Chapter 5
Sustainable Education Development under
Globalization, and the Reforms of Teachingand Learning Methods in Teacher Training
Nguyen Thi Phuong Hoa

Abstract
Beginning with some considerations about the relationship between globalization and education, the particular significance of the tertiary education sector for a developing society
like that in Vietnam is addressed. A glance at the Vietnamese record of educational
reforms in general and in tertiary education in particular reveals considerable successes
as well as huge challenges. While reform needs and reform goals are scarcely controversial, the basic problem of all reform attempts is how to achieve sustainable development of
the educational system. In order to launch a proven and sustainable reform scheme, we
recommend an action research approach. Some strategic starting points are given combining the approach of self learning reform with research methods. This combination promises an improvement of the scientific level of teacher training institutions in their core tasks,
i.e. providing students continual encouragements and innovative learning abilities.

1. Education in the Context of Globalization
The term “globalization” was first used in social science and wasfound for the first time in Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1961. Since 1990, after
socialism collapsed in Eastern Europe and the Cold War ended, the process of
economic globalization has been developing rapidly and the term has continued
to gain popularity.
Though the terminology of globalization began to be used as late as
mentioned above, the sign of globalization process was appeared as early as the
15th century—a time of numerous exploration cruises, of which a well known
example is the first cruise around the world of Ferdinand Magellan, who discovered trade routes among the Asian, American, and African continents. Mod-

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ern globalization is known as an increasingly international integration in all
fields of economics, culture and society. It has impacts on every individual,
society, organization, and state. Technological progress, especially new technologies in telecommunication, and transportation as well as free trade policies
in international trade are main reasons for its dissemination. Theodore Levitt(1925–2006), a German immigrant who was a professor in Harvard University,
was the first to provide a definition of globalization from the viewpoint of economic policy makers in “The Globalization of Markets” in 1983.
From an economic viewpoint, globalization is characterized by a setof changes in economic structure, leading to basic changes in international labor
allocation in recent years. It results in rapid growth of the global economy.
Globalization can be described with the five following factors.
• New technologies, especially computer technology and transportation systems, rationalized at the highest level, have opened new opportunities tomeet the demand for goods and services all over the world.
• Because opportunities also mean pressure, what were independent activities of each nation in the past have been narrowed down and replaced by
the activities of international corporations, who are considered as global
players. These corporations choose to invest in the locations where they
can get the most benefits. Their investment decision does not depend on
the viewpoint of the nation they invest in.
• Therefore, an international financial system appears. Billions of US dollars
can be transferred through this system in a few seconds without any
national control or management. The independent actors are now thelargest economies in the world.
• The global labor allocation process enters a new period in which the labor
force is supplied to the market where the supply and demand relation ismost convenient. This results in the direct competition in labor supply
among countries and regions, for instance, between the European and the
Asian countries. The traditional production, agriculture production, andnatural resource exploitation have all fallen into global competition where
each country can have its own impact in certain conditions.
• A final factor is the appearance of information and telecommunication
technologies a few decades ago. They have become innovative sectors

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which strongly spurred the growth of the global economic system.
Modern science marks a new step in human history. Intellectual andtechnological innovations are achievements of modern sciences; and as such, tomeet the requirements of globalization, all the countries, including the mostdeveloped ones, need to have broad and deep scientific knowledge and appliedexperience. The capability to understand modern sciences as well as the ability
to develop these sciences further are basic conditions to modernize the society(Evers et al., 2004).
All of the above characteristics of globalization show that economics
is the field in which globalization happens most strongly. However, globalization brings much more than economic impacts to a nation. Actually, all fields ofpolitics are affected by globalization. Furthermore, the development of culture
and society follow global trends.
Although the above development trends are still new and at their
beginning steps, all these trends are indispensable. All countries must follow
this development model, regardless of their current development level. Any
country which goes against this model—even partly—must pay a high price.
Such a country’s natural resources will become exhausted and the country willlag behind desperately. This goes especially for countries which are currently
prosperous thanks to their rich natural resources but which are not willing tointegrate their traditional values into global trends. For all countries, the time toadapt to this model is dwindling. Urgency is particularly high for the developing countries, which have to take fast reform and strive for sustainable results
simultaneously. In the current globalization context, developing countries thatwant to modernize will no longer be able to apply the old European development model, which required decades—amounting to centuries—to move fromagricultural production, to industrial production, to a service society, and thento the knowledge society based on electronic information and telecommunication technology. Now, emerging countries have to develop all fields at the sametime, prioritizing the preconditions of knowledge production (Cetto, 2006).
With this understanding, the relationship between education and successful modernization under the context of globalization becomes clear. This
relation has been the central topic in the theory of human capital (Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2002). The theory123

