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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 (2014) 1763 – 1765

5th World Conference on Educational Sciences 2013

Needs Assessment for School Curriculum Development about

Water Resources Management: A case study of Nam Phong Basin.
Lumyai Seehamat a, Unchalee Sarnrattana a,* Angkana Tungkasamit a, Niwat
Srisawasdi a
a
Faculty of Education, Khon Kaen University, 40002, Thailand

Abstract

Needs assessment is an important stage of both curriculum development and school curriculum development. Thus needs
assessment inform important information and decisions for school curriculum to develop awareness and sense of responsibility
for protecting water resources. Presently, the schools in Namphong basin area are lack of curriculum about how to manage water
in their school. The objective of this study is to do content need of water resources management : a case study of Nam Phong
basin by using survey study. This study used existing data from key informants; community leaders, school committees,
administrators, teachers, and students, in schools at Khon Kaen area region 4. Data collection employed by focus group
discussion. A collective review of study results include the content analysis and Interpretation : inductive conclusion. The needs
were ranked in order via compare frequency. The research findings found that school curricula should have content about Water
Resources Management including: 1) awareness of water resources management of students 2) skills of teachers in creating unit
of water contents 3) skills of teachers in integration of water resources management contents. Thus the need of School
Curriculum Development about Water Resources Management of Nam Phong basin is: Development on awareness of water
resources management of students.
© 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer
Selection and/or review under
peer-review underresponsibility
the responsibility of Prof.
of Academic Dr. Education
World Servet Bayram
and Research Center.
Keywords: Needs assessment, school curriculum, water resources management

1. Introduction

According to the National Educational Act 1999, and the Amended Act 2002, stated in Section 6 that : the
educational management needed to be implemented for developing Thais people to be perfect human beings in
physical, mental, intellectual, knowledge, and virtue as well as morality and culture in living happily with other
people. In Addition the basic Education core curriculum is aimed at enhancing capacity of all learners will be
endowed with basic knowledge and essential skills and favorable attitude toward further education, livelihood and
lifelong learning. The learners are capable of learning and self-development to their highest potential. (the office of
National Educational Commission, 2002,;Ministry of Education, 2008)
The standard and indicators of core curriculum will provide relevant local agencies and schools with confidence
to prepare school curriculum must exhibit the quality as prescribed in the learning standards and indicators. The
* Lumyai Seehamat. Tel.: +66814061462

E-mail address: s_lumyai@kkumail.com, unesar@kku.ac.th

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.469
1764 Lumyai Seehamat et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 (2014) 1763 – 1765

school curriculum will provide a framework and direction for provision of education of all types, for success in
implementing with suitable in the local and success in the core curriculum, Thus, the school curriculum need to
work on a systematic and continuous basis on planning, functioning promotion and support, inspection, and
amendment as well as improvement. (Ministry of Education, 2008) Especially for the planning of curriculum is the
first step in develop school curriculum, In Addition the report synthesis of research on education in Thailand: A
meta analysis. Showed that the factor of quality of Thailand Education is the development of school curriculum in
suitable for the local area. (the Office of Secretarial in Educational Council, 2009) and also the important process
of curriculum development in the first step is : Needs assessment
The needs assessment is method used to study for the aims, vision, principles, goals, learners’ key competencies,
desirable characteristics, learning standards and indicators that showed all of the components in curriculum from
the needs assessment. Information obtained during the needs assessment can be used to decide the important
contents to students. This will make the decisions about curriculum and instruction was correct, believable, ensuring
for development of the curriculum, and built on the principle of reasonableness, explained without bias, no trial and
error, and save for the time and resources. (Sarnrattana, 2012) .The main point of the needs assessment in addition to
information and the needs were ranked by prioritization of needs to solve the problem in time.
The current situation in Namphong basin is critical especially problem of water pollution is increasing more and
more violent because of the needs for food and raw materials. But presently, the school in Namphong basin area are
lack of curriculum about how to manage water in their school and this study hope that Khon Kaen Education zone 4
will have the right way to manage water by ranked of the needs assessment and successful for developing school
curriculum.

Research Question

What is the appropriate role of community, teachers, administrator, student and content in school curriculum
needs assessment about water resources.?
Research Objectives
The main aims of this research are to assess the content needs of school curriculum development about water
resources management.

Methodology

Samples
Key informants of focus group discussion are administrators, teachers, committees, students and leaders in the
community. These key informants were divided into 3 groups of discussion.
Method
The needs assessment for school curriculum development was used focus group discussion, These steps of
discussion were;
1. to study the context and background of key informants.
2. let the key informants know the day, proposal and they can preparing the information in focus group
discussion.
3. give the proposal of this research to the key informants
4. during the focus group discussion collecting data by note taker, and create a good relationship with
everyone.

Results

The rank of the needs for school curriculum development abut water resources management as follow;
1. the students’ awareness of water resources management
2. the teachers’ creating learning unit of water contents
3. the teachers’ skills in integration of water resources management contents.
 Lumyai Seehamat et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 (2014) 1763 – 1765 1765

Conclusions and Discussions

The results of this study showed that the needs assessment for school curriculum development about water
resources management the first of need were the students’ awareness of water resources management, the teachers’
creating learning unit of water contents , and the teachers’ skills in integration of water resources management
contents. The first, students’ awareness of water resources management can be strengthen the responsibility of
citizen in the local area. The students are the important human resources for take care the local area , to love and
have sense of belonging in the natural resources in the future. In Addition, United Nations Environment Program
(2010) suggested that the development of water resources curriculum is the most important tools for solving water
quality problems, so the students and the teachers are the potential persons to enhancing water resources
management. The second, the teachers’ creating learning unit of water contents will show the capability of the
teacher to bring the contents of the water resources management to create a lesson. The last, the teachers were able
to integrated this contents to the other subject description.
Although this study is only a pilot study but the result could be the important issue to develop the school
curricula about water resources management.

Recommendations

This study should be another people such as parents, monk in focus group discussion in order to suggest the
various impact of school curriculum. The instrument to investigate data should be various perspectives not only a
qualitative data collection but also mixed with quantitative data.

Acknowledgement
We would like to thank the Khon Kaen University for supporting the scholarship. Fund and The National
research University Project of Thailand office of Higher Education Commission through the Cluster of Holistic
watershed management.

References

The Office of National Educational Commission. 2002. “ National Educational Act 1999, The Revised Edition ( the Second Issue ) 2002.”
Bangkok: Prigwan Graphic.
Sarnrattana U. (2012). “Needs assessment for curriculum and instruction development.” Journal of curriculum and instruction Khon Kaen
University. 2(1-2),2-17.
United Nations Environment Programme. 2010. Water Quality for Ecosystems and Human Health. 2nd edition. UNEP, ERCE, UNESCO.
2008
Office of the Education Council. (2009). Report Synthesis of Research on Education Thailand: (Meta - analysis). Bangkok: Chulalongkorn
University Printing.
Ministry of Education. ( 2008). Core Curriculum 2008. Bangkok: Printing of Agricultural Cooperatives of Thailand.