Some Basic Issues on Applying the Btnb Method in Primary School Teaching

In September 1998, the French Academy of Sciences drafted 10 basic principles of the BTNB method. The first six principles relate to the pedagogical process and the remaining four principles specify the stakeholders in the scientific community that support the BTNB method. The implementation of the BTNB method has been strong since the early days.

In June 2000, a program to innovate teaching science and technology in schools was announced by the French Ministry of National Education. The BTNB method is the recommended method in the new program.

In 2001, the research group of experts on the BTNB method of the French Academy of Sciences and the National Institute of Pedagogical Research was expanded with the Paris Pedagogical University.

In May 2004, in Paris, a national conference on supporting science and technology in primary schools was held. A charter on supporting science and technology in primary schools was drafted to serve as a guide for relevant agencies.

In 2005, an agreement was signed between the French Academy of Sciences and the French Ministry of National Education to strengthen the role of these two bodies in science and technology education. A new agreement was also signed in 2009 between the French Academy of Sciences, the French Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research .[7]

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Since its inception, the BTNB method has been widely accepted and disseminated. Many countries in the world have cooperated with the French Academy of Sciences in developing this method such as Brazil, Belgium, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Chile, China, Thailand, Colombia, Greece, Malaysia, Morocco, Serbia, Switzerland, Germany, ... including Vietnam through the Rencontres du Vietnam. As of 2009, there were about more than 30 countries directly participating in the BTNB program.

Thanks to the patronage of the Department of Technology - French Ministry of National Education, the international website for 9 countries was established in 2003 to publish resources.

Materials provided by teachers and lecturers in the language of each participating member country.

The system of similar websites (site miroir) to the French BTNB website is implemented by many countries, translated into the native languages of countries such as China, Greece, Germany, Serbia, Colombia...

In July 2004, the International Summer School on BTNB with the theme “Dough Hands in the World: Exchange, Sharing, Training” was held in Erice - Italy for French and other international experts.

The International Council for Science (ICS) and the International Academy Panel (IPA) jointly funded the establishment of an electronic portal on science education, in which the BTNB method is included. This multilingual portal was established in April 2004 [ 3 ].

Many regional and continental projects have been established to help and support the development of the BTNB method in countries. These include the European Pollen project, the project to develop the BTNB method in the bilingual classroom system in Southeast Asia by VALOFRASE (Valofrase du Francais en Asie du Sud-Est - French Language Development Program in Southeast Asia), the project to teach science to Arabic-speaking countries, etc.

1.1.2. Studies in Vietnam

The introduction of the BTNB method to Vietnam was a great effort of the Rencontres du Vietnam. The BTNB method was introduced in Vietnam at the same time that this method was just beginning to be born and tested in teaching in France.

In January 2000, "Hands on Dough - Science in Primary Schools" - the first book on BTNB in Vietnam was published. This is a book about BTNB method by Professor Georges Charpak published in 1996 and translated by author Dinh Ngoc Lan. In this book, the author presented

Basic theoretical issues about the BTNB method such as: "Concept, scientific basis, meaning and applicability of this method in teaching in general, including teaching Science in primary schools in particular. This can be considered one of the valuable documents introducing the BTNB method and approaching general education in Vietnam, especially primary education" [ 4 , p.30].

With the aim of providing primary school teachers in Vietnam with a new and active teaching method to implement teaching method innovation in the spirit of the Ministry of Education and Training, the Vietnam Rencontres Association has directly worked with universities and local Departments of Education and Training to organize training courses on the BTNB method for core teachers, lecturers and managers. In some localities, the program to apply the BTNB method has been strongly implemented from the Department of Education and Training to the school level, notably in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang City. In Da Nang, after the training course for teachers and specialists of the Departments of Education and Training in 2009, the Department of Education and Training of Da Nang worked with the Vietnam Rencontres Association to "order" the design of a short training program for primary school managers throughout the city to help managers understand the BTNB method, its importance and create conditions for teachers to pilot its application in science lessons at school.

