Forum highlights need for improved teacher training

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EDUCATION
Forum highlights need for improved teacher training
PAKAWAN ROJANASINGSAWAD
THE NATION

MULTIPLE ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS NEED TO COME OUT OF THEIR 'OWN |TERRITORY' AND COLLABORATE WITH EACH OTHER

BANGKOK: -- WITHOUT solid co-ordination, Thailand's teacher education will find it hard to make any real improvements, according to educators at a recent forum.

"If relevant units don't step out of their frontiers, problems will continue to plague the sector," said Dr Padoongchart Suwannawongse, a former director of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Educ-ation Organisation Regional Centre for Higher Education and Development.

In Thailand, many organisations play a role in the provision of teacher education. In addition to the Office of Higher Education Commission, there is also the Office of Vocational Education Commission as well as the Culture Ministry.

Padoongchart said that from his experiences, he had seen that each organisation in the country's educational system tended to have its own territory and limited its interactions with others.

"But to tell the truth, they really should step beyond those frontiers |and improve the links," Padoongchart said.

He was speaking at a roundtable discussion entitled "The New Frontier: Governance in Teacher Education".

The July 27 event brought |together academics from various countries to share knowledge, drawing upon their professional reflections and experiences. They included experts from Finland and Singapore whose visits were supported by PICO, Thailand.

Prof Hannele Niemi, from the University of Helsinki, said relationships between organisations go in both directions in Finland, regardless of the units.

"In Finland, there is not only one responsible organisation for quality teacher education; all partners' co-operation is needed," she said.

Assoc Prof Ee-Ling Low from Singapore's National Institute of Education (NIE) said strong systemic coherent partnerships were a good idea in the opinion of all sides.

"But making such a strong partnership requires a lot of effort in reality. That's why a structure is needed to enable that coherence to take place," she said.

She said in Singapore, the education minister meets with key educational officials, including the NIE president, about once every two weeks.

"It is quite deliberate," she said as she shared an insight into Singapore's educational system and its collaboration techniques.

The situation was far different from what has been happening in Thailand, Padoongchart said.

"It seems like five factories are working in separate places to produce the same product."

During the discussion, Boyden Associates of Thailand chairman Chainarong Indharameesup voiced an opinion from the private sector that it was impossible to match supply with demand in a free market society like Thailand.

"In Thailand, those who graduate from top universities in the accountancy field, those kids are working at the bank and they do not even use their knowledge - but just handle questions from customers," he said

Low then suggested that the process should begin with small portions - saying that different countries all have contextualised situations.

"Maybe we [should] think about Thailand as a whole first and start with a district or a manageable entity within Thailand - and really make that the model to work on," she said.

Dr Direk Pornseema said to achieve outstanding educational success, a country must undergo four stages: thinking, discussing, establishing a system and advanced [development].

"The successful ones are in the fourth stage," he said.

Asked about Thailand, Direk said the country was moving from the second to the third stage.

He also pointed out that in educationally-successful countries, teachers were highly-capable people and there were close collaboration.

"In those successful countries, education ministers have meetings with the deans of education faculties," he said, "Here in Thailand, the deans don't even ask school executives what types of teachers they want".

Direk also opposed the idea of establishing new educational institutes to push or co-ordinate educational efforts. "These institutes will only offer positions to retirees in educational fields," he said.

He believed, however, the country needed to hire more teachers to tackle the shortage in some fields.

"It's best to get quality teachers. And I believe we should merge small schools so that the remaining ones have a good chance of constant improvement," he said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Forum-highlights-need-for-improved-teacher-trainin-30265770.html


-- The Nation 2015-08-03

[clockman]

Thai teachers egos!

[Lupatria]

Thousands of forums, workshops, seminars with ten thousand participants in posh resorts with lunches and dinners held over this subject.

The outcome: ZERO!

Stop celebrating your own importance and do something!

[Emster23]

"Dr Direk Pornseema said to achieve outstanding educational success, a country must undergo four stages: thinking, discussing, establishing a system and advanced [development]."

There's that word again...... "thinking"

""Here in Thailand, the deans don't even ask school executives what types of teachers they want"."

Oy vey.... I wonder if "school executives" know what they want, other than those who don't rock the boat by silly concepts like requiring students to demonstrate mastery or be failed..... BTW Do school executives have education background? Do they know what they are doing and why? Seems that component is often missing.

[lostinisaan]

"It seems like five factories are working in separate places to produce the same product."

But the truth is:

One hundred and fifty factories are working in separate places to produce the same product and none of them know what they're doing.

Edited August 3, 2015 by lostinisaan

[quandow]

Hubris strikes again.