From: ssg9328@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Samart Srijumnong)
Subject: Science Achievement of Thai Students
Keywords: Thailand, science
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 00:19:28 GMT

I have come across a book entitled "The IEA Study of Science II: Science 
Achievement in Twenty Three Countries, by T. Neville Postlethwaite and
David E. Wiley, New York: Pergamon Press, 1991. The book summarizes the
result of the study of science achievement in 23 countries one of which
is Thailand. The others included in the study are:
	Australia
	Canada
	China
	England
	Ghana
	Hong Kong
	Hungary
	Israel
	Italy
	Japan
	Korea
	Netherlands
	Nigeria
	Norway
	Papua New Guinea
	Philippines
	Poland
	Singapore
	Sweden
	Thailand
	United States
	Zimbabwe

	At the end, the authors provide descriptive summary of the result of
of the study for each country. It is impossible to mention all the cases but
I believe the case of Thailand may be worth knowing about, particularly in 
the context of the effort of Kun Schitt who consistently provides us with
information concerning S&T development in Thailand. The result on the part
of Thailand reads as follows:

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Thailand
^^^^^^^^^
	Thailand tested only Population 2 and 3. Population 2 was Grade 9 and
Population 2 Grade 12. Only 32 percent of an age group was enrolled in Thailand
at Grade 9 level which is the last year of Lower Secondary School. This is
an elite group: the average age was 15 years four months. The average number of
children was 4.3 and the home had an average of 160 books. The father had an
average of ten years of education. The class size was about 42. The students
received three hours of science instrution per week and did 7.9 hours total
homework. Of this amount, 3.6 huors were for science. Sixty-two percent reporteddoing experiments. About 50 % of the science time was given to practical work.
Sixty % of science teaching was done in laboratory. There was an average of
1.5 laboratories per school manned by on lab assistant. The science teachers
had an average age of 28 years and 6.5 years teaching experience. There were
50 % men and 50% women teachers. Their postsecondary education lasted four
years and 2.5 years of that were spent studying science. The average number 
of days per year inservice training in science was 2.2 days. The total 
teaching load was low (15.3 hours per week) and nearly all of that was
devoted to the teaching of science. Six % of the schools single sex and the
average school size was 1,113 students.

	In 1984, Thailand had 29% of an age group enrolled in school at 
Grade 12. Fourteen % were in academic schools and 15 % in vocational school.
Vocational schools were not tested in this study. In the academic schools,
seven % of an age group studied each of the science subject. The average 
age of the students was 18 years three months and they studied six subjects.
In all subject areas, just over 50% of students were girls. They all expected
to have three years of teriary education. They were in classes of 40 students.
All reported doing experiments in their science classes. The students studied
10 hours of science per week, and did about 7.5 hours of homework per week of
which 4.6 hours were for science homework. Thirty five % of biology teachers,
46% of chemistry teachers, and 84% of physics teachers were men. Their 
average age was 32 years, and they had had 4.4 years of postsecondary 
education of which two thirds were spent studying science. They received
their three to 4.5 days of inservice training per year. The average teaching
load was 13.5 hours per week which was the lowest of all countries. They
reported spending an additional 15 hours on preparing lessons and marking 
students' work. Forty to 50 % of their teaching was devoted to practical 
work and 60 to 70 % of teaching was done in laboratories. About 20 % of
biology and chemistry teachers in contrast to 35% of physics teachers perceived
the lack of equipment to hamper their teaching severely. Ninety four % of
schools were mixed and six % sex-segregated. Forty-one % of total teaching 
force was male while 47 % of all science teachers were men.

	At Population 2 level, Thailand's overall achievement score was in the
middle group of countries. These countries included Australia, England, Hong
Kong, Israel, Norway, Poland, Singapore, and Sweden (Grade 7). The Thai
scores were relatively high in biology, but relatively low in the other 
branches. At Population 3 level, all scores were relatively low in comparison
with other countries.

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from ibid, pp. 154-155.

	As far as the result of Population 3 (Grade 12) is concerned, as the
authors put it, Thai students did not perform well in any of the subjects. 
Here is an sample result:

		Biology			Chemistry		Physics
Country	      Mean   SD    SE        Mean   SD    SE        Mean   SD   SE

Australia     46.6  14.2   .52       49.1  19.5   .91       48.7  15.2   .70
Canada (Eng)  43.7  14.4   .60       39.6  16.8   .70       41.7  14.6   .65
Canada (Fr.)  39.3  13.4  1.32       27.9  12.3   .64       26.7  10.6   .53
England	      62.4  13.6   .80       69.3  17.9   .94       58.4  15.1   .68
Finland       50.2  13.1   .56       35.9  15.3   .96       37.9  14.1   .96
Ghana         57.6  13.1  1.46       60.2  18.3  1.97       50.5  13.3  1.29
H.K.(Form6)   55.2  14.5  1.00       68.2  17.7  1.37       61.2  14.5  1.12
H.K.(Form7)   65.0  16.0  1.13       78.5  17.6  1.28       70.8  14.2  1.16
Hangary       59.9  14.0  1.21       50.2  19.7  2.43       58.7  17.6  1.76
Israel        51.6  22.5  2.16       45.1  24.8  5.31       54.5  18.7  1.50
Italy	      42.3  15.0  3.59       38.2  24.0  4.93       29.2  13.6   .85
Japan         45.5  15.4  1.56       55.5  22.9  2.98       58.5  17.8  2.04
Korea         40.1  14.1   .51       30.9  14.8   .54       39.8  16.9   .99
Norway        55.4  15.1  1.09       44.3  18.4  1.32       54.1  15.9  1.05
Poland        56.3  13.2   .96       46.5  17.4  1.45       53.2  17.1  1.38
Singapore     66.1  13.2  1.54       65.7  17.7  3.39       55.0  13.3  1.26
Sweden        53.4  15.8   .84       43.9  17.8   .84       46.0  15.0   .59
THAILAND      42.6  14.2   .91       35.8  16.5  1.15       34.3  16.7  1.26
United States 38.1  15.5  1.62       37.7  18.2  2.60       45.3  15.9  2.07  

Source: ibid, p.69

	For those whose statistics knowledge "has returned to the pot," some
explanation of the terms used may help.
	
	Mean = average (derived by dividing sum of the scores by the number
	       of the subjects in the sample)
	SD   = standard deviation (a measure of deviation from the mean; if
	       the attributes are normally distributed, 1 SD (before and 
	       after the mean) covers about 64% of the distribution; 2 SD
	       about 94% or something like that. 
	SE   = standard error of measurement which will indicate precision
	       of the attributes, hence the larger SE, the less precise the
	       attributes are. You might have seen this figure is mentioned
	       when a poll is reported, e.g. plus and minus 3. 

	According to the above result, among 19 groups, Thai 12th Graders's 
performance is 15th in biology, 17th in chemistry, and also 17th in Physics!
In an effort to boost S&T development, we can not undermine this problem or
it will be like pyramid without foundation.
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