The needs assessment for learning management development of business teachers in vocational education in order to enhance 21st century life and career skills of students.

Abstract

The objective of this research were to study the needs for learning management and the development guidelines of vocational business teachers in order to enhance the 21^st century life and career skills of students. The participants were 139 business teachers teaching commercial courses in vocational colleges in Bangkok. The research instruments comprised questionnaires that were used to collect the data about learning management needs and interview forms that were used to gather the information about development guidelines. The statistics used were frequency, percentage, mean, and t values and content analysis was also carried out to analyze the data.

According to the research results, the participants of this research comprised 111 females (79.86 %) and 28 males (20.14%). Most of them were 31-40 years old (n=60, 43.17%). They mostly had a teaching experience of 11-15 years (n=40, 28.78%). Their education was at the bachelor’s degree level (n=85, 61.15%). In terms of the needs for learning management development, it was found that the mean score of the actual operational performance was lower than that of the expected operational performance in every learning management category that was associated with the 21^st century life and career skills of students at a statistical significance level of .05. The results indicated that the participants need to improve their instruction in every learning management category in order to obtain a higher level of operational performance. The guidelines for learning management development included: teachers need to balance time between teaching and other duties and colleges need to recognize that teachers need time develop important skills for students. Moreover, it is essential to place importance on teacher training in order to develop teaching and learning processes that can enhance the 21^st century life and career skills of students, in addition to formal knowledge taught in textbooks.