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proves that investment in education and training increases the economic productivity of the labor force. For developing countries in the context of the globalizing world, improving the simple labor skills is not enough because under the
impact of changes in the international division of labor, some professions will
disappear or change significantly. Therefore, the labor in the new context ofglobalization must, through education, be equipped with new skills and capabilities. Moreover, although developing countries undergoing cultural and socialchanges will cope with many difficulties in the integration process, these difficulties can be basically addressed by education. The theory of social capital
explains this situation in detail. A publication in 2002 by Putnam (Putnam,2002) —the most influential theorist of the social capital theory—indicates thatsocial capital is constituted of social organizing capabilities comprising trust,norms, and cooperation. These are the main elements for societies to improvetheir capability to act in their parts and as a whole. For developing countries
and countries who are stepping into the developed country community, investment in education and training is the basic material of the knowledge economy.
Under the challenges of globalization, that material will become more and moremeaningful (Temple, 2000).
The analysis of the relation between education and economic development reveals that all countries that want to achieve continuous social
progress must be brave enough to apply a strong investment policy for education and training. While the western developed countries experienced many
generations before they had developed their self-organizing capability and set
up distribution structures in the way of social welfare states, developing countries do not have such advantages. What developing countries have is limited
experience in innovation and development. In addition, they sometimes have to
face dramatic changes in their societies. These changes are shuffling the solidarity tradition of agricultural societies and jeopardizing the cohesion of thewhole community. Under these conditions it is understandable that great investments in social resources are more important for these countries than for thedeveloped countries in the West. Therefore, the simple development models
must be replaced by ones which discover and open new ways valuable for the
future. Sustainable development is not to exploit and consume all the naturaland social resources; conversely, it is to create conditions to integrate into the124Sustainable Education Development under Globalization,……

globalization process in both economic and cultural fields (World Commission
on the Social Dimension of Globalization, 2004).
From the above analysis, within the requirements for education policies, these three trends must be taken into consideration:(i) In the globalization wave, we can see a similarity at the global level interms of education purposes, contents, and standards, regardless of thecharacteristics of each nation. Education as a future investment for the
young generation must contribute to create and develop action capability,
awareness ability, and the ability to understand profoundly complicatedrelationships in social life and professional life; it must encourage creativeness in thinking and acting. The characteristics of each nation must
be defined in the content of education; this content reflects the special
characteristics of each nation, including language, local and regional cultural traditions, and the living conditions influenced by natural geographic factors. However, there is a growing trend of the “global curriculum,”in which a popular international language (like English) will be taught
early; the curricula of mathematics, natural sciences, and IT are equivalent. There are two issues that are important to the education standards:
one is similarity in educational level structure from kindergarten to tertiary education, and the other is time and qualification requirements. An
experimental system to measure education and training results has beendeveloped for the past 15 years (OECD, 2004). The standards, process
and methods were applied to measure the education and training resultsthat have great impacts on national education systems. Moreover, someinternational comparative studies have put the national education systems into a global competition to which no nation can be indifferent.
(ii) Traditional models to develop education systems have established a certain order. It starts from eradicating illiteracy and moves to building
higher degrees for a more complete education system. Decades areneeded to build a complete education system, but under the pressure of
globalization, such a process is not feasible. In order to join and succeed
in global competition, and to reform the nation rapidly, each nation must
give priority to elementary education because it is the foundation forother higher education levels. With great efforts in a short time, devel-

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oping countries must achieve a common global education level to makesocial advances as rapidly as possible.
(iii) The core factor of the knowledge society, which is replacing the industrial society, is sciences. If developing countries want to modernize theireconomy, they must develop their own scientific system because this system is the key to international competition. Because global cooperation
activities will follow scientific rules and will be based on thoughts,
through exchanges among scientific workers, developing countries thatwant to advance to higher levels cannot escape the general trend of making things scientific on a global scale. In the knowledge economy, as scientific know-how is the most expensive in the global market, developing
countries must quickly establish scientific production for themselves.

2. Scientific Development as an Important Task in Tertiary
Education
When we consider the importance of tertiary education development
to establish a particular effective science system for a country, we are talking
about the core factor of sustainable development under globalization pressure(Knight, 2004). Apart from this pressure, and because of the high price ofimported knowledge, each country must develop its own knowledge and creativeness with its own internal resources within its own scientific system. Long
before economic globalization, the sciences were internationalized. In the relationship between globalization and sustainability, this affirmation is very meaningful, as demonstrated in the four following points:• While the economic, cultural, and political impacts of globalization may
partly fall in violent conflict with national and regional traditions and create new social conflicts and dependences, global linkages in the scientificfield do not lead to similar problems and risks.
• Scientific advances will occur only in very small part under the conditionsof national and regional competition. It is obvious that building a science
infrastructure is very costly, but this investment will promise a linkage
with the intellectual treasure of the world, and will enable the most effective participation in scientific debates beyond national and cultural bor-126

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ders. Finally, the working experiences, wherever they are gained, will be
evaluated scientifically, and then popularized in the society.
• When we talk about sciences, we mention knowledge and awareness as“basic components.” These components have very specific characters:
they are always symbolic and flexible, depending on location, time, situation, and reality. In addition, they are immaterial, and thus relatively stable. Physically, knowledge can be destroyed only when all knowledge
documents are destroyed and all people who hold knowledge in themselves are killed. Knowledge and awareness are common property. They
cannot disappear. They remain intact when they are shared, so knowledge
should be disseminated. In short, sciences are related to the entities which
are very different from goods and service products.
• The above characteristics make the sciences with their achievements avery important factor for the future of human society. Even errors canhave scientific effectiveness. Any scientific viewpoint on teaching andlearning can be analyzed in serious scientific debates and can then be verified through the teaching and learning practice. Such competition will verify the solidity of these teaching and learning viewpoints.
A fact that should not be neglected is that patents, copyrights of intellectual property, and scientific human resources are all very expensive. However, knowledge and creativeness do not have specific and separate cultural or
national characteristics. Therefore, science development is the best way for anation to make the most of its own unlimited human resources. Through thisutilization, the nation can integrate into the global knowledge society.

