THE EFFECTS AND TRENDS OF TEACHER
EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES
ARISING FROM THE ASEAN COMMUNITY
Dr.Juraisiri Choorak
ABSTRACT
The article aimed to present the
effects and trends of teacher education in universities as determined by
policies stemming from the establishment and the progressive strengthening of
the ASEAN Community. The policies of ASEAN and Thailand education were
reviewed. The effects of the ASEAN Community in the aspect of teacher education
were classified into 5 categories: 1) educational standard and qualification
framework, 2) curriculum development, 3) teaching strategies, 4) technologies
for education, and 5) lecturer qualification. The trends of teacher education
in the 5 categories as follows: 1) teacher education standard and qualification
will be developed to international standard and are considered ASEAN
competency, 2) curricula in teacher education are diverse and international and
also be cooperated among members of ASEAN community, 3) Having considered
teaching strategies, academic staff are required not only to be good at English
but also be able to understand other ASEAN languages. In addition, the “5C”
skills needed for moving towards the living together in multicultural societies are developed. Moreover, courses and programs in the
field of Mathematics, Sciences and Language tend to increase, 4) budget
allocation in technology is provided adequately to support teacher education,
and 5) the higher qualification of lecturers as well as the competency in using
English, technology and research skills are required.
Keywords: Teacher Education,
The ASEAN Community
INTRODUCTION
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was
established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of ASEAN
Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN; namely
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Then Brunei
Darussalam, Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Cambodia then joined respectively,
making up what is today the ten member states of ASEAN. The aims and purposes
of ASEAN are: 1) to accelerate the economic growth, social progress and
cultural development in the region through joint endeavors in the spirit of
equality and partnership in order to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous
and peaceful community of Southeast Asian Nations, 2) to promote regional peace
and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the
relationship among countries of the region and adherence to the principles of
the United Nations Charter, 3) to promote active collaboration and mutual
assistance on matters of common interest in the economic, social, cultural,
technical, scientific and administrative fields, 4) to provide assistance to
each other in the form of training and research facilities in the educational,
professional, technical and administrative spheres, 5) to collaborate more
effectively for the greater utilization of their agriculture and industries,
the expansion of their trade, including the study of the problems of
international commodity trade, the improvement of their transportation and
communications facilities and the raising of the living standards of their
peoples, 6) to promote Southeast Asian studies, and 7) to maintain close and
beneficial cooperation with existing international and regional organizations
with similar aims and purposes, and explore all avenues for even closer
cooperation among themselves. In their relations with one another, the ASEAN
Member States have adopted the following fundamental principles; there are 1) mutual
respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, and
national identity of all nations, 2) the right of every State to lead its
national existence free from external interference, subversion or coercion, 3)
non-interference in the internal affairs of one another, 4) settlement of
differences or disputes by peaceful manner, 5) renunciation of the threat or
use of force, and 6) Effective cooperation among themselves. According to the
fundamental principles, 10 ASEAN member countries stated the ASEAN charter;
which is the original agreements that serves as a firm foundation in achieving
the ASEAN Community by providing legal status and institutional framework for
ASEAN. It also codifies ASEAN norms, rules and values; sets clear targets for
ASEAN; and presents accountability and compliance. The ASEAN Charter entered into force on 15
December 2008. In effect, the ASEAN Charter has become a legally binding
agreement among the 10 ASEAN Member States. The policy of the agreement has
already begun and will be completely available in 2015 [1] [2].
The policies of ASEAN and Thailand education were reviewed as
follows:
1.The three
pillars of principle of the ASEAN Charter
The
ASEAN Charter includes three pillars of principle; namely ASEAN
Political-Security Community (APSC). The
ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) The ASEAN
Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) which each pillar brought to the blueprint as
the detail as follows [3] [4] [5].
