A NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF DEVELOPING ACADEMIC MANAGEMENT OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS BASED ON THE CONCEPT OF SKILLS FOR SUCCESS

Abstract

This study was descriptive research aiming to investigate the current and desirable conditions of academic management in Catholic schools based on the concept of skills for success and to analyze the priority needs for developing academic management of catholic schools based on the concept of skills for success. The sample consisted of 369 Catholic schools in Thailand. The sample included 44 primary and secondary schools from 11 dioceses, affiliated with the Office of the Private Education Commission, selected through stratified and simple random sampling. The key respondents comprised 575 individuals, including school administrators, assistant directors in academic affair, curriculum heads, academic level heads, and teachers. The research instrument was a questionnaire, and the data were analyzed mean, standard deviation, and the Priority Needs Index (PNI_modified). The research findings revealed that 1) The current condition of academic management in Catholic schools based on based on the concept of skills for success was at a high level overall ( = 3.96), while the desirable condition was also at a high level overall ( = 4.50). 2) The priority needs for developing academic management in Catholic schools based on the concept of skills for success, when classified by academic management aspects, indicated that the highest priority needs index fell on curriculum development (PNI_modified = 0.145), followed by teaching and learning management (PNI_modified = 0.135) and measurement and evaluation (PNI_modified = 0.126), respectively. When classified by the components of the success skills approach, the highest priority needs index was found in thinking skill set (PNI_modified = 0.160), followed by technology skill set (PNI_modified = 0.137), working skill set (PNI_modified = 0.126), and personal skill set (PNI_modified = 0.123), respectively.