Office of the Basic Education Commission Ministry of Education Thailand

Environmental Conservation: Learning to Serve…for the Well-being of

Society

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s Initiatives

Miss Wongduan Suwansiri

Mr. Somsak & Mrs. Uthaiwan Wutisad

Ban Mae Ramoeng School

“Opportunities and Equity Beyond Frontiers”

Outline

• Schools and Communities’ Contexts • Implementation Process • Results and Impacts • Problems and Obstacles • Recommendations

The Figure shows the number of

OBEC's schools under Initiatives of

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha

Chakri Sirindhorn

What are schools’ contexts?

• Migrant and Ethnic Children, some not possessing Thai national identity cards.

• Ethnic language, traditions, and customs. • Risk of dropout. • Mixed-age classroom / overage children in primary

and secondary education.

What are communities’ contexts?

• Indigenous tribes communities in the highlands on the border and remote areas.

• Shifting cultivation in preservation areas. • Daily labor. • Big family / Thatched roof house. • Poverty / Low hygiene/ Malnutrition.

Objectives 1. To implement Her Royal

Highness’s initiative into practice and to fit within the local contexts.

2. To gain knowledge and concepts of environmental issues

3. To raise awareness and values.

4. To provide a hands-on experiences

1. Community Survey/ Studies

2. School Improvement Plan Development (SIP)

3. Designing the Integrated Unit Plan of Environmental Education (EE)

4. Teaching-learning activities

5. Developing networks and collaboration with the other sectors

Implementation Process

1. Community Studies: Collect data in school and communities to identify environmental and social issues

2. School Improvement Plan Development (SIP)

- EE is an important goal in terms of school administration, the whole school management, and teaching-learning process for each grade level.

3. Designing the Integrated Unit Plan of Environmental Education (EE)

Development of the framework of the EE Integrated Unit Plan.

Development of the learning materials and worksheets, engagement of instructors and resource persons.

The evaluation criteria are consistent with the National Basic Education Core Curriculum.

4.1 Curricular teaching-learning activities 4. Teaching-learning activities

• Activity-based learning • Project-based learning approach • Problem-based learning and inquiry-based

approaches, Promote critical thinking,, • Using the community as a resource for learning

that links to the environmental issues of schools and communities.

• For example: The strategy “7-Steps learning approach”

7 Steps of Learning Approach

1. Community studies

2. Problem studies

3. Present the finding

4. Alternative solutions

5. Project planning

6. Project Implementation

7. Monitoring & Evaluation

Learning Methodology

Unit Plan: Integrated unit plan

Local Curriculum: Social studies

Step 1 Community Studies

Collect data in the community to identify environmental/social problems

Lesson plan: emphasis on Learning process/ use communities as learning resources

Learning process: Learning by doing, participatory learning, project based-learning and thinking and problem solving skills development

Step 2 Problem studies

Students choose a problem to study in depth to clarify the causes and effects

Deforestation

broken home-child

poverties

Water pollution

Water usages in

school

Food from forest

Shortage

Consumption values

Communities’ Issues

Cut trees for charcoal

making

Young Bamboo shortage

Chemical utilizing in farm

Health and nutrition

Akha’s wisdoms &

culture

Step 3 Present the finding

Students present finding to communities and others

Role play

Flow Chart

Display

Exhibition

Drama

Music

Documents/ books

Step 4

Alternative solutions Students &Community members consider alternative and

choose one to address the issues

Field trip study

Library

Internet

Interview/ questionnaires/ other resources

Picture: Soratda Phumwipach

Step 5 Project planning

Communities, teachers and students plan a small-scale project(s).

Communities' forest

preservation

Water preservation

Effective local stove Bamboo

preservation

Local food promotion

Local handcraft

development Garbage

management

Warm family

Health promotion

Akha culture preservation

Green school

environment

Bio-fertilizer

Organic farm

clean communities

Local Plants Preservation

Step 6 Project Implementation

Villagers, teachers and students implement the participatory project (s)

Step 7

Monitoring and Evaluation Students, teachers and villagers evaluate the

outcomes and report to stakeholders

4.2 Extracurricular activities “Learner Development Activities” is aiming to allow learners to develop themselves to their highest potential, thus becoming well-rounded and fully developed in all respects—physical, intellectual, emotional and social; inculcating morality, ethics and self-discipline….

• Establishment of the student club • Organizing academic competitions • Conducting the exhibition

4.3 Creating the school and community atmosphere • Students share responsibility and duties. • Promotion life skills and livelihood skills. • The school climate consists of the interpersonal relations

between teachers and students, and among students themselves, in the direction of equity and equally, warmth and friendliness, and support and enhancement of learning achievement. It is just as the students and school personnel treat the natural resources and environment.

Aimed to...

Raising awareness of the contributions and participation of all EE activities.

Establish norms and values of the community of practice.

Demonstrate good practice and becomes the model for youths.

4.4 Community activities

• Improving soil quality, restoring the environment of communities, Build check dams, construct a firebreak

5. Developing networks and collaboration with the other sectors

Such as… National parks / local administrative organizations, the Highland Research and Development Institute (public organization), Watershed Conservation and Management Office, etc.

These agencies provide expertise in specific areas and will provide technical support to enrich the knowledge of students and communities.

Results and Impacts

1. Children and youth have adopted Her Royal Highness’s initiative, in daily life, both in the schools and communities.

2. Learning potential with communities are enriched and enhanced, with happiness.

3. Children and youth gain hands-on experience on environmental education .

4. Children and youth are aware of the value of natural resources and environmental conservation.

Children and youth

Communities

1. The communities have become a laboratory for teaching-learning. The villagers have become instructors and resources persons.

2. Villagers applied knowledge and skills to implement the natural resource and environmental conservation activities, manage their community surroundings, and utilize sufficiency resources, etc.

3. Villagers are involved and engaged in a variety of activities.

4. The relationship between school and community involves two-way cooperation in order to support quality education and also transfer modern knowledge to the community.

Results and Impacts

Problems and Obstacles Environmental issues are caused by many factors and

linked to all dimensions of society. The solution is to really understand environmental

problems and their causes and effects in order to make effective solutions.

It requires cooperation from many stakeholders.

Recommendations Promotion of a variety

of alterative occupations which replace the current slash-and-burn agricultural practices.

The relevant

authorities should provide knowledge and understanding to the communities regularly.

Thank you

ขอบคุณค่ะ

Ban Mae Ramoeng School