VARIATIONS IN FATTY ACID COMPOSITION OF TEA LEAVES (CAMELLIA SINENSIS) DUE TO PLUCKING TIME AND CULTIVARS

Fatty acid in green tea leaves is important flavour precursor which has a negative effect onaroma quality of black teas. In this study, fatty acid composition of three cultivars includingShan Chat Tien, Trung Du and PH11 plucked at different time was analyzed by GC-MS/MS.The results showed that C16:0, C18:2, C18:1, C18:0 and C18:3 were the most abundant fattyacids indentified in tea leaves. In particular, total saturated fatty acid in the tea leaves plucked inJune and September was higher than total unsaturated fatty acid and vice versa for sampleplucked in March. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that fatty acid compositions insamples plucked in June of three cultivars were similar to each other and they were characterizedby C18:0, C22:0 and C20:0. The sample plucked in March and in September were characterizedby C18:1, C18:2 and C18:3, andC18:1, C16:1, C18:0, C14:1 and C14:0; respectively. Thesample plucked in March had the highest total fat content followed by sample plucked inSeptember and June. The results showed that plucking time and cultivars significantlyinfluenced the fatty acid composition of tea leaves

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING STAFF AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM IN THE CURRENT PHASE

Thai Nguyen University in Vietnam identifies improving the quality of the foreign language teaching staff as one of the priority tasks in the development strategy, training advanced and modern human resources to serve the economic, political, cultural, and social development needs of the midland and northern mountainous regions. Despite certain achievements, due to its unique characteristics, Thai Nguyen University is facing numerous challenges, especially in terms of the foreign language faculty, which is deficient and weak compared to the requirements. To meet the needs of training and cultivating foreign language teachers in the future, it is necessary to conduct research to accurately assess the current situation and propose solutions to improve the quality of the foreign language teaching staff.  Article visualizations

Current Status of Elderly Social Support Services in Elderly Care Centers in Hanoi

The Article aims to elaborate and analyze the current status of social support services for the elderly in general and semi-professional social work services provided in care centers in Hanoi in particular today. The centers subject to the investigation include Social Protection Center 3 Hanoi, Dien Hong Nursing Home, Bach Nien Thien Duc Elderly Care Center, and Social Protection Center 2 Hanoi. The service performance is determined based on the satisfaction of the needs of the elderly group. The results evidence that from the point of view of the elderly, “the need for medical care, examination and treatment is the highest among other needs of the elderly (with 149 votes, taking up 64.2%), from the point of view of social support workers, the need for “someone to share their feelings” is the highest (with 144 votes, taking up 77.4%). The services subject to assessment and review to the extent of the Article include (1) Consultancy; (2) Legal aid; (3) Supporting the elderly in the integration; (4) Communication. The frequency of rendered services changes at the “sometimes received by the elderly” level, approx. 50% on average. The level of performance as assessed by the elderly and social workers is at a medium and quite high level, ranging from 2.26 to 3.30 and from 1.98 (high) to 3.1 (medium), respectively.  Keywords: the elderly, social support services, care centers DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-20-04 Publication date:October 31st 202

BUILDING A PUBLIC SERVICE CULTURE FOR OFFICIALS AND CIVIL SERVANTS IN THÁI NGUYÊN PROVINCE IN THE LIGHT OF THE 1943 TREATISE ON VIETNAMESE CULTURE

Building a public service culture within state administrative agencies will contribute to creating an environment where each official and civil servant continuously learns and improves, deserving to be public servants who respect and serve the public for their benefit. Through this process, a close relationship is established between state administrative agencies and the public, showcasing the cultural beauty of a civilized and modern administration.  Article visualizations

