The Curriculum Development in Training Teachers Providing Mainstreaming Programs for Children with Special Needs in Primary School Level, Southern Thailand

Abstract

In Thailand, children with special needs have fewer benefits in inclusive education mainly because instructors are not trained as special education teachers. The ultimate goal of this research was to construct training curriculum for the instructors, providing them with knowledge to better manage these children. The purposes of this research were to study the present situation of the special education services among special needs children at primary level in Area 1, Songkhla Province, South Thailand, identify barriers and needs of teachers within the mainstream programs, construct a training curriculum for teachers and to assess the effectiveness of the proposed curriculum.The curriculum development program comprised four steps. First, the present situation in providing special education services was studied; the barriers and the needs of teachers were identified. Second, the curriculum for training purposes was written. Third, the trial training curriculum and its assessment were carried out. Fourth, the curriculum was revised. The research design was one group pretest - posttest. The sample consisted of 20 representative teachers. The results of the research showed that the effectiveness of the curriculum was scored as 82.07/81.17, slightly higher than the set criteria of 80/80 indicating that the curriculum was appropriate for implementation. There was a significant different at the.01 level among the average posttest and pretest scores of the participants. The results of the test indicated that this curriculum improved knowledge of the teachers. Positive teacher comments included: increase of knowledge, understanding the benefits of the training, ability to apply knowledge, better skills in the management of teaching children with special needs and increased self confidence. This training course has been promoted to other inclusive schools in the area. It should be noted that the development of the training course needs to be conducted on a continuous basis. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n7p124