Local Curriculum Construction for Coastal Schools

Abstract

     This paper summarizes research and development processes of the marine science course given to Thailand's coastal schools. The course can be categorized into three phases. The first phase was constructing and refining course contents by a team of ten experts. The course contents comprised of five knowledge domains: (1) marine physics, (2) marine chemistry, (3) coastal and underwater geological systems, (4) marine lives and (5) benefits and effects of marine resource utilization. The second phase involved training of 26 participating teachers who were selected from 18 schools where environmental conservation projects were introduced. This newly developed training program responded to this group of teachers' needs for additional information related to marine sciences. The knowledge gained from this training would be applied into physics, chemistry and biology subjects given by these participating school teachers. The third, and final, stage involved a demonstration of strategies for integrating marine sciences into classrooms. A marine science camp project was initiated. Fifty-four students from the 18 schools where their teachers had partaken in the training were selected. Project-based learning pedagogy was employed with these students while their teachers acted as observers. Nine student projects were presented. These projects reflect students' basic understanding of marine sciences and ability to apply the knowledge into their projects. Students' journals and self-reflection notes showed a high level of satisfaction with the use of project-based approach in learning about marine science.