1.1 ASEAN
Political-Security Community (APSC)
The
APSC shall aim to ensure that countries in the region live at peace with one
another and with the world in a just, democratic and harmonious environment. The
members of the Community pledge to rely exclusively on peaceful processes in
the settlement of intra-regional differences and regard their security as
fundamentally linked to one another and bound by geographic location, common
vision and objectives. It has the following components: political development;
shaping and sharing of norms; conflict prevention; conflict resolution;
post-conflict peace building; and implementing mechanisms. The APSC Blueprint
envisages ASEAN to be a rules-based Community of shared values and norms; a
cohesive, peaceful, stable and resilient region with shared responsibility for
comprehensive security; as well as a dynamic and outward-looking region in an
increasingly integrated and interdependent world.
1.2 ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)
The AEC shall be
the goal of regional economic integration by 2015. AEC envisages the following
key characteristics: 1) a single market and production base, 2) a highly
competitive economic region, 3) a region of equitable economic development, and
4) a region fully integrated into the global economy. The AEC areas of
cooperation include human resources development and capacity building;
recognition of professional qualifications; closer consultation on macroeconomic
and financial policies; trade financing measures; enhanced infrastructure and
communications connectivity; development of electronic transactions through
e-ASEAN; integrating industries across the region to promote regional sourcing;
and enhancing private sector involvement for the building of the AEC. In short,
the AEC will transform ASEAN into a region with free movement of goods,
services, investment, skilled labor, and freer flow of capital. The AEC
blueprint is served as a coherent master plan guiding the establishment of the
ASEAN Economic Community 2015.
1.3 ASEAN
Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC)
The
ASCC aims to contribute to realizing an ASEAN Community that is people-oriented
and socially responsible with a view to achieving enduring solidarity and unity
among the peoples and Member States of ASEAN. It seeks to forge a common
identity and build a caring and sharing society which is inclusive and where
the well-being, livelihood, and welfare of the peoples are enhanced. The ASCC
is focused on nurturing the human, cultural and natural resources for sustained
development in a harmonious and people-oriented ASEAN. The ASCC Blueprint
represents the human dimension of ASEAN cooperation and upholds ASEAN
commitment to address the region’s aspiration to lift the quality of life of
its peoples. The goals of the ASCC are envisaged to be achieved by implementing
concrete and productive actions that are people-centered and socially
responsible. This set of cooperative activities has been developed based on the
assumption that the three pillars of the ASEAN Community are interdependent and
interrelated and that linkages are imperative to ensure complementarities and
unity of purpose.
In
the author’s point of view, in the early step of stemming from the established
and the progressive strengthening
of the ASEAN community, the AEC Blueprint and the ASCC
Blueprint are the main important blueprints affecting the education policies of
the member countries.
In the reason that education is the most important tool in developing human
resources and then high qualified human resources are the important tool
enhancing the ASEAN economic then. Anyway, moving the APSC Blueprint into
practice clearly shall happen after people and their economic are strong
already.
2. The ASEAN Educational policies
The
perspective in Establishing the ASEAN Community that is education underpins the
community building. Education lies at the core of ASEAN’s development
process, creating a knowledge-based society and contributing to the enhancement
of ASEAN competitiveness. ASEAN also views education as the vehicle to raise
ASEAN awareness, inspire the “we feeling”, and create a sense of belonging to
the ASEAN Community and understanding of the richness of ASEAN’s history,
languages, culture and common values [6]. So it can conclude that education is the most
important tool in developing the human resources of the ASEAN community the
role of education is directly towards
the ASEAN Community development in three pillars; Political-Security
Community (APSC), the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), and the ASEAN
Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC).
To take the education policies of ASEAN
into practice, in 1965 The ASEAN Community established The Southeast
Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) which is a regional
intergovernmental organization among governments of Southeast Asian countries
to promote regional cooperation in education, science and culture in the
region. As an organization that has continued to nurture human capacities and
explored the peoples’ fullest potential, the SEAMEO maintains its work and
aspirations for development with peoples of the region to make lives better in
quality and equity in education, preventive health education, culture and
tradition, information and communication technology, languages, poverty
alleviation and agriculture and natural resources. The organization's highest
policy-making body is the SEAMEO Council. The SEAMEO Secretariat is located in
Bangkok, Thailand.
