, and differentiated teaching capacity, we have built the concept of management and training of differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers as follows:

Managing the training of differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers is the process of planning, organizing, directing, coordinating and checking to have a directional impact of managers on the training of differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers to improve the quality of differentiated teaching in primary schools.

1.3. Some issues on fostering differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers

1.3.1. The nature of differentiated teaching in primary schools

Primary education is considered the level of education that helps students form the initial foundation for the proper and long-term development of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics and basic skills to continue studying at higher levels. The foundation of personality, life skills, basic learning skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing and calculating) of students are formed in primary school and are used throughout each person's life. Primary school students are taught from the smallest habits such as how to hold a pen, sitting posture, how to say hello, walk, dress, to self-service skills, communication skills, learning skills and the ability to self-study and be creative. Thus, primary education has fundamental, long-term and decisive values. Therefore, doing well in primary education is to ensure the sustainable development of the country.

Differentiated teaching in primary schools in particularly difficult areas is an innovative teaching method to promote students' positivity, initiative and creativity, which is understood as the process of teachers organizing and guiding learning activities. Including:

- Mobilize all abilities of each student to explore and discover new content of the lesson.

- Differentiate students according to their cognitive level, assign tasks appropriate to each group of students, create conditions and means of activities for students to discover problematic situations; by themselves or with their friends in the group or class, create the most reasonable plan to solve the problem.

- Focus all efforts to develop the abilities and strengths of each student, creating confidence and joy in learning.

1.3.2. Content of training on differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers

To implement micro-differentiated teaching, in addition to general teaching skills, teachers must meet specific teaching capacities to serve the differentiated teaching process. From the perspective that differentiated teaching is implemented based on the principle of "ensuring the balance between general and individual capabilities in the teaching process", many differentiated teaching capacities of teachers are also requirements for general teaching capacities. Differentiated teaching capacity includes many component skills. To determine groups of differentiated teaching skills, it is necessary to base on the following bases:

- Based on the logic of the teaching process.

- Based on the nature of differentiated teaching in high schools.

- Based on the structure of elements of the teaching and learning process.

- Based on the practical process of organizing differentiated teaching.

Based on the above, I believe that teachers who directly teach in class must be trained in the following groups of micro-differentiated teaching competencies:

* Ability to assess and classify students

The scientific basis of DHPH is based on the differences between students or groups of students. Therefore, understanding and classifying students is the first and most important step in conducting DHPH, which has a great influence on the activities of designing plans, organizing, checking and evaluating the teaching process later.

The ability to assess and classify students is the most popular method when implementing DHPH up to now. We often divide students' learning ability for a subject into the following forms: Excellent/Fair - Average - Weak/Poor to conduct DHPH activities effectively. Tools to collect information about students' learning ability can be through tests, through learning records of subjects, through daily observations, etc. From the available information, teachers classify the list of students according to each corresponding learning ability group to prepare for the work of organizing DHPH.

*Ability to design and use learning resources

Designing a differentiated teaching plan plays a guiding role in teaching activities. When classifying students based on established criteria, teachers must design different teaching plans suitable for each group of students. Therefore, in differentiated teaching, teachers must have many plans for the same class at the same time. At the same time, teachers must be sensitive in the process of determining plans suitable for each group of students.

* Ability to develop differentiated teaching content

This ability is demonstrated in the fact that teachers must classify the types of goals to be achieved for each group of students. Of course, depending on the idea of ​​differentiation, teachers can choose how to design goals. It is possible to choose to classify goals according to criteria: ability, style, pace, interest, physical... in students' learning. For example, dividing lessons into easy, medium, difficult levels for weak, average, good groups. There is also

Teachers can be flexible and adaptable to combine objectives based on many criteria to suit the teaching organization idea. This is a crucial skill that affects the ideas and results of the entire teaching process.

*Ability to coordinate the use of teaching methods and forms of organization

Designing teaching plans according to DHPH is quite diverse, depending on the idea of ​​DHPH, teachers can choose any DHPH method. However, teachers can design DHPH methods very well but not necessarily implement them effectively. The ability to coordinate the use of methods and forms of organizing DHPH in the classroom is influenced by many factors such as: facilities, teaching equipment, rooms, characteristics of students in the class, factors in the personality characteristics of the teacher. Therefore, teachers who carefully prepare the above factors and increase the practice of using DHPH methods can perform this skill well.

*Ability to manage classrooms and create differentiated learning environments

The great advantage of simultaneous teaching is that teachers often control teaching time because the lesson plan is designed for all students in a class is the same. Meanwhile, peer-based teaching implements many teaching plans for groups at the same time. Due to the characteristics of peer-based teaching associated with group activities, teachers must spend a lot of time on all stages from preparing to form groups, organizing activities for each group and evaluating each group. At the same time, they must ensure the teaching time of the lesson according to the prescribed program. This ability is demonstrated in the ability of teachers to calculate and allocate time for each activity of differentiated groups. To save time in class, teachers must prepare or conduct group activities according to certain criteria before organizing teaching in class.

