Teachers and students evaluation of the new tiếng anh 11 a study at three upper secondary schools in quang ninh province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES *************************** BÙI BÍCH PHƢƠNG TEACHERS' AND STUDENTS' EVALUATION OF THE NEW TIẾNG ANH 11: A STUDY AT THREE UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN QUANG NINH PROVINCE (ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH VỀ CHẤT LƯỢNG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA MỚI TIẾNG ANH 11: NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG Ở TỈNH QUẢNG NINH) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HA NOI – 2017 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES *************************** BÙI BÍCH PHƢƠNG TEACHERS' AND STUDENTS' EVALUATION OF THE NEW TIẾNG ANH 11: A STUDY AT THREE UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN QUANG NINH PROVINCE (ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH VỀ CHẤT LƯỢNG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA MỚI TIẾNG ANH 11: NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG Ở TỈNH QUẢNG NINH) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân HA NOI – 2017 DECLARATION I hereby certify that the MA thesis entitled Teachers' and Students' Evaluation of the New Tiếng Anh 11: A Study at three Upper Secondary Schools in Quang Ninh Province is the result of my research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi The thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan and reproduction of the paper Hanoi, May 2017 Bùi Bích Phƣơng i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have benefited a great deal of support from a number of people during the time carrying out this thesis First and foremost, I would like to express my profound gratefulness to my supervisor, Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân, for his wholehearted supervision, his valuable and insightful comments, his deliberate guidance and constrictive critical feedback without which the thesis would not have been possible I also wish to thank all my lecturers at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their precious lectures whose ideas are partly employed in this study I am also immensely grateful to English teachers and 160 students in three top high schools in Quang Ninh province who were enthusiastic in their responses to my questionnaires Especially, I would like to express my special thank to 14 interviewees for spending time answering my questions Moreover, I would like to say “thank you” to the boards of managers in these three schools who created convenient conditions in order that I was able to complete my surveys Last but not least, I owe the completion of this study to my big family, my old teachers and my close friends who always stand by my side with encouragement and consideration Thanks for their spiritual support throughout this study ii ABSTRACT Decisions related to textbook selection and evaluation are of great importance The purpose of this study is to evaluate the new Tiếng Anh 11 compiled under the Project 2020 used at several piloted high schools in Quang Ninh province by getting feedback from both students and teachers For this purpose, a 48-item questionnaire for students and a 53-item questionnaire for teachers were developed about the physical features and organization, textbook contents (topics, texts, activities, skills, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary), and supplementary materials, teacher’s book, objectives and curriculum fit 160 students in piloted classes and high school English teachers using the new textbook in three top high schools in Quang Ninh province were asked to reflect on the questions by checking one of the five options included After, the interviews were conducted with 10 students and teachers with more than five years of teaching experience to discuss in detail The results indicated that the textbook’s qualities, in general, satisfy both students and teachers in terms of design, structure and contents The most remarkable improvement of the book is the way it is organized sections In addition, that the book tends to develop students’ communicative competences through a variety of activities in class attracts them a lot Besides, there still have some limitations of the book that were discussed Two of them are the lengths of reading texts and the number of grammar introduced in each unit Finally, significant recommendations were also given to get the textbook improved Key words: Textbook evaluation, criteria, Project 2020, evaluate, strengths, weaknesses iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES viii PART I INTRODUCTION 1 Research statement and rationale of the study Aims and objectives of the study Scope and limitations of the study Significance of the study The structure of the study PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction Teaching and learning English in Vietnam under the National Foreign Language Project 2.1 The NFL 2020 Project 2.2 An Overview of the Pilot English Curriculum for Upper Secondary schools 2.3 An Overview of the Pilot Textbook Tiếng Anh 11 Key concepts 10 3.1 Definitions of textbook 10 3.2 Roles of textbooks 11 3.3 Textbook evaluation 12 3.4 Textbook evaluative criteria 13 3.5 Previous studies on textbook evaluation 18 iv 3.6 Research gap 21 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 22 Research questions 22 Research design 22 2.1 Research design 22 2.2 Participants and sampling size 23 2.3 Data collection instruments 24 2.3.1 Questionnaires 24 2.3.2 Interviews 26 2.4 Data analysis methods 27 2.4.1 Statistics analysis 27 2.4.2 Content analysis 27 Research procedures 28 3.1 Data collection procedure 28 3.1.1 Stage Questionnaire 28 3.1.2 Stage Interview 28 3.2 Data analysis procedure 29 3.2.1 Stage Analyzing collected data from questionnaires 29 3.2.2 Stage Analyzing collected data from interviews 30 CHAPTER MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 31 Overall