The purpose
and function of SEAMEO are: 1) to promote
cooperation among the Southeast Asian nations through education, science and
culture in order to further respect for justice, for the rule of law and for
the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are the birthrights of the
peoples of the world, 2) to realize this purpose the Organization will: (a)
Collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of
the peoples in Southeast Asia as well as the rest of the world; (b) Promote and
collaborate with the Member States, at their request, in joint projects and programs
of mutual benefit concerning education, science and culture and assist the
members in the development of educational activities; (c) Maintain, increase
and diffuse knowledge; (d) Assist in articulating education to the economic and
social goals in the individual Member States, and 3) with a view to preserving
the independence, integrity and fruitful diversity of the cultures and
educational systems of the Member States, the Organization is prohibited from
intervening in matters which are essentially within their domestic
jurisdiction. According to the purpose and function, the priority areas of duties of SEAMEO are included
in 3 areas; education, culture and science. Particularly, the education which can
be concluded into 6 components: 1) education in 21st Century Skills;
there are character education,
entrepreneurship education, Information and Communication Technology,
language and literacy, scientific and technological literacy, 2) Continuous professional development for
teacher and education personnel, 3) Education For All (EFA); there are Basic
education, Early childhood care and education (ECCE), Education in emergencies,
Life-long learning, Reaching the unreached, Special education needs, 4) Education
for sustainable development (ESD), 5) higher education, and 6) technical and
vocational education [7].
In response of the ASEAN Vision 2020
and the ASEAN Charter; there is ASEAN University Network (AUN) is envisaged as
one of ASEAN Secretor Ministerial Bodies and will serve as a mechanism to: 1) strengthen existing network of cooperation among universities in ASEAN, 2)
promote collaborative study, research and educational programs on the priority areas
identified by ASEAN, 3) promote cooperation and solidarity among scholars,
academicians and researchers in the ASEAN Member States, and 4) serve as the
policy‐oriented body in higher education in the ASEAN region.
Since its establishment in 1995, the AUN has moved from strength to strength
with several key milestones of achievement; they are as follows: 1)promoting
ASEAN Studies programs to students in the region and beyond, 2) fostering a
sense of regional identity among the youth of ASEAN, 3) promoting mutual
recognition of academic qualifications among universities in the region, and 4)
encouraging collaborative research and information networking on priorities
that contribute to realizing ASEAN’s goals for closer integration in the
economic, security and socio‐cultural spheres. The
AUN today stands as an integral part of ASEAN Community‐building, with a clear role to play in the ASEAN Socio‐Cultural Community process, through its many partnerships
for human resource development through higher education. The areas of
cooperation between AUN and SEAMEO on higher education can be concluded into 5
aspects as there are: 1) ASEAN Quality Framework and Curriculum Development, 2)
Student Mobility, 3) Entrepreneurship, 4) ICT, and 5) ASEAN Research Clusters [8].
3. The educational problems of Thailand
The
result of the National Test in Thai basic education in 2010 academic year
revealed that students’ achievement was lower that 50% average, especially
Mathematics, Sciences and Foreign Language (English) was lower than 35%
average. In addition, the achievement in 2011 academic year found that all of 8
subjects besides Health and Physical Education in the secondary grade 6 were
lower than 50% average [9]. Moreover, the research result of the Office of the
Education Council conducted by Suwannee Kamman [10, p.88-89] revealed that Thai
people are weak in thinking skills and have limitation in language skill and
ICT skill. The education qualification is also low, especially in teacher
education that the system in input selection didn’t attract bright students into
the program in teacher education. Plus, the process in teaching was not based
on student-centered. Additionally, there are a number of schools in basic
education that cannot be assured due to the problems arising from low qualified
teachers. On the other hand, the problem in the university is there are PhD
lecturers just only 20% of the whole of lecturers [11].