3. Education Reform in Vietnam: Achievements and Challenges
3.1. Education system in Vietnam: An overview
Where does Vietnam stand? It is not easy to answer this question
because the statistical reports about the Vietnamese education system are notsufficient. In addition, the survey methods and reliability of the statistical data
are not persuasive. In the following we use statistical data from the World Bank
(World Bank 2006).

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In 2005, there were about 48,000 kindergartens and nursery schools
accommodating about 2.75 million children, among them 421,000 children aged
from 3 months to 3 years old (accounting for 15 percent of the total children at
the same age) go to nursery schools and 2.3 million to kindergartens (accountingfor 58 percent of the total children at the same age). By 2010, the kindergarten
and nursery school system should be expanded to receive 18 percent of the total
children under 3 years old and 67 percent of the 3–5-year-old children.
Also in 2005, there were 7.77 million children from 6 to 11 years old(accounting for 98 percent of the total children at the same age) attending fiveyear elementary schools. In the education system, there are 14,000 elementary
schools and 1,000 elementary and secondary-combined schools. In comparison
with the data at the beginning of this decade, the numbers of both pupils andschools are lower. Two reasons can be mentioned. Firstly, in Vietnam the birthrate has decreased. Secondly, there are fewer and fewer pupils at higher ages
attending elementary school. A few years ago, under the pressure of illiteracy
eradication programs, the rate of pupils at higher ages attending elementary
schools was very high. One of the development goals for 2010 is that 99 percent of the pupils at elementary school age are going to school. A second goal isthat full-day schooling is established. The third goal is that pupils from the ageof three are beginning to learn foreign languages, and the number of the pupils,
who have to repeat their classes, will be reduced significantly.
Like in other countries, secondary education in Vietnam is divided
into lower secondary school (from 6th to 9th form) and the upper secondary
school (from 10th to 12th form). When pupils graduate elementary school, theycan enter secondary school. When pupils graduate secondary school, they haveto pass an examination to enter high school. In the 2004–2005 school-year,
there were 6.7 million pupils attending 10,000 secondary schools and 2.8 million pupils attending 2,224 high schools. While the curricula for both elementary and secondary schools are standardized nationwide, the curriculum for highschools is divided into a general curriculum and a special curriculum for those
who specialize in some certain subjects (science, social science, or arts) fromthe 2006–2007 school year on. The latter can be introduced by single schools,
approved by the District Ministry of Education and Training. By 2010, secondary schools must be able to take all students at secondary school age. Half of128

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Macroeconomic management
Transparency, accountability &Fiscal policy
corruption
Debt policy

Quality of public administration

Efficiency of revenue mobiliz

Trade

Public finance

Financial sector

Property rights & governanceBusiness regulatory environ-t

Gender equality

Pol,& institut. for environ. sustain
Social protection & labor

Equity of public resource use
Human resources

Vietnam

East Asia

lower secondary graduates will continue to the high school level. To meet thesegoals, the number of form repeaters must be lowered, and the number of school
drop-outs must be reduced.
Vocational training has three levels: primary (duration under oneyear), intermediate, and college (each level lasts from one to three years). In
2005, there were 1,688 vocational training schools. There are many managing
agencies of these vocational training schools. Most of the vocational training
schools are under the management of the Ministry of Education and Training(MOET). Some others are under the management of the military. There are alsoprivate and foreign-supported vocational training institutions. In general, vocational training schools and centers in Vietnam are still weak and cannot meetthe demand. By 2010, each province or city must have at least one vocational
training school and the training contents must be improved to a higher level tomeet the increasing demand of the economy. Thirty percent of the secondary
graduate students and 10 percent of the high school graduates should enter
vocational training schools and centers.
This information reveals from nursery level to high school level that129

