This study aims to categorize and analyze goals of geographical education, high school world geography textbooks and curriculum. To date, few papers compare geographical education in Korea with geographical education in Vietnam. In particular, it is w...
This study aims to categorize and analyze goals of geographical education, high school world geography textbooks and curriculum. To date, few papers compare geographical education in Korea with geographical education in Vietnam. In particular, it is worth to conduct research on education between these two nations because they cooperate with each other on education. Comparing education in this sphere between them is helpful for understanding education in both countries. Generally, there are three basic differences between prior studies: the subject study is the goals of geographical education, its curriculum and textbook in Korea and Vietnam. The previous studies have not paid much attention to this topic.
Through the analysis of geographical education in Korea and Vietnam, the following conclusions were drawn.
First, it could be seen that overall the goals of geographical education in both countries are divided into three areas: knowledge, function and attitude. As to the first, Korean education emphasizes the history of this territory, but Vietnamese education concentrate on the environment improvement. In terms of function, although both countries' education is supposed to be creative, Vietnamese education try to develop the ability to use the received knowledge among students. As for the attitude, the main goal here is to develop patriotism and corresponding way of thinking toward the national territory.
Second, we can draw commonalities and differences about the geography curriculum of the two countries. Geography in Vietnam is divided into national geography, system geography, and world geography. However, the Korean program include national geography, system geography, world geography and travel geography. Besides, in Korea Geography is a compulsory subject in elementary and middle school, but in high school it is an optional subject. Unlike Korea, geography from elementary to high school in Vietnam is designated as a compulsory subject. The common feature of the two countries' geography curriculum is that the level of difficulty of learning varies by class, and that the teaching is mainly focusing on national geography.
Third, geography textbooks in both countries use maps, photographs, graphs and tables. Korean geography textbooks also mention Vietnam, while Vietnamese geography textbooks also mention Korea. Analyzing world geography textbooks in both countries, we first looked at the information about Europe in two countries' geography textbooks. They choose France, Germany and other European states, presenting historical materials. Naturally, world geography textbooks from both countries have differences. Unlike Korea, where various publishers can publish geography textbooks, in Vietnam only so-called Educational Publishing Company has monopoly on publishing geography textbooks. The national education regulations also change the policy of publishing textbooks. Geography textbooks of the two countries have differences in structure, format and number of pages.