Download - Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
1/17
Building a Global Citizen Through World-Class Standard Schools in Thailand
We can get there?
By Phiriyaphong Chaengchenwet
For
Education and Citizenship 2010 Conference
Institute of Education, London
19th 20th November 2010
Disclaimer
The views and opinions presented in this paper are that of the author alone and in
no way representative of the views and opinions of the Ministry of Education of
Thailand, nor the Office of the Basic Education Commissions.
The author accepts full responsibility for this paper.
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
2/17
Building a Global Citizen Through World-Class Standard Schools in Thailand
We can get there?
Summary
This paper discusses the context for development of WorldClass Standard
School policy in Thailand, as well as explores the details of the policy in regards to
the curriculum development. It shows problem of inconsistency in the
implementation of the policy in actual schools. This paper reflects practitioners
level concern regarding the implementation of this WorldClass Standard School
policy in Thailand. There is a gap between the vision of the policy in the Ministry
level and the implementation of the policy in school level.
Introduction
Education, all experts agree, is a path towards the development of a nation,
and scholars in all fields related to development recognize the role of education.
While school enrollment rate is an essential indicator for a countrys education
system, it only measures in term of the quantity of the education system. The quality
barometer comes in a more abstract form the curriculum, standardize test scores,
college admission rate, etc.
This paper aims to explore the development and implementation of
Thailands latest push towards the development of the quality of education. Since
January 2010, the Ministry of Education has selected 500 primary and secondary
schools in the country to pilot the WorldClass Standard School Policy. The paper
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
3/17
sets contexts in which the policy was contemplated from both the strategic goals
within the Ministry of Education and the possibility of funding from the Government
Stimulus Package. Also from the changing context of learning in 21st century, this
paper discusses the general consensus among academic regarding the new faces of
learning and how can schools adapt themselves for this changing climate.
This paper, mainly, focuses on the analysis of the particulars of this World
Class Standard School policy in regards to the changing context for learning. Also,
the paper looks into the translation of policy into practice in some schools. It is the
papers main objective to investigate whether this WorldClass Standard School
Policy can be put into practice successfully.
Context for World-Class Standard School Policy
There are many components in which shape the context of this WorldClass
Standard School Policy. From internal factors within Thailand such as the National
Curriculum, the Ministry of Education Strategic Plan, to external factors such as the
changing context of learning from advancing technology, the increasing focus among
policymakers and education experts on quality assurance, all played a role in
shaping this WorldClass Standard School.
National Curriculum Moves towards Standard-Based Curriculum
Among education policy circles, there have been ongoing discussions
regarding quality and standard improvement of education. In several countries,
their curriculum reform often involves standardization or quality assurance in some
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
4/17
form. Whether it be the Thailand Basic Education Curriculum of 2001, the U.S. No
Child Left Behind education reform, the state of Ohios push for WorldClass
Education system, all in some forms address the issue of education standards.
However, the issue of StandardBased Education in Thailand did not cease
with the 2001 Basic Education Curriculum. After 5 years of the implementation of
the curriculum, many schools especially in the countryside could not keep up
with the standards set forth by the Ministry of Education. Whilst this curriculum set
up national standard for learning, it left the determination regarding the content,
the assessment, and the graduation criteria to each school.
This created a gap for many schools in Thailand in term of reaching the
national standard. There were discrepancies in the content taught to students, the
assessment scheme, and the graduation criteria. In order to close the standard gap,
the Ministry of Education has introduced the 2008 Basic Education Core Curriculum.
This curriculum stands similar to the 2001 curriculum that it remains a standard
based curriculum. This 2008 core curriculum also introduced Grade Level Indicators
for each subject area, as well as core content associated to each indicator. This
marked an improvement in the move towards a standardbased curriculum in
Thailand.
The implementation of the 2008 Basic Education Core Curriculum, with its
national standard, national grade level indicators, national core content, helped
close the gap between schools in many parts of the country. The curriculum served
as a guide to teachers reaching the standard originally set forth in the 2001
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
5/17
curriculum1. Once the standard gap between goodperforming and poorperforming
schools in Thailand coming to a close due to the National Core Curriculum, the
ministry seeks to find ways to fully exploit the potential of the 2008 core curriculum
in goodperforming schools.
