Curriculum for Developing Quality of Lives for Elderly People in the Next

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) to study current conditions, problems, and needs  of development for quality of lives for elderly people  in the next decade with 338 samples,  2) to develop curriculum for developing quality of lives for elderly people  in the next decade with 75 samples, and 3) to assess results of using the curriculum with 120 samples. The research instruments were a recording form, an interview form, a questionnaire, an evaluation form used to evaluate the curriculum, a test, and a survey form used to evaluate the samples’ satisfaction. The statistics were mean, standard deviation, and content analysis.

The research findings were as follows.

1. The results of the current conditions, the problems, and the needs of the development for the quality of lives in the next decade were described as follows. 1) According to the synthesis of the document from the elderly schools, the results revealed that in the physical health, the elderly people had the physical checkup, in the mental health, they were screened for the depression, in the social relation, they were the models for volunteering and promoting health, in the environment of the elderly people, they had knowledge and ability to be used to enhance the conservation and the protection of the environment. 2) According to the study from the elderly people club with the elderly best practices, the results indicated that in the promotion of the physical health, the elderly people received knowledge about physical health care, in the promotion of the mental health, they received knowledge about their self-mental knowing, in the elderly social relation, they participated in local activities and developed the elderly environment by educating the elderly people about their homes and improving the home environment to be safe. 3) According to the interview of the president of the elderly club, the results showed that the elderly people wanted themselves to be healthy, in the metal health, they were worried that they would rely on their children and grandchildren, in the  social relation, they participated in  helping other people, in the environment of the elderly people, they needed convenient and safe houses to live. 4) According to the survey on the opinions towards the elderly people from the health promotion hospital in the sub-district level and the local government organizations, the results indicated that the needs on developing the curriculum were at a high level while the needs on providing learning and teaching management on physical development and developing the environment of the elderly people, social relation, and metal health were at the highest level.

            2) The results of the development of the curriculum for developing quality of lives for the elderly people in the next decade were described as follows.

2.1) The draft of the curriculum for developing quality of lives for the elderly people  in the next decade consisted of curriculum principles, curriculum philosophy, objectives, specific objectives, learners’ qualifications, learning units, contents, learning timetable, assessment, graduation criteria, learning schedules, and lesson plans.

  2.2 The results of the assessment of the curriculum for developing quality of lives for the elderly people in the next decade showed that the curriculum was appropriate at .94, possible at .93, accurate at .95, and useful at .92.          

  2.3 The results of the experiment on using the curriculum for developing the quality of lives for the elderly people in the next decade indicated that the curriculum was effective with the average of the efficiency at 84.41/85.67

         3) The results of the assessment on the application of the curriculum for developing the quality of lives for the elderly people in the next decade indicated that the mean score before learning was 12.42 and the mean score after learning was 17.34. When the mean scores before and after were compared, the results showed that they were different with the statistical significance at the level of .05. The indicator of the curriculum effectiveness was .6490, and the satisfaction on using the curriculum was at the highest level.

Keywords: Curriculum, Elderly People, Quality of Lives, the Next Decade