Development of a Model of Organizing for Learning For Enhancement of Reflective Thinking Ability of Student Teachers

Abstract

The research and development aimed to develop and study the effect of the model of organizing for learning for enhancement of reflective thinking ability of student teachers. The research was designed to have 4 steps. Step 1 was the study on basic data. Step 2 was the development of the model. Step 3 was the implementation of the model, and Step 4 was improvement of the model. The population consisted of 270 third year B.Ed. students who were studying the Principles of Organizing for Learning Course in the first semester of the academic year 2017 at the Faculty of Education, Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University. The student teachers were from 9 majors; one group from each major: General Science, English, Physical Education, Early Childhood Education, Special Education and Computer, Elementary Education, Social Studies, Computer and Educational Technology, and Mathematics. The sample consisted of 31 3^rd year B.Ed. students from the General Science program, obtained through cluster random sampling. The research tools were the model of organizing for learning, a reflective thinking ability assessment form, a learning log, a reflective thinking behavior observation form, and a questionnaire inquiring satisfaction with the model. The statistics employed in the analysis of data were the mean and standard deviation. And t-test (for dependent samples) was used in hypothesis testing.

The research results are as follows:

           1. The model of organizing for learning for enhancement of reflective thinking ability of student teachers that had been developed contained 6 components. They were: background and significance, objective, principle, steps of organizing learning activities, media/learning sources, and measurement and evaluation. According to the model, there were 6 steps of organizing for learning: the “S4CL.” It comprised self-learning, collaborative learning, collaborative sharing, collaborative constructing, collaborative evaluation, and learning log and reflective writing.

           2. The study of the effect of the model revealed that after learning, the student teachers had higher scores of reflective thinking ability than before learning, with statistical significance at the .05 level; and the development of reflective thinking behavior from 3 periods of observation tended to be higher. The student teachers expressed satisfaction with the model at the highest level. ( = 4.52). The learning log content analysis result revealed that the model could develop reflective thinking ability of student teachers well.