The Curriculum Development to Enhance Economical Life Characters on the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy for Lower-secondary Students

Abstract

The purpose of this research aims at developing the sufficiency economy philosophy curriculum for lower-secondary students. The research methodology employed four stages of the research and development: 1) studying basic information regarding the sufficiency economy philosophy to enhance the economical life of lower-secondary students, 2) developing and monitoring the curriculum 3) conducting a pilot study and studying the use of the curriculum, and 4) evaluating the curriculum. The sample were 30 lower-secondary students at Phayao University Demonstration School in the academic year 2021, obtained by using purposive sampling method from the students who voluntarily participated in learner development activities. The instruments consisted of 1) the sufficiency economy philosophy curriculum to enhance the economical life of lower-secondary students and 2) three assessment forms of on sufficiency economy philosophy to enhance the Economical life characters: modesty, reasonableness, and good immunity. The data were analyzed using average, standard deviation, and independent samples     T-test. The results were as followed: 1. The sufficiency economy philosophy to enhance the economical life characters of lower-secondary students consisted of 1) modesty, 2) reasonableness, and 3) good immunity. Besides, there were pathways to developing the sufficiency economy philosophy to enhance the economical life by initiating the curriculum using active learning via a learning process designed according to the sufficiency economy philosophy and the concepts of Character Education introduced by Lickona (1992) 2. The sufficiency economy philosophy to enhance the economical life characters curriculum for lower-secondary students consisted of six components: 1) principles, objectives, 3) contents, 4) learning activities 5) learning instruments and resources, and 6) assessment and evaluation. The result of the developed curriculum was appropriate at the highest level; the result from the pilot study also revealed the possibility of manipulating the curriculum. 3. After the curriculum implementation, the result of the sufficiency economy philosophy to enhance the economical life of lower-secondary students after participating in the curriculum was at a high level (= 45.91, S.D. = 5.92). When considering through topics, the results were that the highest level was 'having good immunity' (= 50.40, S.D. = 7.64) followed by ‘reasonableness’ (= 45.33, S.D. = 6.69) and ‘modesty’ (= 42.5, S.D. = 3.45), respectively. the implementation sufficiency economy philosophy to enhance the economical life characters curriculum for lower-secondary students revealed that the average scores of the pre-implementation were 129.37, while the post-implementation was 137.73. Additionally, the post-implementation scores were statistically higher than pre-implementation at the significant level of p ≤ 0.05. 4. The assessment and evaluation of the sufficiency economy philosophy to enhance the economical life characters curriculum for lower-secondary students discovered that students' opinions on the learning activities after the course implementation were at the highest level (= 4.70, S.D. = 0.39).