The Development of Professional Learning Community (PLC) for Basic Education Schools in MahaSarakham Province, Thailand

Abstract

The research aims to develop a professional learning community (PLC)for the basic education level of schools in MahaSarakham province and to compare students' integrated science process skills and critical thinking before and after participate in the PLC. The samples used were 12 teachers 183 students from 6 secondary school selected by cluster random sampling. The research tools used were critical thinking test, integrated science process skill test for students and questionnaires for teachers. The statistics hypothesis tests used were t-test, F-test, One-way ANOVA, One-way MANCOVA. The results suggests that the meeting of focus group of teachers allows PLC process known as OPORMAI. Data analysis results suggests that the average scores of the students for integrated science process skills and critical thinking were significantly and statistically higher after participating in the activities at .05. Students from different school sizes possessed different integrated science process and critical thinking scores, with a statistical significance of .05. Therefore, the PLC can be integrated into STEM-based learning activities for developing integrated science process skills and critical thinking in the classrooms.