In April 2022, we formally launched five new UK–VN Teacher Activity Groups (TAGs) projects designed to support teacher’s continuing professional development online. These will cover 11 provinces and reach more than 1,200 primary, lower and upper secondary teachers through online communities of practice. This month, we feature updates on two of the projects. In future months, we will share further updates on the other projects.
TAGs launch event for teachers in Hue
On 17 May, primary, lower and upper secondary teachers in Hue had an opportunity to attend a launch event party for the project team (from Manchester Metropolitan University, Hue University and Hue DOET) to get to know the participating teachers, and to officially kick off their TAGs activities.
A total of 123 teachers attended the launch event. Later, some teachers shared that the launch helped them understand the aims of the project better, as well as see more clearly the meaningfulness of their participation. Some also said they felt 'lucky' that they were able to participate in TAGs, knowing that they're among the first groups of English teachers in the country to benefit from such TAGs activities.
As for the project team, Mai Nguyen from Manchester Metropolitan University said, “the launch was a great opportunity for us to get to know the teachers, what they enjoy about English teaching, as well as some of the challenges they face in their teaching contexts. We also have a better understanding of some of the difficulties teachers experience when participating in online professional development activities, particularly their level of familiarity with different kinds of technologies”.
As a result, the project team organised a technology workshop the following week to better prepare teachers for the forthcoming monthly TAGs meetings, which will continue until February 2023.
TAGs ready to launch in Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh and Binh Thuan
Meanwhile, the project team from the University of Glasgow and Viet Nam’s National Institute for Educational Sciences (VNIES) are busy creating free, online teaching and learning resources, designed to develop teachers’ capacities to teach English with creative and arts-based resources. The project team are also exploring opportunities to partner and build on previous work of arts and creative industries projects in the three provinces, and have already had workshops with participating artists who will work with English language teachers from DOETs in all three provinces.
The initial training programme will start on June 16th and run throughout the month of July.
Furthermore…
All five projects continue to work on developing their projects and through their very own community of practice (CoP) the individual project teams continue discussions and share valuable learning between all of the project teams. As Lavinia Hirsu from Glasgow University shared, “we have really benefited from our conversations and exchanges and will continue to engage with our community of practice”.
All five projects continue until March 2023 so over the next few months, we will update you on progress from the other three projects in:
- Hoa Binh and Son La (IH Bristol and Hanoi University of Education)
- Yen Bai and Nghe An (IH London and Hanoi Pedagogical University #2)
- Ben Tre, Can Tho and Dong Thap (Celtic English Academy and Can Tho University)
In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about TAGs watch the recording of the launch event here.