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Vietnamese education has achieved a higher level than would be expectedbased on its economic status (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2003). The education is impressive in terms ofboth the achievements and the growth rate. Along with such good achievements, some severe weaknesses are being addressed through strong reform
efforts in all education sectors (Tran, 2002). Compared with the neighboring
countries in the region, Vietnam has achieved significant progress, and thisstatement is supported by Figure 1.
Priority for education in Vietnam also illustrates the appropriate
insights about substantial investments in education, which have helped many
developing countries to succeed. The Republic of Korea is an example. Thirty
years ago, it was at the low development level as Afghanistan. Now, it is one of
the most competitive Asian economies, and it scores at the top of the leading
nations in international education (OECD, 2007). Annual financial investment
into education in South Korea is as high as the investment of the United Statesof America (US). The Republic of Korea also stands at the third position among
OECD countries and OECD countries’ partners, after Israel and Ireland (OECD,2007). There is a similar trend in Taiwan (China) and The People’s Republic ofChina. This level of investment affirms the importance of education in globalization, including tertiary education, which plays an increasingly important role.
Therefore, to develop and integrate into the globalization process, Vietnam must
invest in tertiary education both financially and intellectually.
Vietnam’s tertiary education system has been restructured andimproved comprehensively from its low starting level at the end of the last century. The initial reform in education started in the North after Vietnam gained
independence and then in the whole country, after the Vietnam War against the
US ended. At that time, Vietnam’s tertiary education structure was copied fromthe education model of the Soviet Union. There were a series of small scientificinstitutions, which were highly specialized, mono-disciplinary, and with low
linkages between teaching and doing research. To suit the centrally planned
economy, universities were put under the management of relevant ministries(Kelly, 2000). The education bill from 1998 opened this structure, delivered
increased autonomy to the universities, and articulated a modern understandingof the close connection of research and academic teaching. Since the middle of130

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the 1990s, five new universities were established by mergers of smaller universities. These new universities were Hanoi National University, Ho Chi Minh
City National University, Da Nang University, Hue University, and Thai
Nguyen University. These universities all follow the worldwide models ofmulti-disciplinary campus-universities. Applying the government resolution
Number 14/2005 on basic and comprehensive reform in tertiary education,
MOET has recently taken further action. It set up a reform plan to carry out
reforms based on successful international experiences. One of the tasks is toremove the central ministerial steering mechanism for universities by self-management and self-responsibility. This is a basic reform effort to address theinborn stagnation of centrally run universities in Vietnam.
There are two levels in the tertiary education system in Vietnam—
undergraduate and graduate levels—with a variety of studying time options andentrance conditions (Institute of International Education, 2004). Undergraduate
education is divided into two levels: (i) college level (requires 2–3 years or
1.5–2 years, depending on the entrance levels of the students) and (ii) university
level, which has two phases and lasts for 4–6 years, depending on each profession. The first phase lasts for 1 or 2 years, in which students study general subjects. The second phase focuses on professional study. Graduate education
includes (i) master’s degree, which lasts for 1.5–2 years, and mainly focuses on
professional training and (ii) doctorial degree, which lasts for 2–4 years for students with master’s degrees, and 4 years for students with bachelor’s degrees.
Figure 2 shows the basic structure of Vietnam’s education system,
although it may vary depending on the individual university. The diagram also
indicates that while the level classification is in accordance with the current
global trends, the trust of higher levels in the education quality of lower levels
is quite poor because there are plenty of entrance examinations. The existenceof so many entrance examinations in Vietnam reveals weaknesses of quality allover the education system. These examinations are an attempt to compensate
for a lack of accredited standards by an inefficient comprehensive control system. Although examinations create high pressure for students and lecturers,
their results do not indicate the real study performance of students. Therefore,
the reform of the examination scheme throughout the education system isanother important task in modernizing education in general and tertiary educa-

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Doctor
Dissertation
MasterMA thesis

Doctoral candidatc(4 years)

Master eandidate(2 years)

Doctor’s entrance exam

Master’s entrance exam

Bachelor(BA, BS)
Final exam
Second stage(2years)Professional education
The stage transferring exam
Certificate of general university
First stage(2 years)General education
Entrance exam
High school diplomation in particular.
In Vietnam there are seven types of universities. They differ by theirgraduations and their administrative competence. These types are:• Multi-professional universities, following the western tertiary education
models,• Teacher-training universities and colleges,• Technical and industrial universities with different numbers of disciplines,• Universities related to economic branches, public institutions, and professions like universities for agriculture, forestry and fishery; military andpublic service; architecture; journalism; and communication,• Medical and pharmaceutical universities,• Culture and art universities and universities for sports, and• Open universities, open institutes, and private universities.
Though the administrative homogeneity of tertiary education in Vietnam is making progress the institutional landscape is still very fragmented.
Some universities are under the management of the local departments of education and training or provincial people’s committees. However the general com-132