In 2011, the Ministry of Education and Training approved the project "Implementing the Hand Kneading Dough method in general schools in the period 2011-2015" with two phases: from 2011-2013, pilot implementation, from 2014-2015, mass implementation nationwide.

Up to now, after more than a decade of approach, the BTNB method has not been truly approached and implemented in all primary schools. Research on this method is still limited, mainly limited to training documents circulated internally.

1.2. Basic concepts of the topic

1.2.1. Teaching process

According to traditional concepts, the teaching and learning process is a set of continuous and interpenetrating actions of teachers and students under the guidance of teachers, aiming to make students self-consciously grasp the system of scientific foundations and in the process develop cognitive and action abilities, forming a worldview and outlook on life. [5, page 9]

Thus, the teaching process is understood as a collection of activities of teachers and students under the guidance of teachers, to help students develop their personalities and thereby reach the goal of teaching. The above concept clearly reflects the coordination of actions and unity between teachers and students towards the goal of teaching.

The concept presents the basic structure of the teaching and learning process with the main elements and the relationships between them: Teacher - Student - Teaching purpose, as well as the external organization of this process: the teacher directs, the student comprehends to achieve the teaching and learning purpose. However, with the above concept, we have not seen the negative side inside and the function of the factors that create the teaching and learning process. According to the current concept, the teaching and learning process is an interactive process (cooperation between teachers and students, in which the teacher takes the lead such as: organizing, leading, adjusting the cognitive activities of students, and students are self-conscious, active, proactive through self-organization, self-adjusting their cognitive activities to achieve the teaching and learning purpose.

The teaching and learning process is a social process that is organized with a purpose and plan. In which, under the leading role of the teacher, students are self-conscious, active, proactive, self-organize, and self-control their cognitive activities to effectively carry out teaching and learning tasks and achieve the proposed teaching and learning goals.

The teaching process is also referred to under another approach:

"The teaching process is a clear goal, a sequential sequence of changes and interactions between teachers and students to solve the tasks of education, training and general development of students" (Iu.K.Babanxki) [cited in 1 ].

From the perspective of control theory (Cibernetic), "The teaching process is a control process, in which the teacher plays the role of control, and the student plays the role of self-control" [cited in 1 ].

In the scope of the thesis research, we approach the concept in the direction: The teaching and learning process is a process in which, under the leading role (organization, control, leadership) of the teacher, students voluntarily, actively self-organize, self-control cognitive activities to perform well the learning tasks."

1.2.2. Teaching methods

The term method in Greek is “Methodos” which means the path, the way of working to achieve a certain goal in cognition and in practice. Applying this concept to the teaching process, we can understand that teaching method is a combination of ways of working of teachers and students in the process of assigned learning tasks.

According to the 1965 Soviet Encyclopedia , "Teaching method is the way teachers and students work, thanks to which students master knowledge, skills, techniques, form a worldview, and develop cognitive abilities" [cited in 9 ].

According to author Nguyen Quang Ngoc, Teaching method is understood as " The way teachers and students work under the teacher's guidance to help students master knowledge, skills, and techniques in a self-conscious, proactive, and self-reliant manner, develop cognitive and action abilities, and form a scientific materialistic worldview..." [cited in 9 ] .

Teaching methods are the ways, the paths, the directions of action to solve the cognitive problems of students in order to achieve the teaching objectives. Teaching methods include both teaching methods and learning methods that interact and coordinate with each other. In which, teaching methods play a leading role in learning methods, learning methods are relatively independent, are affected by teaching methods and have an impact on teaching methods.

1.2.3. BTNB method

“Hands On” is a relatively new educational model in the world, with the English name “Hands On” and the French name “La main à la pâte”, both meaning “getting into action”; “getting into experimenting”, “getting into research” [ 8 ].

