An Evaluation of Thai Preschool Teacher Socio-Moral in Classroom

Udomluck Kulapichitr
Thailand

In accordance with the National Education Reform, which marks the new era of education in Thailand, child-center based educational system is a crucial part of the reform. Not only for the effective on the development of physical, cognitive, socio-emotional aspects of children but also on the development of moral.

In 2000, Office of the National Economic and Social Development Commission, Office of the Prime Minister, Kingdom of Thailand, had funded a study on the evaluation of the provision of preschool education in Thailand. Part of the evaluation concerned the sociomoral atmosphere as an contributing factor on the development of moral within classroom environment.

As being stated by constructivists' perspective, the sociomoral atmosphere is the entire network of interpersonal relation that make up a child's experience of school. In our research, one part of the network was focused on teacher-child relationship. The researchers investigated on the socio-moral level of teacher-child's shared experiences and negotiation strategies.

We had videotaped one day morning activity session for 10 preschool teachers on teacher-child interaction that built up sociomoral atmosphere in the actual classroom in childcare centers and public/private preschools. The videotapes were transcribed and analyzed by using digital video technique and electronic filing system in order to evaluate the sociomoral atmosphere established through teacher-child interactions.

Most of the preschool teacher constructivst-based sociomoral behaviors on both shared experiences and negotiation strategies were largely found at level 1 in which the negotiation is the unilateral expression of the self's needs or wishes: others are to control or be controlled by; shared experiences involves more conscious sharing but remains unilateral as the other's perspective is not taken into account. The negotiation strategies were found more than shared experiences.