Faculty evaluation in higher education: a theory-of-action case study in Vietnam

The growth in neoliberal or market-driven higher education has challenged traditional approaches to evaluating faculty members. The involvement of multiple stakeholders (i.e., accreditation bodies, quality assurance officers, administrators, teaching faculty, and students) has led to different and sometimes conflicting needs in faculty evaluation. While extant literature generally suggests that faculty evaluation in contemporary higher education is strongly associated with accountability purposes, little is known about how key agents at the institutional level use evaluation for learning and improvement. Thus, this study attempts to identify the approaches to faculty evaluation that promote learning and improvement in higher education. This study is a qualitative case study of Vietnamese higher education student evaluation of teaching (SET) and voting evaluation practices. It adopts the problem-based methodology (Robinson, 1993; Robinson & Lai, 2006) to investigate the theories of action of some key stakeholders of these faculty evaluation practices in Vietnam. The theories of action comprise the stakeholders’ approaches to faculty evaluation, together with the constraints (that rule in or rule out specific approaches) and the consequences of the approaches. Participants included four quality assurance officers, 18 administrators, and 20 faculty members from seven public higher education institutions in Vietnam. The theories of action about faculty evaluation were constructed based on interviews and key evaluation documents. Overall, the participants took three main approaches to faculty evaluation: (i) complying with the expected evaluation procedures and roles, (ii) taking a harmony-oriented and unilateral approach to problem solving, and (iii) disengaging from evaluation for learning and improvement. The participants generally fulfilled the evaluation policy requirements, but their approaches had a limited impact on learning and improvement at the institutional level. The constraint analysis suggests that the participants’ approaches were not completely passive but were mainly oriented to managerial accountability demands (Røiseland et al., 2015). The participants’ collectivist Confucian harmony-oriented norms hindered their approaches to problem solving and using evaluation for learning and improvement. However, there were a few participants who acted on their own values rather than being confined by political and cultural constraints. In spite of its scarcity, these participants’ self-reliant approach suggests a potential influence of Buddhist principles of self-transformation, contextuality and reflexivity on improving practices (Chu & Vu, 2021; Thich Nhat Hanh, 1987). The study has two key implications. First, it suggests the improvement of faculty evaluation policymaking and implementation by revising several existing constraints and by adding some cultural and individual constraints to the current theories of action. The faculty evaluation problems could be solved by improving the quality of evaluation processes and data, reconceptualising SET and voting evaluation, and treating faculty members’ underperformance as a collective problem. Second, the study suggests a framework to predict the likely success of future intervention on faculty evaluation. For instance, faculty evaluation for learning and improvement will be more feasible if policymakers and implementers prioritise transformational purposes and make joint efforts to foster dialogues and collaboration among individuals and groups. My study also highlights the need to understand faculty evaluation, and possibly other higher education practices in Vietnam, in religious contexts and from individual participants’ spiritual values or philosophical backgrounds. The study implications are applicable to Vietnamese higher education and potentially to other educational settings with similar characteristics

The development of a conceptual framework and model of sexual health education in upper secondary schools in northern Viet Nam

The development of a conceptual framework and model for sexual health education in upper secondary schools in Northern Viet Nam Nearly half the Vietnamese population is under 25 years, and among this group, there is a rapidly rising incidence HIV and STD’s. There is an urgent need to develop strategies to improve young people’s knowledge and understanding of sexual health. Currently, teachers lack the knowledge and confidence to effectively teach sexual health and there was no conceptual framework underpinning the curriculum (Thanh, 2010). This study developed a conceptual framework and model for sexual health education programmes for upper secondary schools in North Viet Nam and made recommendations for education policy and practice. The study methods were based on the first cycle in action research, an approach recognised in Viet Nam for changing professional practice. Key to this study was Jarvis’ (2004) description of lifelong learning, Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning cycle and Problem Based Learning teaching documentation and discussions with Vietnamese government officials and NGO’s working in sexual health. The findings revealed that most pupils did not understand or did not practice safe sex, and all wanted more knowledge and information. Teachers reported limited knowledge and a reluctance to teach this subject. When the new conceptual framework and models were piloted, they were seen as accessible, acceptable and appropriate for the education system in Viet Nam, and demonstrated measurable changes in teaching and learning. The study is unique, in that it was designed with ministerial support for strategic implementation and sustainability. The Vietnamese government has accepted it. At their instigation, the research is already being used by an international working group for sexual health education in schools. It is also being used by a second international group, working to improve nurse education, and as a result is being piloted in undergraduate nursing programmes

Credit access in the Northern Mountainous Region of Vietnam: do ethnic minorities matter?

By using the Bayesian Approach to address the problem of model uncertainty and a binary logit regression, this paper examines the credit accessibility of ethnic minority households compared to Kinh households in one of the poorest regions of Vietnam–the Northern Mountainous Region. Analyses show that minorities have more disadvantages compared to the Kinh majority in terms of household endowments. Ethnic minorities are still much more limited to accessing overall rural credit, commercial credit and informal credit compared to the Kinh majority population. Although ethnic minorities are more likely to access preferential credit, they receive a smaller amount of loans in comparison to the Kinh households irrespective of loan sources. This study builds on previous research that shows that the lack of access to affordable credit can make it very difficult for the ethnic minorities to expand agricultural production and their household’s livelihoods. Unless constraints with credit access are addressed, ethnic minorities might not benefit from the sustainable development of the country. Therefore, an improvement in access to credit and other resources needs more concern by national poverty reduction policies targeting ethnic minorities