Rangsit Journal of Educational Studies

Editorial Board

Malivan Praditteera — 2024-01-31

RJES Editorial Board

Malivan Praditteera — 2024-01-31

Table of Contents

Editor's Note

Malivan Praditteera — 2024-01-31

Editor's Note

Principals’ Guidelines to Implement the Balanced Development Education of Primary Schools in Kunming City

Wang Zhen — 2024-01-31

Despite many significant factors related to educational reform, successful implementation of Balanced Development Education (BDE) is attributed to the principals’ roles, responsibilities, leadership skills and strategies. Thus, this study aimed to 1) investigate the influence of roles. responsibilities, leadership skills and strategies of the primary school principals whose responsibility is to introduce Balanced Education Development in Kunming, Yunnan Province 2) explore the roles, responsibilities, leadership skills and strategies of the primary school principals and 3) develop guidelines for the principals of primary schools that will enable them to effectively implement BDE in their schools. This study adopted a mixed-methods multi=phase research design approach. The first phase was carried out by content analysis of sixty related documents for better understanding the relationship between BDE and quality education. The second step was collecting 268 the questionnaires from a population of 755 based on Yamane’s formula. Thirdly, a group of 12 volunteering interviewees were purposively selected for a semi-structured interview. Finally, a group of seven experts were invited to critically analyze the guidelines derived from the combined three sets of data sources. The findings revealed that 1) gender and age had no effect on the principals’ capabilities. Levels of education (from ‘diploma’ onwards) positively affected how the principals worked. Years in the positions of the principals and the principals under BDE policy showed that experience in the job might be an advantage but negatively affected their strategies, 2) the principals in the study took the roles of academic leaders, operational managers and network leaders but the principals also needed to show desirable personality traits and characteristics. Teamwork skills was the most necessary for both academic and management leadership, 3) The resulting guidelines could offer a proper framework for the principals to follow. First, the principals must be BDE leaders in student development by ensuring that all students feel valued, get attention, care and love in a safe and diverse learning environment for their physical and mental health. Secondly, the principals must professionally develop their teachers and their self-growth to be able to provide quality education and make the school a learning organization. Thirdly, the principals must nurture partnerships with the community and other external organizations such as urban schools by emphasizing good relationship with parents and cooperating and collaborating in exchanging both human and material resources with those schools.

The Effects of the MOOC-Based Flipped Classroom with Collaborative Writing on Chinese EFL Learners’ Argumentative Writing Abilities

Luo Yuanzheng — 2024-01-31

The study employed a single group pre-and post-test experimental research design to respond to two research objectives: 1) to examine the effects of an instruction incorporating MOOC-based flipped classroom and collaborative writing on the argumentative writing abilities of university students, and 2) to explore the students' opinions towards this instructional method. Participants included 30 English majors from a university in China, with the research spanning ten weeks of the second semester in the 2022 academic year. Research instruments included pre- and post-test of argumentative writing, instructional materials and lesson plans, and questionnaire. All the research instruments were verified for their content validity and reliability. Pair-sample t-test and effect size were conducted to compare the difference between the mean scores of the pre-test and post-test scores of the argumentative writing to examine the results of the instruction. Furthermore, the close-ended questionnaire responses were subjected to descriptive analysis and the open-ended questionnaire items underwent content analysis to explore the participants’ opinion towards the instruction. The results from the pretest (M=5.367; SD = 0.49) and post-test (M = 6.74, SD =1.11) of students' argumentative writing indicate that the instructional MOOC-based flipped with collaborative writing resulted in an improvement of students' argumentative writing t = -9.687, p >0.05. The Cohen's d effect size was calculated and showed a Cohen's d value of 0.8 confirming the effect of the instruction of a large effect (Cohen, 2013). The closed-ended part of the questionnaire indicated the participants’ positive opinions towards the instruction with the total mean score of 4.17, S.D. = 1.23. It should be noted that although the participants seemed to enjoy the course and their writing practices collaboratively, 70% (21 out of 30 students) have revealed an individual concern based on the open-ended questionnaire discussing their individual obstacles, including starting and organizing the essay as well as using proper language. As for pedagogical implications, it may be concluded from the findings that writing instructors should integrate innovation with writing instruction, foster a supportive and interactive learning environment online that maximizes students’ potential for learning how to write argumentative writing, both collaboratively and individually.