The 2008 Basic Education Core Curriculum has two different roles to play for
goodperforming and poorperforming schools. Indeed, for poorperforming
schools, this core curriculum helped serve as a guide for teacher in term of what
content should be taught (as can be seen in national core content), and also in terms
of decision on the expected progress students made (as seen in the national grade
level indicator). As the national standard, grade level indicator, and the core content
will be used in the national standardize test, students should have sufficient
knowledge to as required by the curriculum, now that schools know what to teach.
For goodperforming schools, this core curriculum serves as the minimum
requirements for the school curriculum. These goodperforming schools, often
situated in the urban area or in Bangkok, have the capacity of offer to students more
than the basic curriculum, some schools offer English Program where instruction
is conducted in English, some offer ScienceIntensive Program where students
study universitylevel science courses and can transfer credits to selected
universities. This creates a gap in the quality of highperforming schools, and thus it
1 The 2008 curriculum keep the national standards set in the 2001 curriculum
unchanged.
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
6/17
becomes a need for the Ministry of Education, as the supervisor of these schools, to
find accommodating policies for these goodperforming schools.
Ministry of Education Strategic Plan IB? AP? EP?
In the Ministry of Education Strategic analysis, it sees and recognizes the
potential of goodperforming schools to develop further beyond national standard
to the level of a WorldClass Standard. Especially in the 3rd Strategy, which aims at
developing students quality towards excellence and WorldClass Standard. This
strategy, according to the Ministrys 2009 2012 Strategic Plan, strive for students
excellences by setting a more intense standard, or bringing in an internationally
recognized curriculum like the International Baccalaureate to benchmark with
school curriculum.
The Ministrys 2009 2012 Strategic Plan serves as the first document that
set the needs for schools in Thailand to reach beyond the national standard for
something higher. By mentioning the International Baccalaureate as the sample
international curriculum to be benchmarked, it showed that the ministry recognizes
the I.B. as the model for the WorldClass Standard School Policy. This will mirror in
the actual policy sent to schools.
The plan also discusses the possibilities regarding devolution of school
authorities. SchoolBased Management has been the keyword in education policy
expert circles for many years, with attempts to devolve authorities held by the
central agencies to the school. So that the school administrators whether they are
the principal, or the school supervisory board can make decisions regarding
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
7/17
curriculum, budget, personnel affairs in a way that best fit each schools different
context.
The Changing Context for Learning Globalization of Learning
In the time of globalization, it changes the ways learning should be
conducted. Schools have changed their roles for many times since the medieval age.
From the school of the church to the school for discipline in the industrial age, the
role of schools changes in corresponding to the prevailing power in the society. In
the medieval age, it was the churches, and the production line in the industrial age.
Today, in the globalized world, we need risktaking entrepreneurs and motivated
and selfreliant citizens.
In this changed context for learning, schools all over the world started to
develop ways to build students who can survive globalization. The need to create a
globally aware learner also plays an integral role in the development of the
particulars of this WorldClass Standard School policy.
World-Class Standard School Policy
It is from the aforementioned contextual situations, as well as the availability
of funding possibilities from the Thai Governments second Stimulus Package (SPII)
that produces and makes funds available for school to move towards WorldClass
Standard Schools. 500 primary and secondary schools, out of over 10,000 schools
under the administration of the Office of Basic Education Commissions, were chosen
to be WorldClass Standard Schools. These schools receive SPII grants, and are
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
8/17
given a set of guidelines from the ministry on ways to reach the WorldClass
Standard.
Before going further, it is essential that the particulars of this WorldClass
Standard School be mentioned. The Ministry of Education has published series of
documents and make available to all WorldClass Standard Schools. These
documents discuss the visions for WorldClass Standard Schools, as well as
describing the goals and characteristics of such schools.
World-Class Standard School Vision
The shared values of the worldclass policy or its visions are the core and
the ideals of WorldClass Standard Schools. There are 5 values, and they are:
1. Multi-Model Benchmarking: This means that each school have todevelop its own unique identity, by developing the capacities of the
organization and looking at various success stories of other schools
so we can build on their success and form a unique school.
2. Spirit of Enlightenment: Classrooms need to be a place that nourisheslearning. The school shall be a place where students will be
motivated to learn. Teachers need to create the wonder of the
subject and establish the goal of the subject. Most importantly,
teacher must create an environment where the students enjoy
learning.
