Participation in Educational Management of Teachers in Developing Children with Intellectual Disability at Prachuap Khiri Khan Special Education Center

Abstract

Teachers’ participation in educational management is important for developing children with intellectual disability because teachers closely take care of children, knowing children's learning problems the most. The objectives of this research were to study: 1) teachers' participation in educational management in developing children with intellectual disability at Prachuap Khiri Khan Special Education Center, and 2) the outcomes on developing children with intellectual disability at Prachuap Khiri Khan Provincial Special Education Center. The samples for this study, selected by purposive sampling method, were seven teachers taking care of children with intellectual disability, and eight children with intellectual disability at Prachuap Khiri Khan Special Education Center, 10-13 years of age, with developmental level at 3 years 6 months and Intelligence Quotient (IQ) at 75. The research tools were the individual lesson plans, 2 sets of 10 items of intellectual development assessment, a questionnaire, an interview form, and a focus group discussion. The quantitative data were analyzed by using mean, standard deviation, and t-test, and content analysis was used for analyzing qualitative data.

          The research results were as follows:

1. The teacher’s participation in educational management in developing children with intellectual disability at Prachuap Khiri Khan Special Education Center consisted of 4 steps: 1) Participation in thinking, studying, and researching, was overall at a high level. The researcher and the teachers joining a group discussion and responding the interview, had got knowledge on teaching techniques, measurement and evaluation method, individual lesson plan preparation, and development on intelligence, language proficiency, and conceptual thinking ability, 2) Participation in planning, and setting policy and activities was at a high level. The teachers attended a group discussion, preparing 16 individual lesson plans: 8 teaching plans for language development, and 8 conceptual thinking plans, 3) Participation in decision-making and practice steps was at a high level. The teachers and researchers taught according to the components of the individual lesson plans for children with intellectual disability at Prachuap Khiri Khan Special Education Center, and 4) Participation in controlling, monitoring, and evaluating steps was overall at a high level. The teachers applied teaching plans, teaching activities, and research results in evaluating the development, participating in internal supervision, and measuring and evaluating the participation.
2. The development outcomes revealed that language proficiency and conceptual thinking ability of children with intellectual disability after learning were higher than those before with statistical significance at the 0.05 level

          The research finding revealed that participatory process was important for teaching and learning management for children with intellectual disability by teaching according to the individual lesson plans having been set together. The teachers should, therefore, take participation seriously in educational management in order to cooperatively brainstorm, propose problems, propose solutions, and systematically implement together in schools.