A MANAGEMENT MODEL OF HOME SCHOOL FOR PERSONS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Abstract

This study on home schooling model for persons with special needs possessed the main purposes as follows: 1) To investigate current conditions and obstacles about organizing home schooling, 2) To develop a home schooling model in cooperation with a network of education-supporting organizers, and 3) To verify home schooling model in cooperation with network of education-supporting organizers. The study was conducted in 3 major procedures. The first phase was to investigate existing conditions and requirements for educating persons with special needs. The key informants consisted of 6 homeschooling-experienced persons to provide information regarding the current situations on organizing home schooling. The second phase was to develop a draft management model of home schools by (1) opinion survey with the stakeholders, key informants consisted of 7 home schools chosen by purposive sampling from experienced persons in home school management. (2) questionnaire survey with 80 stakeholders, consisted of 46 home schooling organizers, 5 educational supervisors, 24 special education teachers, 2 administrators in education institution, and 3 psychologists/therapists to validate the suitability of A Management Model of Home School for Persons with Special Needs. The statistics used in this study were percentage, mean and standard deviation. Data collected were analyzed using content analysis. The third phase was to verify suitability and feasibility of home schooling model by group discussions.

The result of this research shows that: A need for home schooling emerged because of several reasons: physical problem of persons that could not be solved by general education in normal schools, difference in intellectual capability, inconsistent or uncontrollable emotion and concentration, and a problem in social interactions. A preparation before organizing home schooling depended upon a conditions and severity of disabilities of students. The results indicated that there were 2 types of conditions: physical conditions such as educational/developmental delays, and mental conditions, which were related to brain functionality. Types of home schooling could be organized by either self-organizing or associating with special-purpose school. This model covered 3 categories of content: 1) 8 areas of academic subjects, 2) behavior-improving activities, 3) vocation-improvement activities. Parents were able to observe students’ talents to improve their knowledge and skills, according to their preferences. There were 3 main types of problems that encouraged a demand in homeschooling needs: 1) education organizers lacked in knowledge and capability to design an effective curriculum and appropriate evaluation method, 2) a curriculum lacked key performance indicators and evaluation methods that were clear and appropriate for developing persons with special needs, 3) government and officers lacked knowledge and expertise in home schooling. It was found that the home schooling model for persons with special education needs proposed by the researcher was equipped with acceptable quality, verified by selected group of experts. The proposed model consisted of 1) a methodology, 2) a network of home schooling, 3) key success factors included the fact that government agencies showed clear and objective procedures. 4) key performance indicators consisted of: (1) Individualized Education Plan, an individual plan for each specific student, (2) Individualized Transition Services Plan for new service, process of searching for new school, an occupation preparation.