FIVE-YEAR CURRICULUM OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN THAILAND; GAIN OR PAIN?

Abstract

The purposes of the study were to (1) explore the advantages or disadvantages of five-year curriculum of teacher education program in English, General Science, Math, Thai, Social study and Early childhood Education, Faculty of Education, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, and (2) to explore participants’ opinion whether the participants prefer five-year curriculum of teacher education to four-year curriculum of teacher education and why. The research sample, selected by volunteer sampling technique, comprised 12 internship student teachers program in English, General Science, Math, Thai, Social study and Early childhood Education, Faculty of Education, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The data collection was conducted by using semi-structured interview which covered 2 main questions. The qualitative data analysis was conducted with the data obtained from semi-structured interview. It was found that there are both advantages and disadvantages of five-year curriculum of teacher education. The main advantage was providing one-year internship and disadvantages were describe in many aspects. Student teachers’ selection of teacher education curriculum were both five-year and four-year curriculum with different reasons.