Abstract:
The objectives of this study were to conduct a comparative study on the development of local curriculum in basic schools under Surin Educational Service Office Area 3 and to study suggestions for the development, aiming at information both quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative samples were 152 administrators and 152 heads of academic division which made a total of 304 persons. Approved by experts, the research instrument was a questionnaire which possessed a congruence index between question items and objectives of 1.00, giving been tried out and resulted its reliability of 0.96. Statistics used were percentage, mean and standard deviation. The research hypothesis were tested by t-test independent.
The study findings were as follows:
1. The process for the development as a whole and in each individual aspect was at high level. Average being ordered from the most to the least were in the aspects of learning management planning process, learning guidelines determination, core curriculum analysis, local needs condition analysis, supervision and monitoring, curriculum assessment, curriculum improvement and local curriculum development guidelines determination.
2. Comparative result of the process for the development between the administrators and the academic division heads in small and big school showed as a whole and in each individual aspect without statistical significant difference at the level of .05.
3. Overall, it is suggested, for the development of local curriculum in basic schools under Surin Educational Service Office Area 3, that strong participation from all sided should be coordinated, including systematic implementation with clear and continuous work steps. Considering at each individual step, it was found that:
3.1 At demand condition analysis step, it is suggested that seminars should be conducted to provide knowledge concerning the process for local curriculum development for those responsible to bring the knowledge to be obtained to completely and effectively develop local curriculums of the basic schools.
3.2 At curriculum analysis step, it is suggested for the basic schools to process the local curriculum development being in line in the with core curriculum and local curriculum demand.
3.3 At guideline determining of curriculum development, there should be directions concerning the guideline of the use of curriculum, including appointment of continuous evaluation and follow-up committee by assigning teachers to prepare lesson plan and teaching activities to be in accordance with the local curriculum since the beginning of academic year.
3.4 At determining guideline for learning step, it should be determined according to each learning cluster of the local curriculum, by setting up the structure of local curriculum to be an alternative for teachers to use as guideline for learning arrangement appropriate according to students needs.
3.5 At planning for learning arrangement step, curriculum documents relating to educational management should be studied before the development of lesson plan. This enables personnel responsible to be able to determine learning issues, evaluation and measurement, techniques for learning arrangement, teaching aids, criteria for evaluation clearly and completely.
3.6 At supervising and follow-up step, realization of academic teachers should be encouraged to learn the result of using the curriculum, whether it is effective towards students or not.
3.7 At curriculum evaluation step, there should be committee to evaluate the local curriculum and report it to public.
3.8 At improvement of curriculum step, supervisory reports and curriculum evaluation should be studied to improve the work, correct mistakes and develop dominant ones afterwards.