The NIE’s higher education mentor Khin Vandy has develops some key learning resources for educators. PHOTO SUPPLIED
Many works written or edited by Khin Vandy have been published over the past four years, and many students or avid readers from all walks of life have probably already read his works, especially educators, whether they recognise his name or not.
Hailing from Kor village of Po Romchak commune in Takeo province’s Prey Kabas district, Vandy holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in philosophy and began his career as a teacher in 2015.
Today, Vandy also holds the position of higher education mentor at the National Institute of Education (NIE). He has used his insights as a teacher and student of philosophy to write or compile as editor key policy documents and training materials that serve as a learning resource for educators as his main focus is on training teachers to meet their full potential as “human resource producers” for the Kingdom.
“We had some documents on this subject but they were all scattered and there wasn’t a good compilation of them so I gathered them together to make it easier for pedagogical students as well as teachers to read up on the subject. I want educators to understand students and not blame them or their parents when something goes wrong while forgetting to take responsibility for it themselves,” he said.
Vandy added that the concept of “do as the teacher says, not as the teacher does” is no longer an effective way of doing things because teachers must be role models for their students.
Vandy’s first book “Teaching Methods” is a 352-page volume on the subject published by the NIE in 2019 that describes the latest innovations in the field of education.
“Teachers will gain an understanding of the elements necessary for the process of teaching and learning effectively, tips on classroom management and methods such as posing questions, teaching in a discussion style that encourages student participation, collaborative teaching methods and how to evaluate student work,” he said.
His second book, “Classroom Management”, is a 341-page compilation of essays on the subject published in August of 2020 to help teachers in Cambodia better understand how to create a positive classroom environment that encourages learning.
In addition to providing helpful advice for teachers, the book also has wisdom for students and parents to better understand how to manage their own behaviour or their children’s to enhance learning and teaching success.
“The preparation of this compilation in the Khmer language is done in the spirit of support with the aim of complementing the classroom management approach for teachers to make learning and teaching more effective … I have extracted the contents of the book from works written in a foreign context, but the writings in this book do not refer to any specific class or country,” he said.
The third work that many Cambodians have read and studied is a 374-page volume titled “Philosophy of Education” that was first published on August 18, 2021.
The book focuses on ideas that are foundational to the process of transferring knowledge or gaining wisdom in accordance with the learner’s intellectual abilities as well as the development of critical thinking skills and effective cognitive strategies.
It is a wide-ranging survey of ideas that briefly touches on each subject and provides insight into numerous topics such as the knowledge and skills that everyone should learn, the goals of education, how knowledge differs from belief, how humans as a species differ from animals, the limits of human potential and many other “big picture” questions.
Vandy plans to publish his next work, “Teaching Strategies”, in December.
“My next book is intended to help supplement the methods that teachers have studied in the past in order to make teaching and learning in their classrooms more effective, with a broad goal of improving the quality of education.
“Teachers should always be reading and researching new information related to the education profession to strengthen their abilities because they are educators, and if they are not willing to learn new things themselves, how can they expect their students to do so?,” said the author.
