Journal of Education and Human Development

Development of Thai Teachers’ Pedagogical Reasoning by Utilizing Metacognitive Reflections in STEM Professional Development
Do-Yong Park, Chanphorn Prommas

Abstract
The Ministry of Education, Thailand recently adopted science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as one of the major topics of instruction in K-16 education. However, research found that Thai teachers‘ knowledge and skills about the instruction of the STEM field are limited. Thus, a professional inquiry-based STEM development institute was provided to improve K-16 educators‘ STEM instruction knowledge and skills of STEM instruction at Burapha University, Thailand for four consecutive years since 2014. This particular study took the 2015 data of 23 participants to investigate how metacognitive reflection helped develop and shape teachers‘ pedagogical reasoning of STEM instruction during the institute. Data includes metacognitive reflection journals of five days and a focus group interview. Reflective journals were analyzed with a reflection rubric while interview data was analyzed with a metacognitive knowledge scheme to provide more evidence of teachers‘ pedagogical reasoning behaviors. The findings indicated that metacognitive reflection journals were effective in developing teachers‘ pedagogical reasoning during the professional development institute. Implications are discussed on how a professional development program can effectively develop teachers‘ pedagogical reasoning of STEM instruction.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jehd.v6n3a15