Instructional Model Development of General Education in Thai Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (TQF : Hed) of General Education Program at Dusit Thani College, Bangkok

Abstract

      The objectives of this research were : 1) to study guidelines for teaching the General Education Program in public and private universities in Thailand and 2) to develop an instructional model for  the General Education Program in a Thai Qualifications Framework for  Higher Education (TQF : HEd) as part of the General Education Program  at Dusit Thani College , Bangkok by using Research and Development (R&D) methodology. This research comprised four steps, namely, 1) (R₁) Documentary research, expert and General Education Program lecturer interviews and participant observation, 2) (D₁) Development of an instructional model for general education program. 3) (R₂) Test of the instructional model for general education program and 4) (D₂) Improvement of the instructional model for general education. Key informants were divided into three groups by purposive sampling - general education program experts and general education program lecturers  (11 people), 2) general education program lecturers of Dusit Thani College  (2 people) and an experimental group of students studying psychology for quality of life subjects at Dusit Thani College (98 people). The research was conducted over 12 weeks, 3 hours per week. The research instruments included in-depth interview, memorandum of participant observation form, memorandum of learning experience form, memorandum of focus group discussion form, and evaluation form of learners. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation, percentages and t-test.

The results of this research found that:

1. Teaching general education should be integrated into the teaching model and focus on introducing knowledge of each subject into daily life, including the study of self-understanding, understanding others, understanding society/environment, adaptability qualifications, and developing oneself in academic, professional and daily life. It found two factors affecting the success of teaching a general education program, which were: 1) factors in teaching and learning - the lecturer who teaches the general education program, activities, teaching method and integration of the teaching model and 2) supporting factors including an atmosphere/ environment that is conducive to learning and administrative management teaching and General Education Program in the Thai Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (TQF : HEd)


2. The instructional model for the General Education Program at Dusit Thani College that was researched and developed is called “GE DTC Model” and has 7 important elements: 1) principles 2) objectives 3) teaching content 4) teaching method 5) steps of instruction and 7) evaluation. The model was tested and developed in the classroom with students at Dusit Thani College. The evaluation of the students revealed that the experimental group obtained greater knowledge from the General Education Program after studying it at a statistical significance level of .01 and, overall, students were highly satisfied with the General Education Program teaching model at Dusit Thani College