Field Trip Report

Last week, 16th of February, on Tuesday, two private schools (Lertlah International School and Roong Aroon school) were visited and explored as course work from education department combining doctorate students and master students. Both schools are located in Bangkok with different qualities and different approaches though they have the same vision to growth their children. We could have chance to learn their school policies and implementations to fulfill their goals. 

Lertlah International School

Lertlah International school is huge and successful school. In Thailand, three Lertlah schools are successfully established. Namely, Lertlah School Petkasem Road, Lertlah School Kanchanapisek Road, and Lertlah School Kaset-Nawamin Road. Lertlah School Petkasem Road was established in 1994 and after about 8 years Lertlah School Kanchanapisek Road was established in 2002, and Lertlah School Kaset-Nawamin Road was established in 2006. The Lertlah International School is English Program and also known as bilingual school using Canadian Curriculum.

After we had a looked, we also had question and answer for more information. Then I could have chance to ask about the children's learning in English since most of them are Thai speaking children. My question was whether they have difficulties or not in terms of communication with children and if they have then how the teachers usually deal with? The school directors and teachers who have responsible for information sharing answered that they do not have such big difficulties but somehow in kindergarten Thai teachers have to help them understand some words. The answer was quite enough to catch my point. They do have Thai teachers who can speak both English and Thai, and not only that foreign teachers could speak Thai language. Why this question was seriously asking is the successful bilingual school do not use 50:50 at the beginning, since the children need to develop their knowledge in their mother tongue first. However, it is also depend on children's background. But the Lertlah International School has most of Thai speakers, and it should not be called 50%-50% of language used. 

Roong Aroon School

Now, Roong Aroon School we could visit, which is one of the successful alternative schools using the Holistic education approach in Thailand. Roong Aroon school was established in 1997 with the initiative of Associate Professor Prapapat Niyom. It is situated in No. 391, Rama 2 Soi 33 (Soi Lairem) Road Fords Area Bangkok, Thailand. In particular, the school compound is about twenty acres of land and provides a natural environment and creative practices for each age and level of students in order to promote the individual learning styles and fulfill the needs of different learning styles. The two-story and three-story buildings are assembled by each department which is airy and widely accessible landscape for all students and suitable for not only outdoor but also indoor learning activities and other supplemented physical sport activities.  The aim of Roong Aroon School is to form the learning community which encourages everyone to learn and then share their experience and learning with others providing a natural open environment in which students can explore and discover the inherent relationship between themselves, their own culture and the natural world. 

   

There are four visions stated by Roong Aroon school which are: Bodhisatta: Beliefs in human’s ability to develop themselves and enlighten by wisdom Human Life is a learning process: The processes which help develop the behaviors, conscious and wisdom as the three fold learning Holistic Education: The integration of both external (sciences) and internal (life) factors is a natural learning process for human. Kalyanamitta: The learning culture is the basis of a harmonious society. Roong Aroon school always seek to follow the stated visions and fulfill the needs of students in accordance with their potential and learning styles. 

  

  

Roong Aron School is comprised of three independent departments:  The kindergarten and the first level (K1 – K3) The Primary School (P1-P6) The Secondary and Upper Secondary School (M1- M6) 

With the aim of promoting a cooperative working team, a headmaster is assigned in each department in order to work closely with own team. Moreover, the team has to work on integrating content into teaching, the holistic learning, working in a joint meeting of the subclasses and school specific subject line.

The ratio of teacher to student is 1:8 so that there are 140 numbers of teachers per 1,000 students and there are 25 students in one classroom. Parents, teachers and staff work closely together so as to support the warm and lively surroundings for students to improve their all round development.  

Unlike the management of common schools, in the educational management of Roong Aroon school, the parents and communities are supposed to participate and support the school to ensure that the target is to develop the ultimate potential of each child both learning the subject focusing on child-centered learning and whole child development.

The operation system manuals have been used for the teachers in order to support designing learning units. Moreover, thematic approach in three semesters is applied and teachers are able to choose the topics and integrate subjects into that. Unlike other common schools, the assessments are mainly focused on cognitive achievements and learning skills which account for 50% and value and attitude achievement which is for another 50%. The teachers from each department are given the guidelines to read to use these goals of assessment. Consequently, the report of each student is sent to the parents and feedback from the parents are requested and appreciated.

Roong Aroon is funded by Roong Aroon Foundation and financially cooperated by the other organizations such as Fresh Sri Foundation, Research Fund, National Securities Finance Co.,Ltd (Thailand), The Bangchak Petroleum Public Company Limited and Plan by Teerapol Popular. It is believed in Roong Aroon school that the school belongs to Thailand instead of one person or a group. Roong Aroon is recognized by the Ministry of Education in Thailand and work together with both public and private sectors. Roong Aroon could be regarded as not for profit organization or non-profit organization which earn not for the profit but for the sustainability of the school and resources.

   

The policy of Roong Aroon school based on Buddha's Dharma Approach, which links factual knowledge to the learners’ life. Learning by Doing,integrative learning contexts will nurture the insight learning awareness and cultivate the sustainable relationship to others. It is also emphasized on Thai tradition culture education, meanwhile improve the students’ foreign language skills. There are some important educational policies following in Roong Aroon school in order to reach the holistic learning practices: 

(1)Deeper learning which aim to nurture one’s inner learning capacity in order to promote wisdom-based learners by practicing mindfulness cultivation, self reflection, mediation, spiritual arts, public volunteer services, etc. 

(2)Learning by Doing policy aims to practice with hands-on activities in the real situation, through activity-based, problem-based, project-based, and research-based though learning unit integrated with real life experiences, to promote the self-directed and self-reliance learner.

(3)Communicative learning policy aim to the sharing of knowledge and understanding in building up learning organization or community of practices, through group learning, discussion, dialogue, knowledge-management, community sharing, group meeting, people mapping, ICT presentation, to promote the social engagement and learning partners with sustainability.

Roong Aroon do not follow the national curriculum for the whole, they use the Japan math curriculum and Thailand national curriculum for their science class, which can help students get the best and most suitable knowledge for them. The most inspiration was children age of 6-7 take care of themselves by cooking, washing, and maintaining their equipment. The teachers and parents help the kindergarten students in cooking and washing but from grade 1 the students have to take care themselves. Roong Aroon School will be remained as an example to promote and practice in the future.

  

REFERENCE

http://social.nesdb.go.th/social/Portals/0/Documents/Education_final.pdf

http://www.ismtec.in.th/ismtec2014/files/RoongAroonSchoolofDawn.pdf

http://student-kiosk.eltzone.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Holistic-Learning-forSustainable-Development.pdf

http://www.gpiatlantic.org/pdf/educatingforgnh/educating_for_gnh_proceedings.pdf

http://tdri.or.th/en/