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petence standards of MOET are arduously imposed. This causes laborious coordination and approval procedures and reinforces bureaucracy, which is widespread in Vietnam. Moreover, the country’s tertiary education system is facing
an uncoordinated growth of different study programs and specializations without consistency in curricula between universities.
In the study year 2004–2005, there were 1.3 million students enrolled
in 230 universities and colleges and 35,000 master and doctoral students participating in 122 different programs. Because the demand for education is muchhigher than the supply, private and open universities and colleges, where students often have to pay high study fees, are successfully offering many programs to meet the demand.
High targets have been set up in the tertiary education development
plan. However, implementation plans have not been put down in detail. According to the governmental action plan, the following performance must be achievedin tertiary education reform by 2010 (Social Republic of Viet Nam, 2002).
• Time, entrance condition required, and graduation of all levels of tertiary
education system must be consistent nationwide• Vietnam’s tertiary education system must come closer to the international
standards. “Major trends and achievements and development experiencesin higher education in the world at the end of the 20th century and the
beginning of the 21st century represent the second grounds for Vietnam’s
education policies. It is always considered an important task to review successful educational development policies in other countries so that they
can be applied creatively to the concrete situations in Vietnam. Thanks tothis approach, perceptions and ways of thinking have been gained…In theworld of globalization and economic integration, the Government supports
the expansion of international relations to exchange views, ideas, experiences, advanced progresses in researches, studies, technologies and toenhance mutual understanding among peoples for peace, friendship andco-operation. International co-operation provides opportunities to mobilize
external resources for the development of higher education” (Ministry of
Education and Training, Higher Education Department, 2006).
• Quality improvements must be implemented basically and comprehensively in all aspects: equipment for all universities, curricula, teaching meth-133

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ods, evaluation, and cooperation with foreign university partners. The
most competitive universities should be cultivated to become academic
centers of excellence.
• Research activities in universities must be developed and fostered. Qualityof teaching and learning should be improved. Research results should beapplied in reality and knowledge and technology transfer must be
increased. Tertiary education should effectively combine training,
research, and knowledge transfer to increase the adaptability of graduateswith the labor market requirements, and to decrease the high unemployment rate of graduates.
• Management for tertiary education must be improved: standards andaccreditation should be implemented, resources should be used more
effectively and education statistics must be more comprehensive, reliable
and topical.
• By 2010, the number of students should increase from 140 in 2005 (World
Bank, 2006: 19) to 200 per 10,000 citizens, the number of master students
must increase to 38,000, and the number of doctoral students must
increase to 15,000. The proportion of lecturers in universities holding master’s degrees will be increased to 40 percent (in 2000, it was only 27 percent), and doctoral degrees must be held by 25 percent (in 2000, it was 18
percent).
Vietnam needs to travel a long way to catch up with the developed
regional and global education level in overcoming its own weaknesses in education. Some of the main weaknesses are presented in the next section.
3.2. Weaknesses and challenges of the education system in Vietnam
3.2.1.Research and studying conditions (Nguyen 2007, forthcoming)• The current curricula for students now are overloaded in terms of contents.
This is also a weakness in some other countries because lecturer and management agencies (ministries, departments, universities) always want toprovide students as much knowledge as possible. But in fact, students’time and ability to learn all the taught knowledge and skills are limited.
Another curriculum weakness is that almost all subjects focus on theory
and that many subject curricula are too detailed. Students often are weak134

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in generalizing their knowledge and in transferring it to practical problems. Vietnam’s lecturers often fail to convey to their students broad
knowledge and a consolidated understanding about a profession or a field.
Vietnamese students study much but focus only on their narrow profession. Moreover, the information provided in the lecture is sometimes outof date. All these weaknesses can be seen in the curriculum contents of
any university.
• Another weakness is the traditional routine learning methodology. Students keep following the pre-set “recipes,” like in cooking. They follow
exactly what they are told by their lecturers. Lecturers are practicing
teacher-centered methods and students learn by heart the lecture contents
without sufficient understanding. In exams students are evaluated throughtheir memory performance. Students are weak at research. They do notknow how to select a research topic, to set up a research plan, to choose a
research methodology and to evaluate the formulation of a research question, even during the initial steps.
• Vietnamese students are industrious in studying, not least because of thepressure of the examinations. From the first day of school, they get used tostressful learning programs. They have to attend classes outside school to
get more knowledge and skills to pass the examinations. Students in Vietnam nowadays seem to have only one way to enter a promising personal
future: passing the university entrance exam. Therefore, the pressure of theuniversity entrance exam is very high. Students bring their study habitsfrom high school to university. They do not have time to develop a newlearning behavior or find innovative ways to approach a topic. They also
do not have time or experience to learn from their faults. It can be said thatstudents study because they have to cope with the exams and passing theseexams is their main purpose. As a result students often know a stunning
number of facts without any appropriate understanding of the overarching
meaning and importance. At all levels from school to university, the necessary creative virtues for students are not paid enough attention. Far too
little progress is thus made in core competencies like self-confidence,
independence, ability to be critical, and social and communicative skills.

