An Analysis of the Content, Policies and Assessment of ICT Curricula in the Final Years of Secondary Schooling in Australia and Vietnam: A Comparative Educational Study

Abstract

This paper explores and analyses similarities and differences in ICT curricula, policies, and assessment between the Vietnamese and Australian educational systems for the final years of secondary educational level. It was found that while having a common core set of tendencies, the Australian ICT curricula, policies, and assessments differ markedly from the Vietnamese counterparts. These differences can be explained by economic and cultural factors, national-wide educational trends, ICT strategies, and their degrees of implementation in schools. We found that limited constructivist implementations are used in ICT curricula in both countries, as Australian education has high expectations in national evaluations with an emphasis on standardized tests and Vietnamese education is still entrapped in prescriptive lessons of traditional pedagogy, emphasizing transmission model of information. We found that lack of opportunities in teacher professional development in ICT training is common for both countries. While the Australian educational system still struggles, especially in providing opportunities for learning theoretical and programming aspects, multiple challenging aspects were found in the ICT content and policies of the Vietnamese educational system that call for immediate change and improvement. In this sense, Vietnamese administrators are recommended to extensively follow up their educational strategies and policies, in order to make sure that their reforms are adequately implemented in schools. In order to bridge the gap and implement adequate ICT curricula, rigorous professional training in ICT teaching is essential for both Australian and Vietnamese teachers.