METHINK

METHINK Project was launched by Stepforward Education with a view to empowering youths with critical thinking to boost media literacy, amid the growing infodemic. According to the report on the 2025 Top 10 skills from the World Economic Forum, critical thinking is proven to be one of the most important skills for employees. However, in Vietnam, the teaching of this skill is sorely limited.

The multi-media and wide-ranging project sought to instil critical thinking skills into selected high school students across Vietnam and with priority given to vulnerable groups. Tremendous attempts were made to reach out to underrepresented groups via NGOs and informal groups, especially those from the central highlands and the northernmost provinces of Vietnam. Financial support was provided to those without access to stable internet connections during the entire course. The project consists of four parts: METHINK Training Course, METHINK Minicourse, METHINK Public Workshop and METHINK Mentoring.

METHINK Training Course

There were two phases in METHINK Training Course totalling 30-hour courses spanning 5 days each with an attendance of 85 participants from 43 provinces across 10 ethnic groups throughout Vietnam. In comparison with other soft skills training courses in Vietnam, it seems to be uncommonly long. METHINK, on the contrary, provided invaluable advantages to participants. On top of that, the core values of the program, openness to and appreciation of diversity were highlighted.

During the course, students were primarily educated on reflection, critical thinking and public speaking. The first phase focused on debating questions on media consumption whereas the second one focused on social media.

For the first batch, the instructor imparted debating skills to students. Additionally, participants had a chance to attend a workshop with a senior journalist. The highlight of the project for all students is definitely the mini-debate competition, where they can apply all the knowledge to real circumstances and get feedback little by little for their work. Students had the chance to discuss a wide array of topics, such as the right to be forgotten, education models, gender discrimination, etc.

For the second group, the teaching of media literacy was approached differently by Tung Nguyen and Linh Ha, who drew attention to the unbiased and inclusive creation of media. Moreover, students in the second phase had a meeting with Vung – a Youtuber, and Key Opinion Leader (KOL) who had many exciting stories about studying and her wonderful journey of being on social media. While the first batch’s progress was measured by pre-training and post-training tests, the second batch’s evaluation method was solely through reflection journals.

While offering workshops and training, METHINK also focused on learning by doing and peer-to-peer instruction. Participants were divided into three or four-member teams either to debate or to discuss topics. Therefore, all of them had the chance to speak in public and practice critical thinking while making new friends. Furthermore, a mini-challenge to create hashtags that represent METHINK helped them review and reflect on their studying process. And finally, most of the students confirmed that METHINK was a watershed course in which they could gain indispensable skills and made remarkable progress.

At the end of the course, a storytelling competition was held for students to work on their mini-projects and present them to everyone. A mini-project comprises an eye-catching poster and a related 200-word statement. During the completion period, students always received step-by-step guidance and consultation from instructors. All of these mini-projects will be included in the METHINK Project publication by Step Forward Education. Different awards were conferred upon the most engaged and most improving participants in each batch.

METHINK Project publication (soft copy): HERE

METHINK Minicourse

Following the successful courses, METHINK Minicourse – a shorter course with similar objectives was organized for students at secondary schools in Vietnam. It was a three-session training that emphasized attitudes and behaviours, mindset for era 4.0, and social media issues.

Students at Minicourse were actively engaged when participating in the project. Minh Nhat – Minicourse’s instructor gave students lots of real-life scenarios and stimulated them to use critical thinking to solve some problems on thinking mistakes, word using misunderstandings, information ‘traps’. After having gained relevant knowledge, students were divided into teams, prepared for their featured task, carefully completed and presented these creative outcomes to the entire class.

METHINK Lecture: Health and Disinformation

One of the most impressive guest speakers was Mr Ngo Toan – a widely known educator in the field of applied psychology and communication. With profound experiences and a compelling method of interpreting viewpoints, he gave students new understandings of phenomena and behaviours on social media.

METHINK Mentoring

Besides, students were eager to learn more about public speaking – a crucial skill allowing them to make the best use of their knowledge. Hence, the third part – METHINK Mentoring was developed to provide students with public speaking skills. Mentoring was a three-hour workshop with plenty of models in the form of a presentation and practical activities to work on.

During this workshop, students used these beneficial models and talked over everything: social realities, mental health, Vietnamese idioms, and so on. To wrap up, students were given presentation homework: construct a group video presentation that expresses their opinions.

Link to winning video presentations: HERE

During this workshop, students used these beneficial models and talked over everything: social realities, mental health, Vietnamese idioms, and so on. To wrap up, students were given presentation homework: construct a group video presentation that expresses their opinions.

Four videos responding to the same question: What have you learned from Covid-19? Their presentations were evaluated according to three criteria: creativity, conviction and command of vocabulary. The two first-prize presentations worked on the idea of parent-children relationships and self-connection monologues. The two second-prize presentations indicated mental health care and human solidarity during the crisis period of Covid-19. In the videos, students applied public speaking principles and showed interesting views.

Being conducted by the non-formal education model, METHINK Project was not based on one-way learning which only told students theoretical information. Additionally, students had opportunities to discover new perspectives on issues and apply what they have learned to real life. Finally, METHINK Project has already equipped Vietnamese students with one of the key skills for global citizens – critical thinking.

All the posters of the program will be disseminated on our social media channels so as to engage the audience, both youths and parents to be more aware of fake news and discrimination as well as strategies to deal with them.

The organising team has received numerous thank-you notes from participants. Several participants called themselves Methinkers. One participant regaled the organisers with a hashtag:

Once a Methinker, forever a Methinker.

100% of participants were satisfied with our events. Overall, the women-led project was an experiment on many fronts: a fully virtual course for a group of 40 students with virtual competitions yet a number of tangible awards, a one-of-its-kind course for high school students on the topic of media literacy. From October 2021 onwards, all posters on media literacy made by participants will be published on the social media channels of Step Forward Education as a youth-led campaign against disinformation.

Vo Hoai Thuong