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3.2.2.University lecturers
The qualifications of many university lecturers are rather low and heterogeneous. Normally the better lecturers with good professionalism are gathered in the big universities in the cities. There are many older lecturers withlimited command of their subject. Most of them graduated from universities in
Eastern Europe decades ago and have had no chance to upgrade their knowledge so far (Tipton et al., 2003). The targets of education development of Vietnam to 2010 described above are indicating that, even when Vietnam achieves
these targets, the level of Vietnam’s tertiary education will be still far from aninternationally competitive system.
Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem said in a conference about
tertiary reform in June 2004 that the education infrastructure of universities inVietnam was thirty years behind that of other developed countries (Vietnam
News, 2004). The main reasons for the poor performance of many universities
are: low payment, shortage of research resources, and lack of scientific cooperation with other universities (especially foreign ones). Another reason is the
weakness in foreign language ability of many Vietnamese lecturers. Despite thecommon problem of language difficulty, many Vietnamese students have graduated from both foreign and domestic universities with excellent scientificachievements. However, only few of them are willing to work in Vietnameseuniversities because doing so would not give them much chance to develop
their future and career. Therefore, improving the professionalism and scientificperformance of university lecturers is as important as it is difficult to achieve(Tran, 2006).
Another problem related to the limited professionalism of university
lecturers is a particular trouble affecting many university courses. Students
sometimes bribe lecturers directly or indirectly to get higher marks or to pass
the exams. Addressing this problem is part of the resolute governmental fighton corruption (Asian Development Bank and OECD, 2006). However, the realsituation is mostly concealed and outside the view of the broad public (Tran,
1999). Recently, some cases in violating exam regulations have been reported
on some newspapers and people were very disappointed (Hoang, 2006).

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3.2.3.Quality problems
Quality of tertiary education is always a hot topic in open debates
about education reform (see, for instance, Ha, 2006). Apart from the above
mentioned points, an underdeveloped quality understanding in education isanother reason for the quality deficits. A nationwide system of indicators forobligatory standards was developed only in late 2004 to accredit universities,
departments, and study courses (Ngo, 2006). New and modern insights of a reasonable understanding of quality are elbowing arduously against traditional
input-concentrated approaches. According to this new view for educational
processes, quality is the difference between intention and delivered resourceson the one hand and the evaluated results on the other hand. To follow thisunderstanding, it is necessary to identify the input-output-quality. Since there is
not a consistent standard system with international comparability applied for thewhole country, the scoring for students’ achievements have limited value. Students holding excellent degrees may not really be excellent. This discrepancy isoften worsened by the already mentioned problem of illegal acquisition of
faked or purchased degrees.
The high unemployment of graduates in Vietnam is caused considerably by universities’ quality deficits and their lacking willingness to meet theneeds of the economy. According to the statistical data of the Ministry ofLabour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) dated on 5th May, 2006, 80 percent of the graduates are working in professions different from the subject theystudied at university (Ho Chi Minh City [HCMC] National University, 2006).
Because enterprises do not believe in the training and certificate quality comingfrom the universities, they only recruit students after an additional qualificationin specialized training institutions providing them urgently needed core competencies like independence, responsibility, creativeness, and foreign language
abilities.
3.2.4.Weaknesses in research
There is a traditional and considerable gap between teaching andresearch in universities in Vietnam. Most of universities consider teaching as
their first priority. Only when the tertiary education reform was implemented
recently, the strong connection between teaching and research was imposed.

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Enhancing of research activities inside universities is demanded as is networking with independent research institutes outside. Hanoi National University and
HCMC National University are being developed into centers of excellence.
Vietnam has a long road to go before reaching a research level at which universities play a key role in the country’s further development and where modern
teaching stems back to the lecturers’ own research practice. Most universities inVietnam lack research infrastructure like labs and information equipment, andmany libraries are in poor condition. Many subjects are based only on outdated
curricula. Many lecturers do not have their own research experiences. Only
small research projects are generally carried out in universities. In “An Open
Letter to the new Minister of MOET”, Professor Ha Van Thinh wrote that “inthe past five years, lecturers of HCMC National University had written only 1.7
articles on average, and only one research paper submitted to a global copyrightorganization had received a copyright.” * This is a common problem of all universities in Vietnam, not only the problem of HCMC National University. The
national science communities are gathered in the research institutes of the Vietnam Academy of Sciences and Technologies (VAST) and the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities (VASSH). Meanwhile, many university
lecturers do not participate in any scientific discourse (Anon, 2006). Corresponding to this, international networking is also poor, caused not least by
insufficient language capabilities. The latter is the main reason for failure to
exploit the opportunities given by accessing the huge and relatively cheap Internet sources and communication platforms.

4. Sustainable Reforms through Action Research
The weaknesses and restrictions discussed above been deeply rooted
for a long time in Vietnam’s education system; they are revealed very clearly inall education levels. In the Vietnamese training establishment, there is not yet a
new learning culture, called also a future-oriented learning culture, corresponding to the present level of development of science and technology as well as to* Laodong Newspaper, No.181, July 03, 2006

