Sadly at the village I was not able to observe a class in session or talk to a teacher. I tried, but there was too much going on with the micro hydro project to get time. But I was able to look at the classrooms and see some of their books that they used in class, as well as observe some of the children in their everyday life.
In the class I saw charts with the ABCs as well as the Thai alphabet. They only had three classrooms but that is hopefully enough for the students. They also had blackboards for teaching, and in the children's desks there were some text books, some with some English in them.
Some interesting things that I did observe that I found interesting, is what information the children have learned outside of the classroom, which got me thinking about the learning that takes place in and out of the classroom and the value of each. Near the village there was a river. One of the days I walked down to the river with two of the village boys. Along the way they showed me different plants that I could eat and how to eat them. Even at home in the northwest I do not know many of the plants well enough to know if they are edible. Once we got there, there were two rock near each other. One of the boys was on one and was making like he wanted to jump to the other. A few of us westerners that were nearby tried to stop him. We grew up constantly being told not to do things because they are dangerous and we could hurt ourselves, but these children are free for a lot of the day to run around and play by themselves. They do not have parents telling them what not to do. The boy didn't listen to us and jumped anyways. He was perfectly fine. He knew his body well enough to know that he could make the jump. That is one large difference I have noticed here in Thailand, the children have more freedom to move about their surroundings and know their body and limitations better.
Even though I didn't get the chance to observe a classroom or get to talk to a teacher, I still got to observe the children and learn from them.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Chaing Mai
Before leaving Chaing Mai, I had the opportunity to visit Chaing Mai University. I went there looking for their Education Department, but before I could find it I found a Demonstation School on campus that is for students in grades seven to twelve. There I was able to talk to one of the English teachers and learn a lot about the education system here in Thailand.
Here there is the Thai Ministry of Education who create the National Educational Policy. But because the CMU Demonstration School is a part of the University, they have more freedom when it comes to the rules in the National Educational Policy and following them word for word. This school has a very good reputation as being an excellent school and has a connection to the university so many parents hope that because of that connection it will be easier for them to get into Chaing Mai University. Every year there is a large test for the students hoping to attend, and the 200 hundred students that have the best scores are allowed in. About 3,000 take the test to try and get in each year.
I also learned that one of the reasons many of the schools I have seen are similar to education in the states is because many people who are in charge went to America to study and brought it back. According to the teacher I talked to, it doesn't always work well though because the cultures and the way people think are different. Some other issues in the schooling are that there is a lot of reform but it often goes in a circle and the people in charge see that it is not working as well as it could be so make changes and then that doesn't work very well either so they make more changes and then it continues on like that. They are also in offices and not in the schools to see how their changes are affecting the students. One example of a change that was made is that they didn't like the name for a certain class so they decided to change the name which didn't impact the children very much, but the staff had to change a lot of paper work which was a headache.
While I didn't get to observe the classes, I did learn a lot about the education system in Thailand.
Here there is the Thai Ministry of Education who create the National Educational Policy. But because the CMU Demonstration School is a part of the University, they have more freedom when it comes to the rules in the National Educational Policy and following them word for word. This school has a very good reputation as being an excellent school and has a connection to the university so many parents hope that because of that connection it will be easier for them to get into Chaing Mai University. Every year there is a large test for the students hoping to attend, and the 200 hundred students that have the best scores are allowed in. About 3,000 take the test to try and get in each year.
I also learned that one of the reasons many of the schools I have seen are similar to education in the states is because many people who are in charge went to America to study and brought it back. According to the teacher I talked to, it doesn't always work well though because the cultures and the way people think are different. Some other issues in the schooling are that there is a lot of reform but it often goes in a circle and the people in charge see that it is not working as well as it could be so make changes and then that doesn't work very well either so they make more changes and then it continues on like that. They are also in offices and not in the schools to see how their changes are affecting the students. One example of a change that was made is that they didn't like the name for a certain class so they decided to change the name which didn't impact the children very much, but the staff had to change a lot of paper work which was a headache.
While I didn't get to observe the classes, I did learn a lot about the education system in Thailand.
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