This teaching model focuses on developing students' cognitive abilities, helping them find answers to their childish questions by putting themselves in real-life situations, thereby discovering the nature of the problem.

When participating in teaching activities using the BTNB method, children always feel curious about new phenomena in life around them, stimulating them to ask the question "why?". It can be said that "Hands kneading dough" is a logical process of teaching methods, leading students from not knowing to knowing according to a new method of letting students come into contact with the phenomenon, then helping them explain by conducting their own observations through experiments. This method helps students not only remember for a long time, but also understand the answers they find. Thereby, students will form the ability to reason according to the research method from a young age and form their working style and methods when they grow up.

There are many different views on the BTNB method. However, it can be generally understood that "BTNB method is an active teaching method based on the process of exploration and research, applied to teaching natural science subjects" [ 2 ].

BTNB focuses on forming knowledge for students through research experiments so that they can find answers to problems raised in life through conducting experiments, observing, researching documents or investigating...

With a scientific problem, students can pose questions and hypotheses from initial understanding, conduct research experiments to test.

evidence and draw appropriate conclusions through discussion, comparison, analysis, and synthesis of knowledge.

Like other active teaching methods, BTNB always considers students as the center of the cognitive process. They are the ones who find the answers and acquire knowledge with the help of teachers.

Organizing the teaching of Science subject in the direction of applying the BTNB method is that the teacher chooses appropriate activities in the lesson to apply the BTNB method. Organizing for students to practice experiments so that they can explore and discover new knowledge. Through exploring and researching to discover scientific knowledge, the lesson also focuses on practicing speaking and writing for students, initially forming in them simple scientific research skills.

1.3. Some basic issues on applying the BTNB method in primary school teaching

1.3.1. Characteristics of learning activities of primary school students

Primary school students are between 6 and 11,12 years old. At this age, children shift their main activities from playing to studying. Studying activities play a particularly important role and significance for their psychological and physiological development. Along with physical development, the characteristic of this age is the formation of intentionality. Playing activities still play an important role in students' daily lives. If teachers want students to study effectively, they need to pay attention to the balanced coordination between studying and playing for them.

Primary school students' thinking is strongly emotional and has an advantage in intuitive and action-oriented thinking. Thinking qualities gradually shift from concrete to abstract and general thinking. Each student gradually develops the ability to generalize according to age, and in grades 4 and 5, they begin to generalize theory. However, the activities of analyzing and synthesizing knowledge are still rudimentary in most primary school students.

Reproductive imagination has begun to be complete, from old images the child has recreated new images. Creative imagination is relatively developed at this stage.

At the end of primary school, children begin to develop the ability to write poetry, essays, draw pictures... In particular, their imagination during this stage is strongly influenced by emotions, feelings, images, events, and phenomena are all associated with their emotional vibrations.

Most primary school students have fluent spoken language. When entering grade 1, students begin to use written language. By grade 5, students have fluent written language and begin to improve their grammar, spelling and phonetics. Language plays a very important role in the development of students, thanks to language, their cognition develops easily. On the other hand, through the language ability of students, we can assess their intellectual development.

Intentional attention gradually develops and dominates at this age. Time limits begin to appear in students' attention. They have quantified the time allowed to do something and try to complete the work within the specified time.

Meaningful memorization and word memorization are enhanced. Intentional memorization has developed. However, the effectiveness of intentional memorization depends on many factors such as the level of active intellectual concentration of students, the attractiveness of the material content, psychological and emotional factors or students' interests...

They have the ability to turn adults' requests into their own goals, but their willpower is still unstable and cannot become their personality traits. The implementation of behavior still depends mainly on temporary interests.

The emotions of primary school students are concrete and direct and are always associated with vivid phenomena. At this time, the ability to control emotions of students is still immature, easily moved and easily angered, and the emotions of students at this time are not stable.

Students' personalities are gradually being formed, especially in a new school environment. They can be shy and timid, or they can be enthusiastic and bold [ 8 ].

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