Development of a Program to Promote Agricultural Working Skills Based on the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy for Grade 7 Students

Abstract

         The purposes of this research were to develop a program for agricultural working skills promotion with the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy, and to try out the program for agricultural working skills promotion with the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy in order to study its results by comparing the grade 7 students’ agricultural working skills with the preset criterion, and comparing the sufficiency characteristics before joining the program with the sufficiency characteristics after joining the program. The sample of this research consisted of 33 grade 7 students, obtained through cluster random sampling. The subjects took part in the activities for 10 times. The tools of this research comprised: 1) The program for agricultural working skills promotion with the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy; 2) The evaluation form for agricultural working skills, having the item discrimination between 0.49 and 0.99 and the total reliability of 0.89. The statistics employed in the analysis of data comprised the mean, standard deviation, and t-test (one sample and dependent samples).

           The results were as follows:

           The program for agricultural working skills promotion with the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy that had been developed comprised 10 activities which helped promote knowledge and understanding of agricultural working skills and the attributes of Sufficiency (modesty, rationality, good immunity). This program emphasized the student’s training on planning, using the equipment, and hands-on experience in order to gain the agricultural working skills. The program for agricultural working skills promotion with the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy for grade 7 students had content validity and when it was evaluated by 5 experts it was found that the program was in the most appropriate level.

               The students who took part in the program for agricultural working skills promotion with the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy for grade 7 students had the posttest scores higher than the 80 percent preset score, with statistical significance at the .05 level.

                 The students who took part in the program for agricultural working skills promotion with the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy for grade 7 students had the posttest scores of the 3 Sufficiency attributes which were modesty, rationality, and good immunity higher than before taking part in the program, with statistical significance at the .05 level.