Thai students' Decision Making About Energy Issues: The Influence of Local Values

Abstract

This paper reports on Thai students' decision making about energy issues using teaching and learning based on a science, technology and society (STS) approach. The participants consisted of 132 Grade 9 students from three different schools in Khon Kaen, in North East Thailand. The three participating teachers in these schools had adopted the STS energy unit that developed by researcher. Teachers had attended workshops before and during their adopting the unit. The students' decision making was investigated through participant observation and informal interview. Findings revealed students from the city seemed to make decision based on the knowledge from textbooks compared with students from the rural area. However, their decision making was not only developed based on scientific knowledge but also based on their value judgments that were made based on social economic and environmental aspects. The process of their decision making reflected that value clarification was different among three schools. The paper will discuss students' normative decision making across three different schools and the implications of these results for better understanding socio-cultural views of learning, especially in relation to science teaching and learning in Thailand.