3. Multi-Intelligent: Every student has his/her own special talent, andthat should be fulfilled. Students talents need to be enriched and
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
9/17
enhanced. This requires teachers to get to know student
individually and there must be a student care and support system
that promote the multiintelligent of diverse students.
4. Global Community & Responsibility: In an increasingly interconnectedworld, knowledge reaches beyond frontiers. Relationship and
fraternities need to go beyond nationalities and our students need
to understand the shared responsibility among the human race.
5. Synergy-Community School: Education cannot be provided nor is it theresponsibility of the school alone. There must be networks of
purpose from friends of the school in the local community to
regional network and cross borders to an international network.
We need these networks that will move together with the school
towards the same goal the students.
Characteristics of World-Class Standard School
From these visions, the ministry has outlined the characteristics of the
WorldClass Standard School policy in 3 areas: students as World Citizen,
instructional qualities as WorldClass Standard, and management as Quality System
Management. The ministry aims to set the characteristics of these schools as the
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
10/17
scope of development of each school in 3 areas: students, instructions, and
managements.
In terms of students as World Citizen, which is the most important product
of the WorldClass Standard Schools, the ministry sets 5 attributes of World Citizen:
Academic Excellence, Bilingual Communication, Progressive Thinking, Creative
Production, and Global Responsibilities. These attributes are seen as achievable
once the school sets its instructional and management qualities to World Class
Standard. For each attribute, the ministry has set further features for each attribute
as follows:
For Academic Excellence, it focuses on students have higherthanaverage
standardize assessment test scores. In addition, students should have his/her own
distinct specialization and participate in national and international competitions. It
also focuses on high university admittance rate of students.
For Bilingual Communications, it hopes that students of WorldClass
Standard Schools are able to use Thai and English to communicate very well. Also it
promotes the studies of a 3rd language, whether it be French, Chinese, Japanese, etc.
Progressive Thinking, this asks students to produce a project work that can
benefit the general public. Students should be able to create new ideas for the
benefit of themselves and others.
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
11/17
Creative Production requires students to creatively and critically uses the
available information and technology to produce works and able to exchange ideas
and their work at international level.
Global Responsibility calls for students to be aware of global situations, carry
an international understanding, and have a sense of global citizenship whereas they
value diversity, public goods, environments, and the ideals of democracy.
Students as World Citizen are seen as mainly the product of a WorldClass
Standard School. However, in order to produce students of such ambitious
capacities, schools need to work in two ways: WorldClass Standard instructions
and Quality Systems Management of school administration. Each category has
further attributes and features in their own ways.
As for World-Class Standard Instructions, it further is divided into 3
attributes: Academic Quality, Teacher Quality, and Research and Development.
These are areas of development where the ministry set forth guidelines for
improvements for WorldClass Standard School.
In terms of Academic Quality, it needs schools to offer variety of curriculum
that fit each students capacities and competencies. This includes curriculums such
as the English Program curriculum, the International Baccalaureate curriculum,
Vocational curriculum, Special Program curriculum, etc. It also promotes the
instruction of science and mathematics in English language, as well as adoption of
subjects such as Theory of Knowledge, Extended Essay, Creative Project Work,
and Global Education into the curriculum.
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
12/17
For Teacher Quality, it asks teachers to be able to communicate with foreign
language, as well as use textbooks and reference in foreign languages in classroom
instructions. It also promotes teachers to use Information and Communication
Technology (I.C.T.) in all process of instruction from teaching to evaluating and
presenting teachers work.
In Research and Development, it promotes and encourages schools to
perform academic development research, and to use the results of the research to
further develop the quality of the school towards worldclass standard.
The last characteristic of the WorldClass Standard School is in its
management system. Quality System Managementfocuses on the development of
other aspects of school indirectly relate to teaching and learning. There are 4
attributes in this characteristic: School Administrator Quality, Management System,
Foundation Support, and Network Support.
Both in term of Qualities of School Administrators and School Management
System, the ministry heavily relies on the quality management scheme set forth by
the Thailand Quality Award. The award can be considered a WorldClass recognition
of an organization management, as the award scheme is directly adapted from the
U.S. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The Baldrige Education Criteria for
Performance Excellence, in particular, is presented to schools for their quality
management evaluation scheme.
Considering all the characteristics, attributes, and features outlined in the
WorldClass Standard School policy, it should be recognized that this is a very
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
13/17
extensive guideline on the ways to improve schools towards WorldClass Standard
and create a World Citizen. Next part of the paper will focus on the analysis of the
WorldClass curriculum.