rating 31 Students’ and teachers’ evaluation of the textbooks in each of main categories 32 2.1 The evaluation in the “Physical features and organization” category 32 2.2 The evaluation in the “Textbook contents” category 34 2.2.1 The teachers’ and students’ evaluation of the “Topics” section 35 2.2.2 The teachers’ and students’ evaluation of the “Texts” section 36 v 2.2.3 The teachers’ and students’ evaluation of the “Activities” section 37 2.2.4 The teachers’ and students’ evaluation of the “Skills” section 39 2.2.5 The teachers’ and students’ evaluation of the “Pronunciation” section 40 2.2.6 The teachers’ and students’ evaluation of the “Vocabulary” section 41 2.2.7 The teachers’ and students’ evaluation of the “Grammar” section 42 2.3 The teachers’ and students’ evaluation of the “Supplementary materials” category 43 2.4 The teachers’ evaluation of the “Teacher’s book” category 44 2.5 The teachers’ evaluation of the “Objectives and Curriculum Fit” category 46 CHAPTER RECOMMENDATIONS 47 PART CONCLUSIONS 51 Summary 51 Limitations 54 Recommendations for further research 55 REFERENCES 56 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS I APPENDIX II PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH VI APPENDIX III QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS X APPENDIX IV QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEWS XV APPENDIX V QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS XXII APPENDIX VI THE INTERVIEWS’ SUMMARY XXIX vi ABBREVIATIONS MOET: Minister of Education and Training VNU: Vietnam National University, Hanoi ELT: English Language Teaching NFL 2020: the National Foreign Language 2020 Project CEFR: Common European Framework of References CLT: Communicative Language Teaching vii LIST OF TABLES Table Textbook evaluation criteria by Mukundan, Jayakaran, and Nimehchisalem (2011) Table Textbook evaluation criteria by Hoàng Văn Vân (2015) Table Evaluation on general features and organization Table Evaluation on Topics Table Evaluation on Texts Table Evaluation on Activities Table Evaluation on Skills Table Evaluation on Pronunciation Table Evaluation on Vocabulary Table 10 Evaluation on Grammar Table 11 Evaluation on Supplementary materials Table 12 Evaluation on Teacher’s book Table 13 Evaluation on Objectives and Curriculum Fit viii VI GRAMMAR 13.7% 41.7% 35.9% 8.9% - 4.0% 3.74 41 The number of grammatical structures introduced in each unit is appropriate 20 13.9% 72 50.0% 39 27.1% 13 9.0% 4.2% 3.82 0.99 42 Grammar points are introduced with interesting and catchy examples 22 15.3% 43 29.9% 64 44.4% 16 11.1% 3.5% 3.66 1.01 19 13.2% 69 47.9% 52 36.1% 4.2% 2.8% 3.81 0.88 18 12.5% 56 38.9% 52 36.1% 16 11.1% 5.6% 3.65 1.04 The grammar points are repeated and reinforced in subsequent lessons Activities to practice grammar aim to 44 develop their communicative competence 43 C SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS The sound quality of the audio CDs is good Workbook helps students to reinforce 46 all what they learnt in class (both skills and languages) 45 Workbook extend the contents of 47 textbook appropriately (language knowledge and communication skills) There are mock tests and quizzes 48 provided to help students test their learning and prepare for real tests D TEACHER'S BOOK 7.8% 28.0% 36.3% 17.4% - 14.8% 3.27 12 8.3% 44 30.6% 48 33.3% 19 13.2% 27 18.8% 3.22 1.23 12 8.3% 39 27.1% 63 43.8% 20 13.9% 16 11.1% 3.34 1.10 11 7.6% 45 31.3% 56 38.9% 23 16.0% 15 10.4% 3.38 1.11 10 6.9% 33 22.9% 42 29.2% 38 26.4% 27 18.8% 3.12 1.24 XXVII The guidance is supportive and comprehensive, helps teacher to 49 develop techniques and methods of teaching in the classroom There are explanations about teaching 50 techniques, grammar rules and culturespecific information The tapescripts, answer keys, vocabulary lists, lesson summaries, 51 structural inventories are provided in the teacher’s book 16.7% 0 83.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.17 0.41 0.0% 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.00 0.39 0.0% 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.00 0.39 E OBJECTIVES AND CURRICULUM FIT 52 Clear statement of the objectives of the course and of each textbook 16.7% 83.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.17 0.41 53 The book is clearly linked to the curriculum they serve 16.7% 83.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.17 0.91 - XXVIII APPENDIX VI THE INTERVIEWS’ SUMMARY  Students interviews Questions Mai Phƣơng (S1) Phƣợng (S2) Xuân (S3) There are more grammatical The old textbook is much thicker structures (tag questions, special and heavier The number of pictures questions) with diverse types is limited and not good quality exercises to practice these structures In the new one, the number of words is reduced, instead by lively images that stimulate students’ interest and promote students’ creativity There is an attached CD which students can use to practice listening at home In addition, activities to work in pairs and groups are added more so that students have more chance to work with others to enhance teamwork skills Working individually is sometimes boring and cannot promote students’ creativity In terms of structure, this textbook is organized in a suitable way skills are divided clearly in different parts In each lesson, we can practice almost skills In terms of design, the book is larger with more colorful pictures and lively images, which attracts students right In terms of contents, the contents of textbooks are not very different but the new one focuses more deeply on developing all skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing), while the old one’s There is a project at the end of each attention is mainly reading and unit We had never heard about it writing practice when we used the old textbook in XXIX The exercises are categorized clearly, the outlook is eyecatching, which make learning interesting lower secondary school When conducting the project, we are able to develop different skills, not