Teacher Professional Development for Learning Organization on Sufficiency Economy in Small Schools

Abstract

The Ministry of Education, Thailand announced the major scheme for the implementation of Sufficiency Economy in Schools in the country along with the 1999 National Education Act Amendment in 2003. The purposes were to establish self immunization in human capital and develop learners to their full capacity. However, the inequality among schools in Thailand was one of the main problems in educational development. The small schools were among the disadvantage groups. There were not having sufficient learning resources, teaching personnel and teachers with major in special subject areas, the small schools needed help in their development programs as well as integrating sufficient economy into the learning and teaching situations. The purposes of this study are to develop teacher professional for learning organization on sufficiency economy in small schools as well as to develop principals and teachers' concepts about learning organization on sufficient economy. This study employs qualitative design by analyzing document and interviewing key informants. The research samples consist of five small schools under the Office of Khon Kaen Primary Educational Service Area. The findings reveal that the training strategy with the emphasis on brain storming, working in small groups, learning from success stories experiences of their peers and friendly supervision in the teacher professional development for learning organization based on the philosophy of sufficiency economy. Furthermore, the support from school administrators also created confidence among teachers in implementing the integration of the innovation based on the philosophy of sufficiency economy in a whole school system. Therefore, the project was implemented and progress under the same ideology in both administrators and teachers. Regarding the guidelines for teacher development for learning organization based on the philosophy of sufficient economy among small schools, the findings revealed that there are six steps of work procedures. The six steps comprise of (i) awareness creation, the research employed a study trip to visit good practice sites in sufficiency economy; (ii) professional development; (iii) consensus concept of creation of innovation based on sufficiency economy and classroom research; (iv) using community learning resources; (v) observation and reflection, and (vi) supervision and coaching. In conclusion, all teachers accepted and implemented the integration of sufficiency economy into their classroom. Moreover, they showed their ability for integrating the philosophy of sufficiency economy into their activities. Finally, most of the students showed their developments in achievement and attitude.