For
Thailand joining as a member of the 10 ASEAN countries, it has brought changes
and effects in many aspects to every single part of the societies, even
education in universities. The changes are moving based on developing human
resources which are important to develop socio economic of Thailand. In
developing human resources, education; especially teacher education; is the
important tool in enhancing the human resources. Thai educational achievement
needs to be reviewed and improved through teacher education which to produce
higher qualified teachers whom have characteristics as the 21st
century teachers as in line with the expectation of ASEAN Community as stated
in ASEAN agreement. This article presented the author’s points of view and
recommendations which are considered in the preparation of the near future plan
and action in teacher education in universities arising from the ASEAN
Community which will be completely available in 2015.
METHODS
Documentary
research method was used in this article which based on the original
agreements of the ASEAN charter, on specific educational policies of ASEAN
Community countries, on educational conferences and also on literature reviewed
from books and related websites between A.D.2007 – 2012.
RESULTS
AND DISCUSSION
The
author considered the effects and trends of teacher education arising from the
ASEAN Community under 5 categories: there are 1) educational standard and
qualification framework, 2) curriculum development, 3) teaching strategies, 4) technologies
for education, and 5) lecturer qualification as follows:
1.
Educational standard and qualification framework
Until today, ASEAN Community announced
the Mutual
Recognition Agreement on 7 Occupations: Engineering Services, Nursing Services,
Architectural Services, Surveying Qualifications, Medical Practitioners, Dental
Practitioners, and Accountancy Services. In the near future, other occupations
will be announced. It brings to stating those co-standard and qualification
framework. Focusing on education, education can be transfer in ASEAN Community,
so the concept of educational standard and qualification framework affects
teacher education in universities undeniable and has broader and encompassing
in the context of ASEAN Community [12, p.218-230] [13] [14]. In
this point indicates that teaching qualify
as a profession that in 2010 the ASEAN Community studied and published the
research on teaching competency standards for Southeast Asian teachers which
concluded of attributes of a competent teacher and policies and process for
developing teaching competency standard. [14].
In April 2011, Thailand organized the
conference on the development of Thailand national qualification
framework and regional qualification framework [15]. So trends of teacher education in the aspect of educational standard and
qualification framework can be expected that teacher education standard
and qualification will be developed to international standard and are
considered ASEAN competency. Presently, some fields are developed and available
into action. Additionally, academic year will be corrected to be in line with
the academic year of ASEAN. Today, the academic year in higher of education of
Thailand was corrected that will be available soon. Anyway, in the near future
in Basic education and Vocational education it will be available later; due to
the policy of education exchange and transfer.
2.
Curriculum development
Teacher
curriculum of the future needs to develop new relationships between school
subjects and between them and the world outside of school, so a teacher
education curriculum based on connective specialization has to develop a new
relationship between the educational disciplines and between them and practical
problems facing teachers. ASEAN Community stated that curriculum development is
one of many
ways in educational development that embody the fundamental principle of the
ASEAN charter. In 2012, the ASEAN publication “Curriculum
Sourcebook” which is a teaching resource for primary and secondary schools to
foster and outward looking, stable, peaceful and prosperous ASEAN community.
The content includes of knowing ASEAN, valuing identity and diversity,
connecting global and local, promoting equity and justice, and working together
for sustainable future [16]. In addition, AUN also supported the specific
activity development of IP curricula and teaching materials for pre university
education [8].
Anyway, The Ministry of Thailand
Education stated and has undertaken to progress preparation in education on
joining the ASEAN Community by announcing the mission and supporting basic
education, higher education and also vocational education both formal education
and informal education to develop curriculum on ASEAN study and then take into widely
teaching [17].