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the demands of the times. Firstly it must be affirmed that the traditional Vietnamese learning culture has two salient characteristics: it is scholastic andreproductive, and it serves the purpose of examinations almost exclusively. Thislearning culture hinders reform efforts being carried out actively in Vietnamese
education, particularly in tertiary education. Of course, it is not too difficult tofind out where the most pressing problem is and which models are suitable toapply. The most difficult thing is creating a proper learning culture. If the learning culture does not change—especially in tertiary education—the reform effort
cannot be as effective as expected. Moreover, the achievement of the education
system has not been able to meet the development requirements of the society
in the context of globalization. As mentioned above, there is no shortage ofsuitable and future-oriented initiatives on reform. These initiatives are all able
to meet the requirements of sustainable changes. Nevertheless, when implementing these tasks, we have to take into account the barriers of usual habits
and behavior in Vietnamese traditional society.
Under the conditions of national development and globalization pressures, all fundamental reforms must rapidly show their impact and effectiveness. Therefore, it will not be enough if after setting up reasonable and necessary reform targets we only wait for their slow and progressive realization
through growing generations. Beyond that, we should be more active in implementing the reform targets: reforms must be implemented first where there areunsuitable routines and traditional sluggishness and where there are opportunities for new reform experiences and sustainable effectiveness.
Because such action plans require concrete actions by people, it will
be unreasonable if at the beginning we design a plan and try to apply to thewhole country. The most important task is to encourage as many as possible ofthose working in training establishments to have meaningful changes in theirattitudes and behaviors suitable to the particularities of every specific domain.
For instance, if we want to effectively carry out sustainable reform ina central area of tertiary education, which is studying sciences scientifically inuniversities, we should have programs and plans which can meet the following
conditions:• Must be implemented in a certain location (university, department, andsubject) and should be able to point out a clear action plan for all

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identifying ageneral or initialidea
reconnaissanceor fact finding
take first action
stepplanning

evaluate
amended plantake second
action step …

participants.
• Could be implemented with current available conditions and humanresources.
• Must be oriented directly to the most pressing problems about which nearly all members are concerned.
• Must be able to create a new studying habit which can be applied in all circumstances• Must have a clear potential for sustainable development. First priority is
not how to achieve the targets but how to get sustainable changes in attitudes, habits and actions.
• Must take into account complicated social issues, benefit conflicts among
members, and how to link all the members and encourage them to contribute to their organization. Should also identify clearly the responsibilities and encourage studying activities for long term purposes.
Action research is a theory with an increasing impact on sustainable
reform. This theory can satisfy all of the above criteria. It was first developed in
the 1940s by Lewin, a German and American socio-psychologist. This theory
focused on finding sustainable solutions to the problems of social research andreform. Lewin’s viewpoint was that direct participants in the reforms must participate in an action program, in which action steps are planned carefully andcomprehensively. Figure 3 shows all the steps in that process.

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Each action has six factors, which are created successively and are
related to one another. Observing the order of these steps will ensure achievement of the target. This theory is associated with learning through experience,elaborated by Dewey (1938) and later recognized by the education science withthe planned social action model. Based on this theory, many research alternatives can be implemented to directly change the social activities. Moreover, it
can be applied in all social fields (Zuber-Skerritt, 1996). While the theory ofaction research is not applied equally in all western countries as it has been
largely preferred in the UK and Australia (Action Research Resources, 2007), it
seems to be very effective in implementing reform projects in developing countries (Huizer, 1997).
This theory’s special point, which helps distinguish it from traditional experimental social research, is that its research objects are not external passive objects; they are acting subjects who study their own activities themselves.
In other words, the research subject systematically studies his or her own activities; the research objectives are the activities of the subjects who carry out thisresearch, aiming at sustainably changing themselves and the action system inwhich they participate based on their expected targets. The basic schema
describes the cycle of realizing research based on action research theory following the spiral in which each grade comprises six steps with the following contents (O’Brien, 1998).
• Step 1: A given situation should be changed, so it is studied by researchersor participants (or insiders) and then the core issue is identified andexpressed clearly and exactly.
• Step 2: Collect information to be able to describe carefully the core of theresearch issue.
• Step 3: Discuss solutions and build a tool kit to evaluate; systematicallystudy steps to solve the problem.
• Step 4: Test the most promising solutions.
• Step 5: Evaluate the achieved results together.
• Step 6: Analyze the achievements, find new problems to be solved in thenext steps.
The next step will be a higher level in the spiral and another process
will begin similarly. Action research occurs continuously in this pattern.

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The techniques here are rather simple. The researchers do not study
the actions and behaviors of the research objects (other people), and then basedon research results explain and show the research objects what they should andshould not do. Instead, the researchers—or the insiders—do the research about
their own behaviors, actions, and problems and then find solutions to those
problems. By learning how to solve their own problems, the researchers will beable to improve their own behaviors and actions with their own exclusive strategies. They do not need outside influence. Like in any other systematic and positive studying activities, results can be achieved only with certain conditions.
The direct participants must have a certain autonomy and be equipped withbasic professional qualifications, for example, methods for organizing gradualproject implementation and systematic measures in supervising the process ofproject implementation. Indirect participants must actively support this process.
If the above-mentioned conditions are met, all the criteria of sustainable reform will be satisfied. Of course, this theory can only be applied to specific aspects or fields, where concrete experience can be learnt. This is also a
issue of the theory of action research: at first it has only local influence. Like allother bottom-up strategies, it also faces the question of how to make the strategy’s impact reach beyond the limit of direct participants. In contrast, all experience drawn from top-down reform indicates that such reforms may lead tostructural changes or changes in actions and behaviors. However, such topdown reforms also reveal that stimulations from outside often meet obstacles
and become ineffective where there exist sluggish conservative routines andingrained behaviors. In such cases, there is no chance for “learning by doing” asindicated by the theory of action research.
The two reform orientations (top-down and bottom-up) are neither
opposite nor exclusive to each other; they should supplement each other effectively in order that the reform can deploy its effect more widely. In addition, thebottom-up reform strategy, as mentioned in the theory of action research, needs
to have appropriate conditions in terms of organization structure (the independence of each member, conditions and ability to approach information, current
conditions to experiment with the reform and avoid unnecessary risks) to beable to develop itself.
The two basic factors of action research, to study a) systematically142

