MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VIETNAM NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
NGUYEN THI HUONG LAN
ASSESSMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS'
CREATIVE COMPETENCE IN CREATING
ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING
Major: Theory and methodology of teaching
Code: 9 14 01 11
SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS
HANOI, 2022
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The thesis is completed at:
The Vietnam National Institute of Educational Sciences
Supervisors:
1. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Hong Van
2. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Hoa Binh
Reviewer 1: ....................................................................
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Reviewer 2: ....................................................................
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Reviewer 3: ....................................................................
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This thesis shall be defended at the Thesis Examination Committee at the institute level,
The Vietnam National Institute of Educational Sciences, 101 Tran Hung Dao street, Ha
Noi, at ……… h……… dated ……… year ………
This thesis is available at:
- The national library of Vietnam
- The library of the Vietnam National Institute of Educational Sciences
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INTRODUCTION
1. Reasons for choosing the topic
1.1. The world is witnessing the fourth industrial revolution with the powerful and
miraculous development of technology that has changed many aspects of social life. Borderless
technological innovations have sparked significant changes around the world. The root of that
positive development comes from the increased capacity of people. That is also why the
requirement to develop human competencies has become an educational goal of global
significance. Among those competencies, it is impossible not to mention creative competence.
Thanks to creative competence, people can face challenges in life. Creative competence is also
a condition for people to overcome what they already have, conquer more remarkable
achievements, and promote the progress of society.
1.2. In the general context of the world, Vietnam is facing conditions and opportunities
to take advantage of the fourth industrial revolution to accelerate the industrialization and
modernization of the country. But in fact, breakthrough innovations also pose many challenges
when the paradigm shift takes place in all aspects of society, including the education system.
That requires us not only to learn from the educational experiences of developed countries but
also to apply those experiences creatively, to find our own development path suitable to the
country's speciâ. Orientation to solve this issue, Resolution 29/NQ-TW dated November 4th,
2013 of the Party on the fundamental and comprehensive renovation of education and training,
Vietnam Education Development Strategy 2011-2020, and Law on Education 2019 (Article
29) show that in parallel with the teaching of knowledge, the development of creative
competence is considered as an important issue in human education.
1.3. In 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training announced the General Education
Curriculum, including the Overall Education Curriculum and the Program of Subjects and
Experiential Activities. This is one of the biggest changes in the 2018 General Education
Curriculum compared to the 2006 General Education Curriculum. The core of change is to shift
the teaching process from content-oriented (mainly knowledge-based) to development-oriented
of dignity and competence for learners. Integrating into that flow, the Literature subject with the
characteristic of being an instrumental and humanistic subject not only assumes the goal of
developing the specific competencies of the subject but also has to work towards the
development of general dignities and competencies, including creative competence.
1.4. Developing creative competence is extremely important for students; the Literature
subject is also a subject with many hidden "ores" to be able to "sustainably exploit" to develop
creative competence. Many students and teachers also aspire to express themselves on the
creative path,... However, assessing students' creative competence with diverse learning
products and requirements for creating and receiving texts is still a big question needed to be
answered step by step. That is why we chose the topic "Assessment of high school students'
creative competence in creating argumentative writing" with the desire to contribute a voice on
the issue of developing creative competence - one of the most important goals of the current
general education reform.
2. Research goals
Based on theoretical and practical research on creative competence in creating
argumentative writing, and assessing high school students’ creative competence in creating
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argumentative writing, the thesis proceeds to build assessment standards and design assessment
tools that are open-ended questions to assess high school students' creative competence in
creating argumentative writing, contributing to the renewal of assessment of learning outcomes
in the Literature subject at high schools in the direction of developing learners' competencies.
3. Research object and tasks
3.1. Research object
The object of the thesis is the assessment of creative competence in creating
argumentative texts of high school students.
3.2. Research tasks
- Determining the theoretical and practical basis of assessment of creative competence in
creating argumentative texts of high school students;
- Determining orientations and foundations for building assessment standards and
assessment tools of creative competence in creating argumentative texts of high school
students;
- Developing assessment standards and assessment tools of creative competence in
creating argumentative texts of high school students;
- Implementing pedagogical experiments to initially confirm the feasibility and
reliability of assessment standards and assessment tools of creative competence in creating
argumentative texts of high school students that the thesis proposes.
