Intel and Thailand’s Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) joined in November to recognise the efforts of the country’s most innovative teachers, with the inaugural Intel® Teach Awards in Thailand.
Coming as a result of the Memorandum of Understanding signed earlier this year between Intel and OBEC to expand the Intel® Teach Program in Thailand, the awards seek to encourage teachers to better apply the use of technology within their day-to-day lesson plans.
Participating teachers have been trained on these skills under the Intel® Teach program, which aims to equip teachers with the necessary skills for 21st century learning, so they may make the learning process more compelling and relevant. The running of the awards is an extension of the program and was made possible by the collaboration with OBEC.
Accharas Ouysinprasert, Country Manager of Intel Thailand said: “Apart from knowledge of technology applications, the global economy needs young people capable of analysing information, data collection, and collaboration with others. Technology plays an important role in facilitating the teaching of these skills.”
The competition gained an overwhelming response from teachers nationwide, with more than 110 entries received within just one month of the opening of the submission period.
There were nine award winning entries from primary and secondary teachers, who all provided outstanding examples of promoting of problem solving, critical thinking and project-based approaches in the classroom. The projects developed by the teachers covered a wide range of subjects allowing students to apply the project based learning skills in a variety of situations. Topics included studying water ecology in Thailand’s Bangpakong River, recognizing the value of art in their communities through local music, understanding sustainable business occupations in their communities, and analysing various news sources to understand the language, reliability, and objectivity of the sources.
OBEC advisor, Phanit Meesonthorn, said: “The collaboration with Intel to extend the Intel® Teach program is part of our commitment to improve our education standards in Thailand. OBEC would like to express our gratitude to Intel for its continual collaboration since 2003.”
Education Transformation is a hot topic across the APAC Region. Many government ministries are working diligently to develop expertise and specific programs to advance the education systems in their respective countries, and they often face a common set of challenges.
Intel Corporation and UNESCO Bangkok organized the first Regional Ministerial Forum on ICT in Education to address this issue and create an opportunity for Ministers to share experiences, best practices, and lessons from various countries on the development, implementation, and monitoring of their ICT in Education Master Plans.
Intel set the tone for the event by presenting its holistic Education Transformation model in the opening keynote, making the point that all must be considered in order to have a lasting and sustainable change in the education process. The Education Transformation model is comprised of several important elements in addition to Information Communications Technology, including Policy, Professional Development, Curriculum & Assessment, and Research & Evaluation.
With this foundation established, the conference focused on a variety of themes through a series of keynotes and many opportunities for questions and discussions among attendees. The second day of the event was focused specifically on sharing ICT in education plans from various countries and allowing discussion on the various approaches.
The event included 65 Senior Ministry of Education (MOE) officials representing 17 Asian countries, including the Education Minister from Sri Lanka and the Deputy Education Ministers from Pakistan, Thailand, Laos PDR, Brunei, and Mongolia.
Based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback, and a compelling list of future discussion topics suggested by the participants, the forum is expected to be sustained as an annual event over the next 3-5 years. Planning has already begun for a second event in mid 2011.
The Intel® Teach Program in Thailand commenced in early 2003 and initially covered schools in the Bangkok metropolitan area, followed by the training of in-service teachers in other provinces from April 2004. It was extended to include pre-service teachers in May 2008.
To date, Intel Thailand has trained more than 6,000 Master Trainers. Each Master Trainer is tasked with training 20 teachers, which has resulted in a total of more than 57,000 trained across all 76 provinces in Thailand for both public and private schools belonging to the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), Office of the Private Education Commission (OPEC) and in-service teachers with the Office of the Vocational Education Commission (OVEC).
Intel Thailand has been collaborating with the Ministry of Education to hold annual Master Trainer forums since 2004. A primary objective is to improve teaching practices by providing advanced training and teaching methods that are in line with the Intel® Teach program course used worldwide.
The Master Trainers trained in at the forums also have the opportunity to exchange their experiences and share their problems, solutions and feedback. For Intel, the Master Trainer forums also provide the opportunity to collect feedback on the overall Intel® Teach program and identify potential areas for improvement.
Intel Thailand was recognized on the 115th anniversary of the Ministry of Education in April 1, 2007 for its commitment and highly valued contributions to education. The recognition was testament to the success in teacher professional development by the Intel® Teach project.
Intel® Teach is part of the Intel® Education initiative, a sustained commitment – in collaboration with educators and government leaders worldwide – to help today’s students develop the higher-level thinking skills they need to participate and succeed in a knowledge-based economy.
For more information do log onto www.intel.com/education/th (this site is in Thai)
Point of contact: Monchai Kunteekanok, Education Program Manager
E-mail: monchaix.kunteekanok@intel.com
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