Sustainable Education Development under Globalization,……

through b) practicing research on subjects’ own actions, are finding their ideal
realization environment where just these purposes are institutionalized: in education institutions in general (Hermes, 2001) and in universities in particular.
Finally, the real problems here are to teach and to learn with strict scientificmethods and for both the lecturers and students to keep studying and researching continuously (Nguyen and Muszynski, 2004).
This is the most successful studying strategy developed so far. In thescope of this study, we will expect an improvement in studying method, not agood studying result. Strict scientific rules, systematic analysis, and correct
answers covering effective and long-term studying models are all the strengthsof the model discussed in this paper.

5. Framework Concept for Reforming Teaching and Learning Methods in Teacher Training
The set of principles of action research reveals a simple to understandstrategy for sustainably reforming teacher training institutions in their coretasks: self-researching the subject’s own actions in improving teaching andlearning methods as a scientific learning process.
The research problem is not imposed from outside but is an issue
coming from inside the participating actors. The action subjects are studying
themselves and the research object is the subjects’ own doing. The order of necessary steps in an action research project can be shown briefly as follows:• Step 1: Define which current teaching/learning methods in a concrete
study subject/course/study task are problematic from the viewpoints of thepersons directly affected (students and lecturers) and what should bechanged in which direction.
• Step 2: Find out what the main obstacles are to overcome the definedproblems.
• Step 3: Decide what the new teaching/learning methods should look like,how they could be carried out, and how to analyze with scientific methods
the experiences which are made and what could be a concrete and feasible
reform project.
• Step 4: Carry out the reform project, which is simultaneously accompanied

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by self-research based on scientific standards.
• Step 5: Evaluate the achieved results of the project in terms of: (i) the experiences and insights achieved and (ii) whether the empirical research results
reflect the process of the project adequately. Is there any major difference
between the experience of the participants and the scientific evaluation?
• Step 6: Determine what has been achieved by the results regarding the initial project goals. How can we improve the accompanying research inusing additional or modified problem formulation or empirical instruments? What should be the connecting project?
As discussed briefly regarding action research projects, some conditions are required to implement such projects. Firstly, apart from the direct participation of students and lecturers, we need the supportive participation of
authorities and service providers inside the university. This participation isespecially important for sustainability. Another important prerequisite is a qualification of all directly affected persons. They have to learn beforehand how torecognize and apply:(i) The basic methods to practice team activities in partial independence (theconcrete targets are not pre-set, the implementation method is not regulated, and there is no continuous outside supervision),(ii) Methods and techniques for empirical research on a basic level, and(iii) Careful documentation of the project courses and easy-to-understandreporting for everyone outside the project.
The mentioned methods, instruments and techniques are easy to learn
in a short time on the necessary basic level and can be made available for students and lecturers of all subject areas. By doing so, the benefits of the projectwill be much greater in comparison to the efforts undertaken. Thanks to their
excellent learning capacity, scientific self-learning projects have the potential toenable any institution—especially teacher training institutions—to become alearning institution at all levels.
This paper is not the place to deal with the framework conditions fornecessary content elements, pragmatism, and project design. These conditions
should be considered and paid careful attention in the action research project(see for details in Nguyen and Muszynski, 2004). In order to have sustainable
reform in tertiary education in Vietnam in general and in teacher training in par-144

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ticular, the following closing remarks should be focused upon.
• Self-researching reform projects suits well to developing countries like
Vietnam because the process can be applied under limited conditions ofequipment and qualified human resources, like the situation of teacher
training institutions in Vietnam.
• Adaptability with current available and restricted conditions and little supplementary requirements is possible because these projects do not needgreat scientific efforts and achievements. The scientific results do not provide the learning success. Rather, the experiences from carrying out the
project are important. Even errors and mistakes can be fruitful learning
elements.
• Reform processes are always reflected in detail through the accompanying
scientific research; the whole project always remains under the commandof the participants. It is their own problem, addressed and controlled bythemselves, which is a much better approach than being confronted with
instructions from outside. It has been empirically established that externally motivated reform requests suffer from short expiry dates.
• Action research projects also bring multiple valuable sub-results. If theseprojects are implemented effectively, the reform work will bring students,
lecturers, management, and service suppliers together so that effective andinnovative communication structures will spread and a common understanding about the university’s goals can be found.
Even if these projects have not been successful in all aspects at the
beginning, the mid- and long-term learning achievements are still meaningful.
Finally, it should be underlined again that the purpose of the projects describedabove is not to create a “definitely reformed” teacher training institution but an
institution with better learning capacity—an institution that is able to conduct
self-reforms continuously.

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