About 20,000 maths and science teachers of students in Grades 7-9 nationwide will be required to take online aptitude exams in April next year to test their proficiency in these subjects.
The move is part of the Education Ministry’s effort to improve the quality of teachers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths as it believes some teachers in these fields may not know enough about their subjects to educate their students properly.
On the global scene, Thai students’ performance in these subjects is poorer than in other Asian countries, according to the latest results based on the performance of 15-year-olds in maths and science tests.
In the 76-nation ranking, Thailand was placed 47th, far lower than other Asian countries. Singapore emerged as best in the world followed by Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, while Vietnam also did well placing 12th in the league table.
On the home front, the results of the 2015 Ordinary National Education Test (O-Net), which measures students’ basic knowledge in five key subjects also showed that Mathematics and Science were Thai students’ least favourite subjects with average scores of 26.59 and 33.4 respectively out of a maximum score of 100.
The poor performance of the students is being traced back to the skills of their teachers. It is believed that a lack of quality teachers could probably be the answer to why providing more resources to schools has been so ineffective in improving student performance.
On the back of these views, online exams to test the proficiency of teachers in maths and science will be introduced, beginning in April 2017.
Teachers who fail to pass the test will have to attend special courses to improve their knowledge over four months from May to September. Then, they will be tested again.
If they fail again, they will be switched to teach in other subjects which suit their teaching specialties.
Conversely, for teachers who pass the test, their scores and performance will be taken into account in their annual evaluation.
Despite the fact that the country is now facing a huge shortage of teachers in the subjects concerned, as many experienced teachers enter retirement, education authorities are looking to quality over quantity.
An unnamed, experienced maths teacher at a school in Bangkok agreed with the idea because she thought many teachers nowadays do not have a conceptual understanding of mathematics.
She said the common core standards in mathematics stress the importance of conceptual understanding as a key component of mathematical expertise. However, many teachers just think that if students know all the definitions and rules, then they possess such an understanding.
The teacher added that knowledge of procedures is no guarantee of conceptual understanding. For example, many children can execute a procedure to divide fractions without understanding why the procedure works, so we need teachers who can educate the students properly.
Having taught in the UK for 34 years, these views on teachers’ abilities and the importance of “understanding” are very familiar.
Let’s deal with teachers first. What many people seem to forget is that teaching is an art, a skill. I have seen the most highly qualified, knowlegeable teachers be a complete disaster in the classroom.
Obviously teachers have to have the knowledge and expertise in their subjects. However, without the ability to get this across to their students, they are in the wrong job.
Good teachers are actors, performers if you like. They are the key to students’ learning and it seems to me that here in Thailand, this appears to be overlooked in their professional development.
In the UK , would- be teachers get their degree in their chosen subjects then go off for another year to “learn” how to teach. They are not simply unleashed on unsuspecting children.
Finally, let’s deal with the comments of our unnamed teacher. Again, the concept that children should “understand” maths and not simply follow a set of clearly laid out processes to achieve a correct answer, was introduced in the UK.
In primary schools throughout the country, a radical new way of doing even simple division was introduced. When doing the sums, EVERY thought process involved had to be written into the sum.
This resulted in even a simple division sum looking like a complex long division sum. The idea was that if the child could physically see the actual process of doing the sum, they would understand the process.
In reality, it was time consuming and the BIG flaw in the plan was that the more a child had to write down, the higher the chance that they would make a mistake.
In my humble opinion, particularly in maths, if the teacher can lead students to being able to come to the correct conclusion, then that’s enough. True understanding may or may not come at a later date.
Having the ability to apply mathematical processes to achieve the correct answer is what students of all ages need to be able to do.
One final thing to consider. I don’t know how much mental arithmetic is done in primary schools in Thailand, but in our school we did a lot. Thirty-minutes daily.
There is no doubt that this increases and speeds up mathematical skills and personally it’s the first thing I would introduce if I was wanting to improve the overall performance in maths.
(With thanks to the Bangkok Post)