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Improving Teacher Effectiveness Through Certification :
Presented by In Thailand at present, there are altogether approximately 600,000 teachers responsible for education of around 12 million students, the future manpower of the country. The importance of teaching profession to the way of life of the Thais has increasingly been recognized. The constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand specifies among many other educational issues that the State shall "develop the teaching profession". In fact, teaching is the only profession so specified in this highest law of the country. This strongly substantiates the importance of teachers in the Thai society. Eventhough an annual budget of about Baht 100,000 millions has been spent on teachers' salaries and compensations, teaching is still not the favorably attractive profession. Teachers have to be responsible for the students in big schools in the cities as well as those in smaller schools in the provinces and remote areas. While the responsibility is high and very demanding, the payment remains relatively low. Therefore, the teaching profession has long been unattractive particularly to the new generation. Good and bright students of today have various career choices and they often avoid the teaching profession. The current 130,000 teacher students are usually not the cream of the crop. Besides, it has been estimated that, as a result of the recent economic crisis, about 100,000 bachelor degree-holders from the teacher institutes will be unemployed in the next 5 years. 1. The National Educaction Act, 1999 With the present Constitution as the legal foundation, we have achieved in proposing the National Education Act, 1999, which has been eventually approved and become effective since August 20, 1999. The Act is expected by all concerned to be an apparatus of education reform for a better Thailand. The National Education Act is composed of 9 chapters, namely Chapter 1 General Provisions: Objectives and Principles, Chapter 2 Educational Rights and Duties, Chapter 3 Educational System, Chapter 4 National Education Guidelines, Chapter 5 Educational Administration and Management, Chapter 6 Education Standards and Quality Assurance, Chapter 7 Teachers, Faculty Staff, and Educational Personnel, Chapter 8 Resources and Investment for Education, Chapter 9 Technologies for Education, and Transitory Provisions. Under the jurisdiction of the Education Reform Committee established in compliance with the Act, the reform required by provisions in Chapter 5 Educational Administration and Management, Chapter 7 Teachers, Faculty Staff, and Educational Personnel, and Chapter 8 Resources and Investment for Education will require drafting and amendment of various related laws within three years after the enactment date of this Act. (Chapter 4 and Chapter 7 which are most related to teaching profession and teacher quality are in the appendix) National Education Act of B.E. 2542 (1999) is the guideline of education reform in Thailand. Speaking about the teacher reform in particular, there are two parts of teacher reform. The first part is the teaching profession reform stressing the teacher and administrators license; the decentralization of the personnel affairs administration; the new scale of the salaries, renumeration and other benefits for teachers and the promotion and development of teachers by giving them recognition, incentives and R&D projects on teaching reform (mentioned in Chapter 7). The second part concerning the quality of the teacher in terms of the reform in learning and teaching (mentioned in Chapter 4) 2. Teaching Profession Reform According to the National Education Act, Chapter 7, the Teaching Profession Reform, Office of the National Education Commission has 6 policy-oriented projects to be done, namely, 1. Professional License for Thai Teachers.2.1 Process of working The six on-going projects mentioned earlier have similar working processed as follows; 2.1.1 Research based on documents available in the country and abroad to synthesize data, viewpoints and past experiences in various aspects. 2.1.2 Invitation and provision of support to related groups, teachers, parent-teacher associations, teacher associations, ect, to hold meetings in order to sound their opinions on the system and other related matters. A total of 5 meetings will be organized, each devoted to teachers in Bangkok and 4 regions. 2.1.3 Seeking opinions of related people nationwide by doing Poll. 2.1.4 Preparation of reports on attainment of the targets. 2.1.5 Drawing the essential elements to put in the law. 2.1.6 Present to the related committee and organization. 3. Professional License for Thai Teachers The Professional License for Thai Teachers project has sailed through the research and public hearing process and report has already been sent to the Education Reform Office at this writing. The purpose of the research on Professional License for Thai Teachers was to propose professional licensing system for Thai teachers in accordance with the National Education Act of B.E. 1999 Section 53 Chapter 7 in the second paragraph as follows : "Teachers, administrators of educational institutions, educational administrators and other educational personnel of both the state and private sectors shall have professional licenses as provided by the law."The research results expected are (1) the body of knowledge concerning professional licenses and professional organization for teachers, and (2) the academic information to be used as bases for drafting the new or revising the existing Teachers Act in order to include issue of professional licenses.
The documentary research methodology was employed including public hearings
and a public poll. Relevant pieces of information concerning teacher
licenses in seven countries: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong SRA, Japan, New
Zealand, Scotland and United States of America were studied. In addition,
several attempts to issue professional licenses for Thai teachers
over the previous five decades were analyzed. The preliminary research
findings were then presented to stakeholders in the series of 10
meetings participating more than 2000 stakeholoders from
all overs the country actually participated in the series of consultative
meeting. Finally, the Office of the National Education Commission
in collaboration with the Suan Dusit Poll sounded the general public opinions
on major issues of professional license for Thai teachers. A total
of 12,464 respondents from seven educational regions gave their views
and suggestions in this regard.