only English skills, but also other soft skills In terms of contents, in the position of a mainstream students, I see that knowledge provided is quite adequate and detailed Each unit discusses a new topic, introduces a new grammar with exercises and activities to practice However, as an English-major student, it doesn’t meet our learning needs My learning hasn’t changed anything since I used the book The structure is clear and knowledge is appropriate so there is no trouble learning All grammar is not new to me Topics are up-dated and interesting, which involves my background knowledge, so I need to read more and observe surrounding environemnt to explore the lesson fully The great advantage of the new I like its design and structure textbook is the amount of knowledge related to different fields provided that help students to enrich their mind However, I think that knowledge provided in this book is not enough XXX for us as an English-major students We can use the same book but there Designing another textbook for I think it should have further should be more advanced exercises English-major students This book exercises for students like us (*) in the follow-up parts is used for the mainstream More interesting topics should be added I think it should mention embarrassing or disturbing topics because we need to know about it Questions Duy Anh (S4) Ngan Ha (S5) It’s designed beautifully The contents are organized clearly The cover page is attractive Its appearance is foreign-like and it looks modern In terms of content, it’s got significant improvement In terms of design, the illustration is more lively and There is a CD that I can practice listening at home when interesting than the old one I have free time The quality of the CD is ok In terms of content, the new textbook helps to The book’s structure is easy to follow because parts are develop listening, reading and writing There are organized clearly skills (listening, speaking, reading, more activities for students to work in pairs/ groups and writing) are focused in balance to practice speaking In addition, reading texts are close to real life The number of new words is XXXI adequate, suitable for our age The project in the end of each unit is very interesting Different activities give students chance to be closer to real life and refine necessary skills Grammar is difficult so I need to try hard to exercise More skills are developed I enjoy activities in class and practice more at home Learning with the new textbook is easier, I get more Since I used this book, my English has improved greatly interested in study rather than when using the old in skills book Preparing for lesson is not very difficult However, it students are in low level, it takes them more time to study to catch up with the class Its appearance attracts students and makes them I am satisfies with getting started part the most, interested in learning because these is a dialogue which we can role play, practice reading The content of dialogue is also Skills are covered and integrated with a variety of catchy and interesting If there are new words or new activities such as work individual, work in pairs, in structures, teacher often asks us to explicit the groups meaning and translate into Vietnamese The amount of grammar should be reduced instead by Price is not reasonable I think CD should be only the structures for daily communication/ spoken sold for someone need it Who wants to buy CD will languages pay more I have never listened to CD at home My CD is still new XXXII The quality of the cover page needs to be improved The cover page should be redesigned to make it more attractive and relevant to the book’s content For There should be more speaking activity to develop example, it can use images to introduce some topics communicative competence The illustration should be added more Questions Lan (S6) Quang (S7) Topics are more interesting and close to real life Vocabulary/ lexical chunks/ structures are native-like The textbook guides students the way to learn which is similar to the foreign countries In terms of outlook, it’s designed In terms of design, the way to put the beautifully titles and headings is clearly and consistent The illustration is eyeIn terms of structure, all skills are catching focused to help student develop fully their English In terms of content, there also includes skills but they are In terms of content, particularly, integrated to each other For instance, Ngọc (S8) In comparison to the old textbook, It’s designed in larger size with there are more new topics added In lively images and its content is each unit, specific knowledge (about suitable to students’ age grammar, vocabulary, skills) related to is provided for students XXXIII In terms of design and structure, I think this book is good In terms of content, each unit is divided in to certain parts related to a particular topic In each lesson, students can gain much knowledge grammar, it’s quite simple and repeated from the lower secondary, for example tenses We already know about these tenses In my opinion it wastes time and we are not interested in learning them any more Besides, this book focuses on strongly developing phrasal verbs and phrases for students The number of vocabulary is also increased I think it’s a good point in listening lesson, students still Personally speaking, this book has practice their writing, reading, and nothing to complain speaking through diverse activities Moreover, there are many interesting new topics which require students to have certain amount of relevant knowledge However, it’s not enough for national exams There are not many changes in my When using this book, we have to study take part in a separate mock exam with other classes, because what we The most considerable improvement learn in this book are different from I found is that my vocabulary is what they learn in the new one In enlarged a lot addition, to prepare for the national examination, knowledge in this book does match