A Model for Developing Technical Colleges to Be Learning Organization

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to investigate direct and indirect influences of factors on
being learning s of technical colleges, to design a model for developing technical colleges to be
a learning organization, and to implement and evaluate the model. The research methodology
was divided into three phases. Phase 1 focused on contextual study of direct and indirect
influences of factors on being a learning organization. The population was 120 technical colleges
in Thailand, and the samples were 92 technical colleges. The data was collected by
questionnaire and analyzed by the computer program. The LISREL method was employed for
linear analysis. Phase 2 : a model was designed for developing technical colleges to be a learning
organization through focus group, brain storming methods and workshops. Thirty research
participants consisted of chief executives teachers, educational personnel, students, parents,
academicians, education committee members, and technical college administrative committee
members. Phase 3 : the model was implemented to the target population and evaluated by
Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA : Repeated Measure). The research findings showed
that the factors significantly affected being a learning organization at the .05 level. The four high
rated factors included 1) teacher and staff development, 2) academic leadership, 3) vision, mission
and strategies and technology including work system. The model for developing technical
colleges to be a learning organization consisted of four main areas with 12 activities: 1) teacher
and staff development and practice -based training, 2) academic leadership and practice-based
training, 3) scope of development, 4) analysis of organization, 5) workshops, 6) review and
improvement, six training courses: Microsoft Word , Microsoft Excel , Internet , E-mail , Microsoft
Power Point and computer program for research. Lastly, the findings indicated that the overall 

result of the model implementation was significantly better than that of before using the model
at the .05 level. In conclusion, the study indicates that the model is efficient and practical for
developing technical colleges to be a learning organization.