Development of Teachers’ Capabilities in Constructing Lesson Study Using Professional Learning Community Process through Nine Steps of Activity Development

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) to develop teachers’ capacities in constructing lesson study using professional learning community process through nine steps of activity development, 2) to supervise and follow up the implementation of lesson study in actual teaching and students’ learning, and 3) to assess the effectiveness of professional learning community process through nine steps of activity development.

                The research methodology was R&D (research and development) comprising 3 phases. Phase 1 was about development of teachers’ capacities in constructing lesson study using professional learning community process (PLC) through nine steps of activity development. The samples were purposively selected from teachers at Prayalae Cluster and Muang See Mum Cluster in B.E. 2560 with 5 schools of each cluster under the Secondary Educational Service Area 30. The samples consisted of 500 teachers teaching five major subjects of Thai, foreign

languages, social studies on religion and culture, mathematics and science. Tools used in this phrase were nine steps of activity development assessment form with IOC of 0.91, and teachers’ development module assessment form. Phase was about supervision and follow up of the implementation of lesson study of teachers in actual practice of teaching of students. Those who were supervised and followed up were 20 school administrators, supervisors and related teachers. The tool used was an evaluation form for checking the effectiveness of lesson study construction of teachers. Statistics used for data analysis were mean, and standard deviation (S.D.) Phase 3 was about the assessment of the effectiveness of construction of nine steps of teachers’ capacity development activities through professional learning community process. The samples were 500 teachers teaching major subjects. The tools used for data analysis were module assessment form for evaluating the effectiveness of the lesson study construction process and the implementation assessment form for checking the effectiveness of the nine steps of teachers’ capacity development activities. Statistics used were mean ( ), standard deviation (S.D.). And the results were interpreted according to the 4-level criteria of high, moderate, low and lowest.

The research results revealed that: 1) The teachers had learned and gained the capacities required and practiced constructing the lessons for enhancing high-level thinking process of two skills. Those skills were of all 5 steps of analytical thinking and all seven steps of creative thinking. 2) All teachers teaching five major subjects had put the lesson study into actual practice with students in all five major subject areas of both educational service area clusters. And 3) all the objectives set were all met and achieved effectively in the following aspects: (1) The overall of constructing lessons of teachers’ in five major subjects was at the moderate level    (  = 2.88, S.D.=0.94). Moreover, teachers in Thai subject were the first rank          

(  = 3.16, S.D.=0.78) and teachers in social science, religion and culture subject were the second rank (  = 2.95, S.D.=0.93). The third rank was teachers in mathematics subject (  = 2.84, S.D.=0.95). (2) The use of nine steps development activities in overall was at the moderate level as well (  = 2.62, S.D.=0.77). In addition, teachers used the lessons construction process as the first rank (  = 3.06, S.D. = 0.65), and lessons applied to the students, who were the target group was, the second rank ( = 2.98, S.D. = 0.66); and the third rank was the step of searching Best Practices (  = 2.67, S.D. = 0.78).