The quality of education depends on the quality of teachers, both of which have great influence on the quality of mankind. Learning is a circular process of pleasure where proficiency, kindness and happiness among other positive human traits are affected by teaching and learning methods that generate learning pleasure. The results satisfy all parties comprising learners, parents and students, especially teachers who provide the academic instruction.

Good teachers in the globalized world must provide education according to on-going changes, taking into consideration the fact that learning is not limited to the classroom or the same old textbooks, only. Neither "teacher-centered learning", nor "slave-or-thought" systems should be tolerated as before, instead, teachers must give first priority to their students' interests because they are the ones who are learning. The learning process starts with curiosity, followed by planning and learning activities through teacher-students interaction. Students use cognitive skills such as thinking, analyzing, and problem-solving in the classroom where a learning ambiance is present.

Orapin Srisawan or Archarn Orapin 'National Teacher 1999', Ban Nakaew Pracharath School, Lampang, is a teacher who promotes a learning atmosphere in her science class. She introduced "constructivism" - which believes that all students hold knowledge from home and learn further in class by co-relating new knowledge with current knowledge.

"We believe that students don't come to school with an empty brain or empty mind and don't expect to absorb knowledge only from the teacher. They already have their own field of knowledge and experience collected from parents, siblings, cousins, friends and peer groups, in addition to various media such as television, radio and the Internet. So while students already retain some background knowledge, teachers are in charge of providing activities, focusing on the cognitive development process and group behavior enabling students to exchanges knowledge, join thoughts and form convictions. Thereby, new theories, frames of mind and new lines of perceptions are discovered and applied in real life." Archarn Orapin added, "if we want to teach students about 1 calorie of nutrition energy, students will be assigned a piece of work. Using the definition; 1 calorie is the amount of energy needed to heat a gram of water by 1 degree Celsius, the students then have to conduct a practical experiment to illustrate the definition. The students are provided with all necessary apparatus and equipment to implement the experiment and freedom to conduct the process with the teacher as moderator. However, if the experiment is deviating from the main objective, then the teacher can step in and advise the students where they are going wrong and how to get it back on track again. Through various means, students find different ways to design the experiment. However, in the end, students achieve the same result as stipulated in the definition."

Teachers who are considered successful must train students to think well. They must also be patient. It is their job to train students to think and to implement the theory, whereas teachers are mentors, who are there to coach. They must be tolerant in endlessly motivating students to seek knowledge, without cluing them about final contents. Teachers should not just lecture the subject's contents because students will not retain contents through lecturing alone. Archarn Orapin stated that, "each individual student may have different perceptions which do not need to conform with the teachers' or text books' ideas. The implementation of the approach is at the same time the proving of the theory. In this way, opportunities are offered to further define the contents. This inspires students and encourages them with assertiveness and open-mindedness to accept others' opinions."

Chorthip Trakulswangpob - Archarn Chorthip 'Master Teacher 1999', Mahidol Wittayanusorn School is another award teacher who applies 'constructivism' in her biology class. Students are trained with a mind mapping technique. Following research and looking for references, knowledge is collected by means of group investigation, exchanging, adjusting, jigsawing and finally concept mapping (connecting thoughts and contents with real life).

"Through my observations conventional teaching methods involved continuous lectures, while students had to memorize the contents just for the exams. This type of education neither improves students' quality of life, nor profoundly ties up academic subjects with real life, due to the now-cohesive link between the curriculum and real life. Class contents have to relate with each student's aptitude and tendency with which they are continuously motivated to seek instruction and enlightenment."

Archarn Orapin and Archarn Chorthip, are only two of hundreds of teachers who are acutely aware of the importance of education reform. They tried to reorganize their teaching plan to comply with the Education Act B.E. 2542 which stipulates that education must be organized according to the principle in which students are capable and trainable. Students are the most significant agent, since it has been proven that students are inspired learners and conscious of their own potential and proficiency. Students also possess thoughtful and analytical minds which enable them to 'untie their own knots'. When all teachers are well aware, they and their students will happily interact and learn together in the learning process.

Published in THE NATION Newspaper: Wednesday 10th, May 2000 Page A6