So
trends of teacher education in the aspect of
curriculum development can be expected that
curricula in teacher education will be diverse and international and also
be cooperated among members of ASEAN community. Moreover, the ASEAN curriculum
as units, subjects and content integrated will be studied from Basic Education
until higher education with considering in scopes and sequences of the
curriculum. It is possible that there will be an ASEAN Core Curriculum on ASEAN
Studies that ten member countries can take the subject matters of the
curriculum into their own curriculum development or into classrooms by
integrating with the teaching context of each country.
3. Teaching strategies
Teacher education extends from the
pre-service (before practice) to the in-service (encouraged in practice) level
of teaching. SEAMEO and AUN emphasized that teaching is an important process to
progress and develop an education outcome. Teaching and teacher education
practice is the important process in teacher education because teachers play
the key role in reforming the learning process and are change-agents for
educational quality improvement. Hence, the development of teachers has been considered
as a critical issue for educational reform in Thailand. Consequently, great
efforts have been made to improve the status and standards of the teaching
profession in line with 2542 (2002) National Education ACT. SEAMEO and AUN have
undertaken to develop and continually enhance teachers’ teaching. Example; 1) the journal “SEAMEO Education
Agenda” publication concludes articles in the field of teaching strategy
development; such as curriculum and teaching material development, strategies
planning, ICT teaching and administration, etc., 2) AUN has enhanced teacher in
teaching strategies extensively covering essential aspects of higher
development, 3) in 2012 SEAMEO published the book “Southeast Asian Ministers
of Education Organization: Project Exemplar in Southeast Asia”. The book
presents good practices and examples of pioneering programs which seek to
provide recommendations and solution to issues and challenges which address
national, regional and global educational concerns, 4) the 4th AUN Rectors’ meeting which was held in July 2012 under the themed preparation for ASEAN +3 Rectors’ Conference.
The meeting discussed and addressed the AUN milestones in ASEAN+3 higher
education cooperation and the feasibility of further enhancing our cooperation
in accordance with the cooperation plans for the various existing frameworks, and
5) there are AUN-QA training courses for accomplishing program
assessment which will take place in
December 2012 [13] [18]
[19] [20].
According to teacher education in
Thailand, in 2005, a five year bachelor degree program was initiated so as to
recruit and bring students with favorable attitude towards the teaching
profession as entrants in teacher education. Upon completion of the program,
comprising three and a half years of coursework and three semesters of teaching
practice. In this program, the faculty works closely in collaboration with
school and in-service teachers. With faculty as their mentors, teacher trainees
will be able to practice in real situations, trained and advised by school
teachers and school administrators will also provide necessary facilities to
support their training. It is believed that almost all of scholarship
recipients have high potential and will become qualified teachers. In
maintaining profession standards, which is comprised of professional knowledge
and experience, performance, and conduct [21, p.79-81].
Nevertheless, scholarship wasn’t granted
to all students, and the result of the National Test in Thai basic education was
low in Mathematics, Sciences and Language and Thai people are also weak in
thinking skills, language skill and ICT skill as the author presented in the previous
part of this article. In addition, in the 21st century,
teacher needed to be excellent in applying teaching strategies in teaching
students to be good in “5C” Skills; there are: Creative problem solving skills,
Critical thinking skills, Collaborative skills, Communicative skills and
Computing skills [22].
From the Goal of ASEAN Community and
also the educational problems of Thailand, it can be concluded that teachers
need to learn and how their initial training can prepare them for seeing the
promotion of lifelong learning as being at the centre of their future role as
teachers. The new type of learning needed would need to reverse and be
reflected in new forms of partnership between school and universities.
Regarding the ASEAN Community; high qualified human resources are expected, so
teacher education is the tool and vehicle which universities should reviewed to
produce high qualified teacher to directly teach students to be high qualified
human resources later in the future.