with the requirement Therefore, I need to study much more than someone who is using the old book XXXIV Questions I think the most important thing is that there must have a change in structure of the national exam Because what we are studying now (even vocabulary and grammar structure) is not relevant to the format of this exam There should add more activities to promote students’ interaction and communicative competence, not only mechanic exercises and boring handouts I agree with Lan’s Even we are in selective class, our exam’s results are lower than other classes, because what we learn excludes the content of the test There is a project in the end of each unit but sometimes we did, sometime Secondly, only good students can we didn’t Activities in the book are use this book effectively To some still boring We just it one by one students who are in lower level, without any interest they find it hard to follow the lesson As a result, their knowledge is probably worse than students in mainstream with the old book We want to develop speaking skills more So I suggest that there should be more interactive activities Hien (S9) I want more interesting topics, for example, celebrities, sports, fashion or arts, so I can apply my own knowledge in learning Minh Anh (S10) There are more lively images There are points that I like about this book It attaches a CD so I can listen to the recording and First, Reading texts are close the daily life with a exercises again at home large number of common new words/ phrases XXXV The topics and contents of the texts are up-dated Second, the projects provide knowledge about a topic and promote students’ soft skills like presentation and teamwork skills In terms of design, as I said before, the book’s appearance is In comparison to the old book, the number of attractive The attached CD is in good quality with sufficient grammar is presented briefly with some simple tracks for listening exercises in Language Focus part In this new book, there is a detailed glossary of grammar In terms of structure, the parts in each unit including Whenever I forget something, I just take a look skills, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, project, over this list exercises are organized scientifically In addition, the number of new words in the reading texts is less than the old one When using the new book, I can prepare for the next lesson Its design and organization makes learning easier because the structure is very clear I can know exactly interesting what I will learn Moreover, thanks to the CD, I can listen to There are many exercises in diverse forms to tasks again at home in case I miss something in class practice new words repeatedly We not only learn Especially, in the new book, there is a part to synthesize the individual words but also word family, word knowledge of each unit I just need to look at this to review formations and collocations As a result, I can the lesson Before, I used to write grammar structures in a remember new words better and use them notebook effectively in right content In addition, the activities for learning vocabulary are useful XXXVI so that I am able to remember the new words right in class I don’t have to spend time learning at home There is the project in each unit The old textbook doesn’t Topics and contents are up-dated, for example, include this part Students just go to class, study, gap year and globalization Some news in the exercises, homework There is no activity to combine recent years is also included in the book what they learnt and develop other soft skills The projects help us to understand more about what we learnt We also can learning by teaching when working in groups Teacher can assess how much her students understand the lessons, which levels they are in and then adjust her teaching Activities for projects are diverse in forms and contents We can play games, make presentation about different topics or role play It should have more games/ activities to engage students in class Students can learn more and remember the lesson better when interacting with others and joining such activities XXXVII There is a gap between what we learn and what we are tested It should be equivalent between knowledge in the new book and structure of the exam  Teachers interviews Questions Hằng (T1) Thủy (T2) In terms of design, it’s eye-catchy, more beautiful and The most improvement of this book is its logical colorful The size is larger Teachers and students feel sequence of parts in each unit Vocabulary is also attracted at first sight consolidated in the following lessons from part to part The topics are interesting and close to students In terms of structure, it’s clearly with titles and In general, aspects are good headings Each unit is divided into parts, including However, in terms of content, the reading texts are quite getting started, skills, grammar, pronunciation, long to students communication and culture and a project organized in In terms of design, while the old textbook always a consistent way The project promote learning instructs new words at the beginning of the lesson, in this autonomy and students’ creativity new one, teaching vocabulary is more flexible In terms of content, in my school, this book is only Vocabulary can be presented by teacher after students applied for students in selective classes, because the guess the meaning in context This process promotes amount of knowledge is quite large, especially, students’ creativity grammar This book defaults that students already In terms of content, activities in each lesson are know those grammatical structures since lower diversified, especially pair work or group work It secondary school, so it just provides a revision In a encourages students’ interaction They learn actively and time limitation, students need to have a good creatively In addition, the grammar part is quite long, knowledge and good preparation to be able to sometimes, I have to reduce the number of exercises or complete the