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Other students struggle to solve the brainteaser, unused to the unorthodox
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Either way, the students enjoy the battle of wits involved, or the puzzle Hanoi for $900,000 swindle
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box” and the application of lateral thinking in the business world. oil from CNV field in Vietnam

I usually follow this conundrum with English language riddles. Vietnam, France strive for
closer ties
A good example being: “A man came into town on Friday. He stayed three
nights and left on Friday. How did he do this?”

Once again, the majority of students struggle to come to grips with the
lateral thinking involved to reach the solution.

Thanh Nien
Editor-in-Chief: Nguyen
Cong Khe
248 Cong Quynh St . ,
Distr. 1, Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam.
Tel: 84 8 8 394 046
Fax: 84 8 8 322 025
Thanh Nien is the
tribune of Vietnam’s
Youth Association
Publication permit No.
14/GP-BC, granted by Press
Department, Vietnam Ministry
of Culture and Information.
However, once they are let in on the answer, and given subsequent riddles,
they soon adapt to the leftfield brainwork required to solve these
conundrums and their success rate invariably improves.
Finally, a further example of the limitations of current Vietnamese education
methods arises whenever I ask students of any age to submit a piece of
creative writing.
Having given them free reign to write on any subject matter and take any
approach, the students seem at a loss and a litany of questions usually
follow: “What do you want us to do exactly?;” “Write about what?;” “How
many words?”
The average Vietnamese student, it would seem, has grown accustomed to
having a set of rules or constraints – a box – within which to think.

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The mindless “by rote” approach This is undoubtedly a product of the rote
learning methodology that still prevails in Vietnamese schools, a teaching
credo that was abandoned in countries such as the UK long ago.

Living next to a Vietnamese high school, each morning I hear the teacher
bawling over a microphone the lesson of the day – be it traditional Russian
songs translated into Vietnamese, basic English phrases, or the history of
Tran Hung Dao.

The students repeat the lesson until it is deemed to have sunk in.

My own students tell me that pupils are often made to learn by heart
traditional poems and other historic screeds, which have little in the way of
relevance to modern life.

HR headaches for foreign investors

The inability of the current generation of graduates to solve problems and

make decisions through critical thinking is now surfacing in the human
resources (HR) sector.

At the Vietnam Business Forum in Hanoi last December, the Australian

Chamber of Commerce (AusCham) lamented the fact that few graduates
had the necessary skills to enter the workplace without additional training.

AusCham cited a lack of focus on analytical skills as one of the major

shortcomings of Vietnam’s higher education system.

Last week at the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham), foreign

investors bemoaned the shortage of skilled workers to fill roles in their
companies.

Thanh Nien quoted EuroCham board member Mark Van Den Assem as
saying that young personnel were usually not confident enough to take
over managerial posts, while subordinates doubted their capabilities.

Critical thinking skills are vital for effective problem-solving and decision-
making, allowing individuals to react to difficult situations by weighing the
evidence and reacting in a measured and beneficial way.

As well as intellectual skills, other traits found in good critical thinkers

include empathy, humility, and autonomy.

Enquiring minds wanted

The long-term solution for Vietnam is an overhaul of the Vietnamese

education system.

This means a willingness to employ modern teaching methodologies that

encourage students to look critically at what they study and form opinions,
rather than merely learning facts in a doctrinaire fashion and repeating
them verbatim.

Time must also be set aside for students to foster their creativity.

Rather than restricting thought to a narrow set of theories to be applied

intractably, Vietnam’s students need to acquire traits more suited to the
modern workplace – flexibility, dynamism, and a healthy spirit of inquiry.

Such traits can be developed within high schools and universities by

allowing students a more active approach to their studies.

Put simply, that means being allowed to raise your hand and ask questions.

A good student should come to class armed with a series of queries by

which to test their teacher and the status quo.

As the Nobel prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein once said: “the

important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for
existing.”

Reported by Neil Fitzgerald

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