So trends of teacher
education in the aspect of teaching and
teacher education practice can be expected that teaching and
learning strategies that lecturers are required to be excellent in the use of
English in teaching and can also use another ASEAN country language; in
addition, the teaching strategies direct to developing students of ASEAN
citizenship who have the “5C” skills and so which are necessary for living
together in harmony in a multicultural society. Moreover, lecturers need to be
excellent in applying teaching strategies in line with the context of society
and also ASEAN context. Also, courses and programs in teacher education and
in-service training in the fields of Mathematics, Sciences and Language tend to
increase due to the fact that such subjects are crucial to enable people to be
highly competent in competition in the world economy. The courses and programs
in teacher education will be in many types of education. Namely; formal education, non-formal
education, distances education, etc. Teacher education includes both the
pre-service and the in-service training. There will be plenty of models of
in-service training using in teacher education. Moreover, due to the strictness of recruitment criteria,
courses and programs in teacher education will be intensive and attract bright
students to study in the field of education
from granting scholarship and job guarantee, and qualified teachers will be
produced.
4.
Technologies for education
A foundational knowledge of educational
technologies can enhance a teacher’s capacity to meet any number of goals
related to teaching. In addition, a comfort with technology can help teachers
quickly adapt to the changing need of students and expectations of society. One
of the biggest challenges for 21st century teachers is to respond to
societal change intelligently. According to the Office of The Education Council
[21, p.101] that ICT enables learners, both inside and outside school, to
access a wide variety of information that goes beyond the traditional classroom
setting. Students and workers, for instance, can search for cutting-edge
knowledge from the internet to expand their learning horizons as well as to
develop the thinking skills and creativity needed for the 21st
Century. So that is the reason why the ASEAN Community affects the resources
and technologies for education in teacher education. One of 5 areas of
cooperation between AUN and SEAMEO on higher education is ICT [8]. In 2012,
the activities on ICT skills enhancing was held by ASEAN Community in several
ways. Namely; 1) Digital Education Show Asia which
was held in September, Malaysia
which is the leading event that features the best in technology innovation for
the education sector. The Digital Education Show Asia will focus on:
integrating the use of technology in the classroom, innovative strategies to
develop an eLearning environment, and incorporating the use of social
networking platforms for increased interaction and participation, 2) SEAMEO
publication “Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization: Project
Exemplar in Southeast Asia” that a part of the book presents a technology
solution in teaching, and 3) Southeast Asia Education Network (SEA EduNet) that
is a system that links educational institutions in Southeast Asia, as well as
providing a repository of learning materials for Southeast Asian people to
share knowledge, ideas and best practice that have been enriched with concepts
and program developed between member countries [23].
For National Education Act B.E. 2542
(1999) and Amendments (secondary National Education Act B.E. 2545 (2002) stated
in chapter 9 Technologies for education in section 64 that the state shall promote
and support the production and refinement of textbooks, reference books,
academic books, publications, materials, and other technologies for education
through acceleration of production and incentives for producers; and
development of technologies for education. In so doing, fair competition shall
be ensured. The section 65 also stated that steps shall be taken for personnel
development for both procedures and users of technologies for education so that
they shall have the knowledge, capacities, and skills required for the
production and utilization of appropriate, high-qualify, and efficient
technologies [24, p.29-30]. According to the agreement in ASEAN Charter, the
Ministry of Education of Thailand has undertaken to develop ICT skills of
students as it was stated in the strategy plan. In addition, ICT connection
exchange was supported by establishing ASEAN university and
cyber university that to support the connection [17].
So trends of teacher
education in Thailand in the aspect of technologies
for education can be expected that budget allocation in technology is provided
adequately to support teacher education and also enhance teachers in using
technology as an important tool in teaching. Additionally, educational
technology cooperation is considered and promoted in the policies of ASEAN
countries, and put into practice in several ways.
5.