*Ability to test and evaluate in differentiated teaching

Assessment capacity helps teachers grasp the level and ability to absorb the lesson of students to confirm the results of an activity to supplement and adjust in teaching. To create prestige before students, teachers must have an objective, accurate and fair assessment perspective. The honest and objective attitude and behavior of educators on the one hand ensures the requirements of educational tasks on the other hand creates a great influence on learners, including assessing the success or limitations of students. Teachers' ability to correctly assess learners will strongly impact the results of self-study and the results of moral training for students and teachers themselves, using the results of assessment to adjust teaching and learning activities. According to the perspective of DHPH to develop learners' capacity, the

Assessment of learning outcomes does not focus on testing the ability to reproduce learned knowledge. Assessment of learning outcomes should focus on the ability to creatively apply knowledge in different application situations.

1.3.3. Methods to foster differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers

Methods of fostering teaching capacity for primary school teachers need to be appropriate to the content, ensuring the requirements of seriousness, attractiveness, practicality and effectiveness. In addition to organizing lectures, it is necessary to develop forms such as discussion, dialogue, teaching practice...

- Using presentation method: Providing specialized knowledge, analyzing, explaining, and interpreting new knowledge about issues in different professional fields, and teaching capacity.

- Question-and-answer method: This is a method in which the reporter poses a system of questions for learners to answer in turn and exchange information; through the question-and-answer system, learners can grasp the lesson content because in this method, the system of questions and answers is the main source of knowledge.

- Self-study and self-research methods: Managers and good teachers organize the compilation of documents to guide teachers in improving their Vietnamese language teaching capacity. It is necessary to clearly state the concepts, characteristics, and manifestations of teaching capacity forms and how to apply those capacities in practice.

- Group work method: Create a group learning environment for teachers to share knowledge and experience in improving Vietnamese language teaching capacity and the role and responsibility of teachers in the period of educational innovation.

- Practical method: Let teachers practice handling situations, organize activities themselves, on that basis analyze and draw experiences on organizing effective activities to improve teaching capacity of Vietnamese language.

- Participatory method: There is a rotational and mutual interaction between the reporter and the students. The reporter plays the role of moderator, guide, orient, and raises issues; the students discuss, practice, and draw experiences and knowledge for themselves (dialogue, group discussion, Q&A, games...).

- Case study method: Helps teachers identify and discuss

about situations, practical activities, a problem or a series of problems related to the development of teachers' teaching capacity, from which the reporter can generalize, draw experiences or recognize broader problems from a specific situation or case.

1.3.4 Forms of training in differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers

Training teachers in differentiated teaching often takes the following forms:

- On-site training: Training is organized right at the school where the teacher is working.

- Centralized training: Organize training by course or by period, by cycle at pedagogical schools or BDGV facilities.

- Distance training: Through textbooks, documents or information technology means to support on-site training.

- In addition to the above forms, self-improvement is currently being promoted. Self-study and self-improvement to implement the motto "continuous learning, lifelong learning" is a global strategy being launched by the United Nations.

1.3.5. Building a force to participate in training differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers

The force participating in the work of fostering differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers may include:

- The teaching staff of the pedagogical school has expertise in primary education, solid professional qualifications, and pedagogical capacity in organizing training to foster differentiated teaching capacity for teachers.

- The core teaching staff of the Department and the Department of Education and Training have been equipped with knowledge and skills in primary education innovation, and have the skills to organize training to foster differentiated teaching capacity for teachers.

- Primary School Professional Group of the Department of Education and Training

- Team of key primary school managers and teachers in Bac Kan province.

- The school's staff, employees and students were chosen as the location for training to improve differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers.

1.3.6. Evaluation of the results of training in differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers

The effectiveness of training is assessed through monitoring and supervision in all DHPH skills training programs for primary school teachers. The results of training also need to be used in the teacher evaluation process for the effectiveness of training to be truly valuable.

- Evaluation of training results must ensure objectivity, accuracy, accurately reflect the actual training situation, enhance the self-assessment role of teachers participating in training so that teachers can improve their teaching skills and pedagogical expertise.

- Correctly evaluate the level of plan implementation, promptly reward individuals who do well to encourage and motivate. At the same time, criticize and reprimand individuals who do not do this job well.

- Check whether the activities of individuals and professional groups in the school are consistent with the goals and tasks of developing teaching capacity that have been set out, consider the suitability of training teaching skills for teachers in the school, the viewpoints, shortcomings and corresponding causes to promptly adjust management decisions.

- Discover new factors, potential and creative abilities of subordinates to adjust plans and professional assignments to help develop teaching skills for secondary school teachers achieve the set goals.

- The Board of Directors regularly observes and visits classes to evaluate teachers' teaching skills, to know their weak abilities and then propose appropriate training and development measures.

To evaluate the results of training in differentiated teaching capacity for primary school teachers, school principals can do so through the following contents:

- Evaluate the results of DHPH capacity development through checking teaching records according to teachers' DHPH requirements.

- Evaluate the results of DHPH capacity building through checking the management records of professional groups in professional activities.

- Evaluate the results of training DHPH capacity through organizing class observation and evaluating teaching hours according to DHPH requirements.

- Assess the results of fostering DHPH capacity through assessing students' learning outcomes focusing on personal development according to the competency approach.