M-Learning of Comparative Legal Terms In EAP Law I

Jutharat Khampeerapap — 2024-01-31

This study aims at 1) to study legal terms in the law areas of English for Academic Purposes of Law I (EAP Law I) in the areas of Crime and Punishment, Women’s Rights, White-Collar Crime and Consumer Rights as sources in web-application and E-book; 2) to create the learning instrument, the web-application and E-book of the innovative comparative legal terms between Thai-English-American legal terms to enhance learning in the experimental group; and 3) to propose the model of M-learning of Thai-English-American legal terms on the Web-application and E-book for mobile learning. The research findings of proficiency scores of the terms between the experimental group and the control group are as follows. The respondents were 27 second-year law students at Chulalongkorn University studying in semester 1/2022 in which students in Section 7 were in the experiment group (n = 15) and students in section 6 were in the control group (n = 12). The research instruments were the web-application with an E-book created and uploaded onto the website so learners could access via internet on mobile phones or other computer devices for their M-learning. Scores were collected four times - two times from Quiz 1 and Quiz 2, and another two times from the midterm exam and the final exam. The two-way repeated measure ANOVA is used to compare scores between the two groups. The results of the proficiency scores in the experimental group revealed that their quiz scores were higher significantly than those in the control group with the main effect of Quiz scores (F(1,25) = 33.33, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.57). Overall quiz scores were different when comparing between Experimental Group (mean = 11.46) and the Control Group (mean = 9.60), and the means of these two groups are significantly different (mean difference = 1.86, S.E. = 0.32, p < .001). There was also the significant interaction effect of the exam scores in the control group (F(1,25) = 7.58, p < .05, ηp2 = 0.23). However, with the limitations in the nature of midterm and final exams written by EAP Law I exam committee in the semester that research was conducted, there was no Vocabulary Part, only in the two quizzes. In response to the research objectives, from the studies in the experimental group learning in the comparative manner of Thai, English, American legal terms in EAP Law I and the creation of the model of the web-app and E-book for learning instrument, the research results shows that they can learn better as shown in higher scores than those in the control group.

Exploring Students’ Attitudes Toward Various English Accents at a Thai Private University

Francis Augustine Frank — 2024-01-31

This study investigated students’ attitudes towards various English accents at a Thai private university by studying their preferences and how these accents affect their English language learning. Seven accents in the study consisted of those from the inner, the outer, and the expanding circles, representing the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Philippines, India, Thailand and China respectively. A mixed-methods research design with a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were the instruments used in this study. With the random sampling method, ninety-nine undergraduates of the Department of English for International Business English Communication [IBEC] at a Thai private University were questionnaire respondents on five attitudinal perspectives: likeness, intelligibility, acceptability, preference and prestige. Twelve participants, through convenience sampling, participated in the semi-structured interviews conducted with seven prompt questions. Quantitative data were statistically analyzed in frequency and percentage, while the qualitative data underwent content analysis according to Lichtman’s three Cs of data analysis technique. The findings for Research Question 1 of the study showed that the students’ three topmost preferred accents were British, American and Thai English, respectively based on likeness, intelligibility, acceptability, preference and prestige. In addition, students could accept accents other than the standard native speaker English. They would accept different varieties of English accents as long as they could communicate easily with them. The study also reported students’ willingness to learn many accents to ease global communication, education success and career standing. The various English accents did not negatively affect the students. For Research Question 2 on the effects of these accents on their English language learning, it was found that their motivation could be enhanced by the British and American accents. For conversation and interaction, they felt more comfortable with the British and American accents. For willingness for improvement, they chose American and Thai accents, while for familiarity, students ranked American and Thai accents higher than others. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers of English be aware of why students prefer certain accents more than others although they have positive attitudes towards all accents and do not look at native speaker of English as superior to other varieties.

Exploring Chinese Teachers’ Reflections on Inter-School Cooperation Chinese Education Project

Li Wang — 2024-02-01

This study explores Chinese teachers' reflections on their participation in the Inter-School Cooperation Chinese Education Project (ISCCEP). It aims to find Chinese teachers' points of view on teaching Chinese in London primary schools and identify the ways in which the ISCCEP project enhanced their professional development. Three semi-structured interviews were used to gain qualitative data from five Chinese teachers. A convenience sample of five participants was selected and three semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant to collect qualitative data. These data were analyzed using a grounded theory. The results show the participants perceived both positive and negative aspects of the issues related to Chinese teaching there. As part of the reflection, the participants reflected on the training-oriented topics and reviewed teachers' responsibilities and problems teachers encountered. The solution to each problem was also discussed. As regards the enhancement of their professional development, the ISCCEP has provided teachers with great professional development opportunities, such as a diverse work environment, inter-school communication, and a research project. In addition, this study contributes to the theoretical development of Chinese international education and has a positive impact on cultural and educational cooperation between the UK and China.

Factors Affecting the Development of Physical Education Teachers at Elementary Schools in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Sang-Giau Dinh — 2024-01-31

This study examines the impact of factors influencing the development of physical education teachers in elementary schools based on human resource development and PDCA approaches. In addition, the study also explores the correlation between influencing factors. Data were collected through survey questionnaires from 522 administrators and teachers, and interviews with 30 managers and teachers at elementary schools in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The findings show that factors such as Innovation in Education; Policy mechanisms; Culture in school; Human; Awareness and management capacity of managers; and teachers’ personalities influence the development of a team of elementary school Physical Education teachers. Based on these research results, the authors have proposed some solutions to developing a team of elementary school Physical Education teachers in Ho Chi Minh City, having both quality and quantity according to the general development trend and meeting the requirements of educational innovation.

Peer Reviewers

Malivan Praditteera — 2024-01-31

List of Peer Reviewers