World Class Curriculum Lost in Translation?
While there is no consensus among education expert of what WorldClass
curriculum entails, the recommendation of the ministry of education sent to 500
WorldClass Standard Schools in Thailand in terms of curriculum offers an
interesting picture.
Indeed the ministry of education introduces subjects from the core of the
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme into worldclass schools in
Thailand, but from the implementation handbook give concerns regarding the
misunderstanding of the I.B. diploma program and the roles these core subjects
plays.
The core subjects from the I.B. Diploma Program are Theory of Knowledge,
Extended Essay, and Creative Action Service. These subjects are considered to be
interdisciplinary, help promoting students critical thinking skills, as well as
embedding a sense of service to the community to students.
However, in the handbook published and sent to WorldClass schools, these
subjects were considered to be content that teachers should integrate into actual
teaching. It becomes a concern whether the implementation of these subjects as
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
14/17
contents integrated in normal classroom instruction can reflect the success of that in
the International Baccalaureate.
Another concern lies in another subject introduced in the curriculum. A
subject called Global Education is recommended to be introduced to schools. The
handbook of global education shows another concern regarding the translation of
WorldClass Standard School policy into practice.
Global Education, from the handbook by the ministry, provides a guideline
that the course is about 8 global topics that are essential to developing a globally
concerned citizen. The 8 topics are: Global Citizenship, Interdependence, Diversity,
Value & Perception, Sustainable Development, Conflict Resolution, Human Rights,
and Social Justice. These topics do not appear in the ministry out of thin air,
however, they bear similar resemblance to the United Kingdoms Global Dimensions
in schools.
The documentation from the Ministry of Education to schools shine lights on
the expectation from the policymakers regarding the vision for global education.
The QCA seeks schools to integrate the 8 global dimension values into their
curriculum. The key to success in infusing such value is that students need to
appreciate a sense of global perspective thinking. For this, it requires students to be
able to see linkage between subjects. Global dimension values needs to be
incorporated to all subjects so that students can see the integration of global
communities.
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
15/17
It can be seen that the ministry is attempting to benchmark the curriculum
and instruction qualities of schools in Thailand to that of highachieving nations.
One key component of the success of highachieving nations with regards to their
curriculum is that they have a lean curriculum that focus on developing higher order
skills and supported with technology. However, the introduction of 4 more course
content (Theory of Knowledge, Extended Essay, Global Education, Creative Action
Services) into the curriculum without an overhaul of the ways subjects are put
together and formed into a curriculum does not representation the curriculum
leaning process. Rather, it is fattening the curriculum with more and more content.
The recognition by the Thai Ministry of Education that students need to learn
about their global surrounding is a major step towards preparing for 21stCentury
Workforce. However, the misinterpretation in the Ministry and misimplementation
in schools pose a major risk for this WorldClass Standard School policy to be
doomed from the start. Instead of promoting integration and infusion of global
dimension into all subjects, the Ministry urges schools to offer a global education
course and teach students the 8 global dimension values. This create a problem of
personnel shortage whereas schools can not find a teacher who is expert in all fields
enough to show students linkage between science, arts, and social justice, for
example.
This paper reflects practitioners level concern regarding the implementation of this
WorldClass Standard School policy in Thailand. There is a gap between the vision of
the policy in the Ministry level and the implementation of the policy in school level.
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
16/17
The Ministry needs to fully comprehend the policystarting point, ie. The
International Baccalaureate, and the Britishs Global Dimension, and find ways to
communicate that to schools.
-
7/31/2019 Building a Global Citizen in Thailand
17/17
Bibliography
Achieve, Inc. Creating a World-Class Education System in Ohio. Washington: Achieve,
Inc. .
Kustulasari, A. (2009). The International Standard School Project in Indonesia: a
Policy Document Analysis. Ohio State University, Graduate School. Ohio: Ohio State
University .
Office of Basic Education Commissions, Ministry of Education. (2010). World-Class
Standard School - Handbook. Bangkok: Agriculture CoOp Publishing.
Schleicher, A. (2009). Benchmarking International Best Practice. Putting the World
into World-Class Education. Washington: Asia Society.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2005). Secondary
Education Reform - Towards a Convergence of Knowledge Acquisition and Skills
Development. France: UNESCO.