The Needs Assessment for the Development of Research Competence for Undergraduate Students

Abstract

This research was to study the needs assessment for the development of
research competence for undergraduate students in education programs, to prioritize
such needs, and to study of the method for improving students’ research competence.
There were 2 population groups, namely, 402 5th year students of the education
program at Srinakharinwirot University from the academic year 2015. They were picked
by stratified random sampling. The other group was 10 teachers who teach the
educational research for Learning and teaching development subject. Two sets of tool
were used for this research, namely, questionnaires and interviewing by focus group
discussions. The questionnaire was on the needs assessment for the development of
research competence for undergraduate students in education programs, which was a
dual-response format rating scale with the reliability (-Coefficient) of 0.972. The latter
was a focus group interviewing about the need, the necessity, and the guidelines to
improve research competence. The results showed that student’s competence that
needs most improvment was their competency to present their research results to the
public. The most suitable learning theory for the learning management of the
educational research for the learning and teaching development subject that would
also improve the students’ research competence was Constructivism Theory.
The learning styles of this theory that were most suitable for real application were
research-based learning and problem-based learning. For these styles of learning to
work, the underlying learning activity must be the one that matches the students’
interest and possesses some variety in it. For the evaluation of the student, it should
focus on formative assessment that provides feedback for learning management.