lesson separate it into smaller parts About skills, the most outstanding point of this book is that the learning methods of this book aims to develop students’ communication competence Students have more chance to interact with others and XXXVIII use English to communicate However, it requires students to have good language competences The length of reading texts is long Everything is hard at the first steps It takes me much time to prepare for the lessons Moreover, because it’s piloted, there are not many available references or material sources Finding sources for planning lesson is not easy Therefore, I have to get everything done almost by myself There are some changes in teaching methods With communicative language teaching method (CLT), teacher’s role in class is reduced to let students work more by themselves They are encouraged to talk The syllabus is designed with new teaching method, mainly communicative Students are autonomous and creative in learning and experiencing the things Their language competences could be developed better since they have more chance to talk in class I think that the change in the book should be parallel with the change in test and assessment Students learn with new textbook, but the structure of the test still follow the topics and knowledge in the old one Students in piloted class have more chance to improve their communication skills, but to prepare for test and assessment, especially for the national exam, speaking is not the skill to be tested Although the contents are up-dated, there are still XXXIX That there are many available activities in class saves my time for preparation and lesson planning However, activities tend to develop students’ communication skills while a certain amount of grammar must be provided for students To so, I ask them to finish grammar exercises at home then I will correct in extra classes The structure of a unit is clear and logic Students can review what they learnt in the following lessons We should shorten the reading texts and reduce the number of grammar in each unit The quality of the CD is poor Many CDs are unusable It needs to be enhanced some topics which are quite difficult and not suitable to student’s social knowledge needs to adjusted, for example acupuncture The reading texts are not very authentic The listening exercises are not related to what students are tested in proficiency exams (IELTS, TOEIC) or in piloted tests Grammar should be reduced in each unit or divided into smaller parts To achieve the objectives of this project is a long-term process that needs to involve many factors Among of those is students’ language competence It takes at least 8-10 years for students to get started in grade with the new textbook Questions Mai (T3) Available activities are designed particularly so teachers don’t have to spend much time designing activities for the lesson Vocabulary is diverse, close to the national exam In terms of design, the layout is clear and easy to follow In terms of structure, language knowledge in each lesson is repeated, students can remember better In terms of content, there are some parts which are difficult to plan and conduct the lesson, especially in vocabulary part With the old textbook, vocabulary is XL As I mentioned, if this textbook is used in large scale with mainstream students in different English levels, it’s hard to achieve the objectives of the Project Briefly, it depends a lot on students’ ability Hien (T4) The content is more diverse and wide-ranging Topics are more interesting The quality of the textbook is better and got improved a lot However the content is quite long Vocabulary in reading and listening is hard Projects are not really useful to develop students’ language skills always presented first, but now it changes Students will find the new words and guess the meaning basing on the context Not all students can it well The amount of language knowledge is too much Language section including vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation is too long, which cannot be completed in a 45-minute lesson In comparison to the old textbook, teachers are free to plan the lesson, design activities or whatever they want Since using the new textbook, I need to follow a fix journey It’s not very flexible in teaching I feel hard and uncomfortable It needs time to get familiar with it The instruction in the teacher’s book is detailed but it seems a boring process Some lessons are easy to follow, but some are difficult I like getting started, looking back and skills They are designed quite well However, I don’t like writing and language sections Writing is complicated with too many new words Topics are quite general, it’s hard to design a lead-in or relevant warm-up activities They should be more familiar and suitable to students Language section should be divided into lessons To some extent, it depends much on students’ effort and ability XLI The content is longer and more difficult, therefore, teachers need to work more The teacher’s book provide me with helpful guidance But I have to design power point by myself It is timeconsuming I like the contents of the book It’s diversified and comprehensive Language section should be reduced because it’s long Reading is long with many new words Texts are not very authentic To some extent, it depends much on students’ effort and ability ... teachers? ?? evaluation of the textbooks in each of main categories 2.1 The evaluation in the “Physical features and organization” category The results obtained from this category show that evaluation of. .. entitled Teachers'' and Students'' Evaluation of the New Tiếng Anh 11: A Study at three Upper Secondary Schools in Quang Ninh Province is the result of my research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University... presented above, the researcher would like to conduct the study ? ?Teachers'' and Students'' Evaluation of the New Tiếng Anh 11: A Study at three Upper Secondary Schools in Quang Ninh Province? ?? Aims and