Lecturer qualification
The
agreement of ASEAN Community as the ten member countries using English as ASEAN
language and can use another ASEAN languages will be completely available in
2015, the policies of SEAMEO and also the AUN emphasize that it is necessary
the qualified lectures in universities are required; which can be using
English, ICT and research, particularly lecturers in Faculty of teacher
education. ICT qualification is to address the
pedagogical issue, the teacher preparation program at universities, revised its
technology course requirement, moving it from one focusing on only the
acquisition of technology skills to one in which elementary school teacher
candidates were encouraged to use a range of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) to teach various types of subject matter content, while also
promoting student-centered technology integration to ensure their future
students meet standard for technological literacy. In order to support teacher
candidates in becoming practitioners capable of understanding and applying
technology integration in their future classrooms, pre-service teachers should
be prepared to teach with technology and analysis of teaching and learning with
technology which requires understanding of the complex set of
interrelationships among pedagogy, content, and technical knowledge. It is
important to note that at the same time, it is often emphasized that
technologies should not be positioned or taught as stand-alone tools. According
to the policy of ASEAN, language,
ICT and research is qualification was expected from lecturer, so ASEAN stated
ASEAN plan of action on Science and technology; 2007-2011 and also
collaborative research [25] [26].
According
to, the Ministry of Education of Thailand set the goal that primary grade 6
students can use English in communication and seeking knowledge by establishing
language training center, Enhancing teachers in using “English for Integrated
Studies” (EIS) in Sciences and Mathematics, developing “The Global Class” which
is the electronic classroom and also teacher training of English and ICT [17]. Nevertheless,
Thailand has faced the problem in using English that Thai people have limitation in language skill. The problem was obviously shown by the result of the National Test in Thai basic education and research
which the author previously presented. In this case, Office of the Educational
Council, Ministry of Education did research to explore the situation of English
education in Thailand and the contribution of one selected institution’s
international program for teacher education that has seemingly been successful
in upgrading English teachers use of the language and teaching methods [27].
Trends
of teacher education in the aspect of
lecturer qualification can be expected that the higher
qualification of lecturers as well as the competency in using English,
technology and research skills are required. In addition, in-service teachers
need to be excellent in integrating English, technology and doing research to respond to societal change intelligently.
As such there will be teacher educational
cooperation which is considered and promoted in the
policies of ASEAN countries, and put into practice in several ways; cooperation
in teacher education will be facilitated by exchanges of students and
lecturers, by cooperation in professional practice, by educational trips, by
specific research and development, etc.
CONCLUSION
In the
author’s view, that the qualification of education in whether basic education
or higher education both are related and correlated. Due to universities
produce teachers through teacher education system which is five years for now,
then the teachers are the output which are sent to the basic education. To fix
the problems of low educational achievement, there is an urgent need for the
fixing and improving of the whole educational system, but when focusing on the
teacher education in universities, all related factors must be reviewed and
also designed a course work and teaching practice in line with globalization
that qualified people in 21st century are expected even in the ASEAN
Community. For
Thailand joining as a member of the ASEAN Community, it has directly affected
the educational policies of Thailand. Regarding education in universities,
especially teacher education that needs to be reviewed and improved to produce
higher qualified teachers who have qualification as Asian teachers as the ASEAN
Community expected. Anyway, Thailand is facing problems of crisis in
educational achievement which is lower than the standard average that needs to
be a matter of concern for immediately fixing. So from now on until 2015, there
are the two main challenges facing Thailand education; the first is how to
prepare the country moving into the ASEAN Community which is completely
available in 2015 whereas the second is how to raise the education achievement
higher than standard average; especially ASEAN skills and also the 3 subjects;
Mathematics, Sciences, and English which are the subjects being fundamentally
necessary in commentating in the world economy.
These
points of view and recommendations are to be considered in the preparation of
the plan and action in teacher education in universities, in line with the
educational changes arising from the ASEAN community policy, which has already
begun (with an agreement among 10 ASEAN member countries) and which will be
completely available in 2015. Moreover, improving and developing teacher
education is one of many ways that embody a fundamental principle of the ASEAN charter,
that education is the most important tool in developing the human resources of
the ASEAN community.
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