1.
Principles of Licensing Teachers.
2.
The objectives
3.
Who are required to have teaching licenses.
4.
Types of Teaching License
5.
Teacher Qualifications.
6. Methods of issuing Teaching License
7. Teacher with a standard teaching license will be entitled to receive salaries, remuneration, welfare and other benefits as stipulated by a new law stated in section 55 of the National Education Act of B.E. 2542 (1999). 8. A new Organization for Teachers Educational Institution Administrators, and Educational Administrators will be established as an independent body administered by a professional council under supervision of Ministry of Education, Religion and Culture. This Organization shall have the powers and duties for setting professional standards; issuing and withdrawal of licenses; overseeing maintenance of professional standards and ethics; and developing of the profession of teachers, education institution administrators, and educational administrators. 4. Reform in Learning and Teaching In 1997 the Office of the National Education Comisson (ONEC) in collaboration with the nation's leading scholars and researchers conducted research on learning theories in parallel with the drafting of the National Education Act. The research yielded the findings of five theories - Happy Learning, Participatory Learning, Thinking Process Development Learning, Moral Value Development Learning, and Aesthetic Value Development Learning. These learning theories have been adopted for implementation in the classrooms by a large number of teachers and administrators in the past few years, causing change in teaching-learning activities to a great extent. 4.1 Learners as the Center of Learning In order to have the child-centered learning provided by law, Section 22 of the National Education Act stated that : "Education shall be based on the principle that all learners are capable of learning and self-development, and are regarded as being most important. The teaching-learning process shall aim at enabling the learners to develop themselves at their own pace and to the best of their potentiality." The statement above assures that each individual has potentiality for learning and is regarded as the center of teaching-learning activities. To reform the teaching-learning, both teachers and learners must change their roles. Teachers must change from a "teller" to a "facilitator", while learners can learn by themselves, provided that they are assisted by teachers how to learn, where to get information, and how to make use of it. Comparison of teaching process between teacher-centered and student-centered can be summarized as follows:
4.2 Teachers as Agents of Learning Reform ONEC in collaboration with the Learning Reform Sub-committee, has initiated two major projects: National Teacher Award, and Master Teacher Award. These projects are under the belief that there are a large number of capable and hardworking teachers, but they may not be able to emerge to wider public due to the lack of opportunity. Therefore, we have to sort them out, reward them and set them as samples for other teachers in terms of teaching-learning reform. Who are the National Teachers? The National Teacher Award was designed to be the highest award ever presented to teachers. It aims at honoring the teachers who have accumulated an excellent record in the past performance and who can demonstrate their future research project beneficial to the improvement of teaching and learning. For the first phase of 5 years, emphasis will be placed on teachers in 4 subject areas - Thai, English, Mathematics, and Science. The award winners will receive a financial allocation for their research. In 1998 four teachers were declared the National Teachers and in 1999 six more teachers were given the prestige. While carrying their teaching function as usual, these excellent teachers conduct their research and are visited by teachers from other schools to observe their classroom and exchange opinions on the learning reform. Who are the Master Teachers? The Master teachers are those who, by following the child-centered concept, organize their outstanding classroom activities which can be a good sample for other teachers. These master teachers are required to form a teacher network of at least 10 persons and expand their teaching methods through the "Kalayanamitr Nites" (friendship-based supervision) to the network members. ONEC also give them financial support for the supervisory activities. In 1998 thirty teachers were chosen to be master teachers and ninety-six more were selected in 1999. The Ministry of Education, with the approval of His excellency Minister Somsak Prisananantakul, has accepted the idea of learning reform through national teachers and master teachers. Teachers who are likely to change their teaching behavior under the child-centered concept will be selected as the so-called "Lead Teachers." They will attend the workshop on child-centered learning, under the supervision of national teachers and master teachers. It is expected that in 1999 about 30,000 teachers will participate in the workshop. While implementing their teaching style, these lead teachers will also expand their methodology to their network of ten teachers. Thus, within two years, all 600,000 teachers will be completely transformed to be "Teachers of the new Millennium." These teachers will be agents of change for the learning reform in schools all over the country. 5. The international cooperation - Joint research project - Chapter 4 National Education Guidelines - Chapter 7 Teachers, Faculty Staff and Educational Personnel
Rung Kaewdang. Learning for the New Century. Office of the National Education Commission,1999. S. Pitiyanuwat, and others. Professional License for Thai Teachers. Chulalongkorn University, 1999. Siriporn Boonyananta. "Educaction Reform in Thailand from
the Perspective of the Deputy
Secretary General
of the National Education Commission, Dr. Siriporn Boonyananta",
Chulalongkorn
Educational Review, Volume 6 Number 2 January 2000 p.70-74.
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