Training Teachers to Develop Analytical Thinking Skills of Primary School Students in Mueang Lampang District

Abstract

Abstract: This research project was to study the results of using participatory action research to enable the teachers in developing analytical thinking skills of primary school students in Muang Lampang District. The sample used included 15 teachers who taught at Municipal School 6 (Wat Pa Ruak) selected through purposive sampling from the schools that had awareness and attempt to develop the analytical thinking skill of the students. The teachers were interested and willing to participate in the research project. The research instruments included 1) program for the workshop on “Developing analytical thinking skills of primary school students, 2) forms to evaluate the teacher’s reports on the results of the analytical thinking skills, 3) questionnaire asking the teacher’s satisfaction in taking part in the Project, and, 4) form for recording the group discussion. All of the instruments had passed the validating process carried out by the experts. In this research, the researcher had used the participatory action research in which the teacher had participated along the researcher at every research step. The acquired information was analysed in term of frequency distribution, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and content analysis. The findings are as follows. The results of using the participatory action research to enable the teachers to develop analytical thinking skills of the primary school students in Muang Lampang District reveal that 1) during the period of setting up the research plan, the teachers had participated in the process of analyzing the student’s problems, and searching for the method to be used for organizing the learning activities to develop thinking skill of the students to acquire the operational plan relevant to the problems that the teachers would like to solve leading to the cooperation of the teachers, 2) in using participatory action research, it was found that the teachers had increasing knowledge and understanding on analytical thinking skill, had more satisfaction on the workshop to  develop the teacher’s competence and were able to apply the knowledge in developing the students, and, 3)  concerning the use of action research during the period of the research assessment, it was found that the teachers could develop their student’s analytical thinking skills. The teachers had adjusted themselves and their techniques for learning management making their operation relevant to the real situation as much as possible. They could also develop the students to fit their context and the problems as well as had acquired the information to be used for the participatory action research to come.    

Keywords:   Participatory Action Research,  Analytical Thinking Skills, Primary School Students