Soft Skills Development to Enhance Teachers’ Competencies in Primary Schools

AbstractSoft Skills were the important skill for teachers and administrators during the 21st Century. Thailand is another country entering into Asian Economic Community. The objective of this research was to develop the teachers’ Soft Skills during the first 2 years of their work in Primary Schools in the North Eastern Region of Thailand.These Soft Skills were: 1) Communication skills 2) thinking skills and problem solving skills 3) teamwork force 4) life-long learning and information management 5) innovation development, 6) ethics and professionalism and 7) leadership skills. There were 4 Phases of this study. Phase 1: Construction of the programme, the contextual study by surveying the need, model, and technique in developing soft skills for teachers. Phase 2: Verifying the programme by experts. The external validity of programme was investigated. The instruments for evaluation as well as materials for development were constructed. Phase 3: the program was tried out in 3 schools under the Office of Khon Kaen Educational Service Area 1. Phase 4: the program was implemented in 15 pilot schools in the North Eastern Region. Data were collected by action research. The improvement and revision had been performed after assessment. After implement the programme found that the teachers improved and modified the lesson plan for more than 80%. They had their own innovation, and more soft skills particularly, their communication and presentation skill, innovation development, and teacher leadership respectively. For the students, they had higher level of learning achievement and were happier with their teachers’ learning management