DEVELOPMENT OF TRAINING CURRICULUM TO ENHANCE 21ST CENTURY COMPETENCIES FOR IN-SERVICE CAREGIVERS

Abstract

The objective of this research were 1) Conduct a needs assessment for child caregivers, 2) Develop a training curriculum, and 3) Evaluate the effectiveness of the developed training curriculum to enhance the 21^st century competencies of child caregivers. The sample group for the needs assessment consisted of 220 child caregivers in Chiang Mai Province, selected through multi-stage sampling. The sample group for evaluating the curriculum’s effectiveness comprised 30 child caregivers who volunteered and met the inclusion criterion. Data were collected 2 times, before and after the experiment, and were analyzed by means, standard deviation, t-test, and Modified Priority Needs Index (PNI Modified). The research findings were as follows: 1) The competency of child caregivers in the 21st century consisting of 3 competencies: knowledge, skills and attribute. The highest need was with PNI Modified value of .115. 2) The training curriculum consisted of 8 elements: 1) Principles 2) Training curriculum objectives 3) Five learning units 4) Training duration
5) Activities used in training curriculum 6) Media used in training curriculum 7) Evaluation of training curriculum, and 8) Training plans for each learning unit. 3) The effectiveness of training curriculum results in the experimental group acquiring in higher 21^st century competencies after experiment with a statistical significance of .05 level.