4. Research scope
The topic is only limited to the scope of building tools to assess creative competence in
creating argumentative writing of high school students, meeting the goal of assessing creative
competence of the 2018 Literature Program; mainly focus on open-ended questions, which is
the most appropriate tool in assessing students’ creative competence; experimental content is
conducted in grades 10 and 11.
5. Research methods
In the process of implementing the thesis, a combination of the following research group
methods was used, including Theoretical research methods, Practical research methods,
Pedagogical experimental methods, and some other methods.
6. Scientific hypotheses
Creating argumentative texts in high schools is the process by which learners express
their personal opinions and views on an issue in life or a literary work. This process clearly
shows the creative imprint of each individual. Therefore, if the assessment standard is
developed and the assessment tool as the system of open-ended questions is well used, students
will be encouraged and created opportunities to demonstrate their creative competence in the
process of creating argumentative texts, at the same time, performing the role and function of
students' competence assessment activities, including creative competence.
7. New contributions of thesis
- In theory: The thesis systematized research achievements on the assessment of creative
competence in creating argumentative writing in the direction of competence development;
presenting the concept of creative competence in creating argumentative writing; determining
the components and expression of creative competence in creating argumentative writing. The
research results of the thesis contribute to supplementing the theories of creative competence,
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evaluating creative competence in general, and evaluating creative competence in creating
argumentative writing in high schools.
- In practice: The thesis proposed assessment standards of creative competence in
creating argumentative writing, and designed open-ended questions to evaluate the creative
competence in creating argumentative writing used in two forms of regular assessment and
periodical assessment, contributing to the goal’s achievement of developing learners’ dignities
and competence according to the requirements of the 2018 General Education Curriculum in
the Literature subject.
8. Thesis structure
In addition to the introduction, conclusions and recommendations, references, and
appendix, the thesis is structured into 03 chapters.
Chapter I - Theoretical basis of assessment of creative competence in creating
argumentative writing of high school students
Chapter II - Development of assessment standards and assessment tools of creative
competence in creating argumentative writing of high school students
Chapter III - Pedagogical experiment
CHAPTER 1. THEORETICAL BASIS OF ASSESSMENT OF CREATIVE
COMPETENCE IN CREATING ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING OF HIGH SCHOOL
STUDENTS
1.1. Overview of issue research
1.1.1. Studies of creative competence
By studying a number of research works of foreign authors such as J.P. Guiford,
Holland (1959), Blom, Getzels, L.X. Vygotsky, M.N. Sacdacop, G. Polia, E.P. Torrance, May
(1961), Mackinnon D.W, Yahamoto (1963), E.P. Torrance (1965), Barron, Blom, Getzels,
Helmholtz,... and some Soviet (former) authors such as A.N. Luck, V.N. Pushkin, B.M.
Kedrop, M.G. Larosepsky, G.S. Klostul and N.A. Mensinxkaia, X.L. Rubinstein, X.L.
Vygosky, N.G. Alexayep, Ia. Derner, E.M. Maiarski…. and in Vietnam such as Phan Dung
(1992); Pham Van Hoan (1967); Nguyen Canh Toan, Nguyen Van Le, Chau An (2004), Le
Hai Yen (2008), Nguyen Trong Hoan (2016), Nguyen Ba Kim, Vu Duong Thuy, Nguyen Ke
Hao, Vu Quoc Chung, Tran Hiep, Do Long, Ton Than, Tran Luan, Nguyen Huy Tu, Duc Uy
Tran Tuan Lo, Huynh Van Son (2009), Tran Viet Dung (2013), Tran Thi Bich Lieu (2013),
Pham Thi Bich Dao (2014), Hoang Hoa Binh (1997), Nguyen Thi Hong Van (2017),... it can
be seen that the issues of creative competence are studied mainly in the psychological aspect as
creative thinking, and studied primarily on conjunction with other issues, in many different
scientific fields. There is still a lack of applications in each specific area, not going into the
study of the structure, nature, characteristics and working mechanism of creative thinking. The
studies on creative competence in the Literature subject are the necessary suggestions so that
the author can continue to delve into the study of creative competence in each specific content
circuit of the subject.
1.1.2. Studies of creative competence in creating argumentative writing
Related to this issue, we conducted a research on several authors’ works, such as Katie
Larsen MacClarty and Matthew N. Gaertner (2015), Barbara E. Walvoord, Melanie Williams,