Effects of an inservice training program on the performance of Thai secondary school teachers of English

This is a study of how an intensive inservice training program affected the teaching performance of teachers of English in Thai secondary schools. The training program which was part of a nation-wide effort to improve English teaching in Thai schools incorporated elements that were recommended by inservice educators for effective results: knowledge base, demonstration, practice, feedback, and collegiality. The goal of the study was to investigate the degree to which the trainees implemented what they learned from the training program in their teaching, and the degree to which they dissemminated what they learned among their colleagues in their school staff development. Factors that accounted for the subjects' degrees of implementation and involvement in staff development were also sought for and examined.A training center was chosen for the study. Twelve of the teachers who were trained here were included in the study. A training program was observed in order to establish criteria to judge the subjects' performance on implementation and staff development. Observations and interviews were the major tools used in collecting data for the investigation. These were supplemented with questionnaires and test scores. The training staff, the subjects, their colleagues and students were interviewed. Questionnaires were responded to by the subjects, their colleagues, and their students. While classroom observations provided data on the subjects' teaching behaviors, test scores and questionnaires provided information on their qualifications which comprised of professional proficiency and attitudes. Interviews constituted a major source of data on staff development.Six out of twelve subjects were successful implementors. These implementors taught classes with will identified teaching stages that followed in a logical order, allowed more student-centered learning activities, allowed more opportunity for student-talk, used more extra-textual materials, and spoke English more qualitatively in class. As for degrees of staff development influences, only four subjects were successful influencers. Two approaches to staff development emerged: the Top-down approach in which teachers in the whole department were generally affected, and the Buddy approach in which only one or two teachers were intensively affected.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio