Cooperative Learning Activities Pertaining to Suffciency Economy to Develop Critical Thinking Skill for Third Year Students of Early Childhood Education Program in Faculty of Education Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to examine and compare the critical thinking of students in the Early Childhood Education program before and after receiving cooperative learning activities based on the philosophy of sufficiency economy, as well as to investigate student satisfaction with cooperative learning activities based on the philosophy of sufficiency economy. The samples used in this research were the third-year students from the Early Childhood Education Program, Faculty of Education, Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University, in the first semester of the academic year 2022. One study group of students, which was group D1, in total of 23 people, was randomly selected by cluster random sampling. The instruments employed in the research were: 1) a cooperative learning activity plan according to the philosophy of sufficiency economy; 2) an critical thinking test; and 3) a satisfaction survey towards the management of cooperative learning activities based on the sufficiency economy philosophy. The study used a single-group experimental design to collect data before and after the experiment (one pretest-posttest group). The statistics used to analyze the data were mean scores, standard deviations, and a dependent t-test.
The research findings revealed that After the students of the Early Childhood Education Program were taught cooperative learning activities based on the philosophy of sufficiency economy,
1) The students showed higher critical thinking at the.01 level in all areas, including importance, relationships, and principles;
2) The students were satisfied with the cooperative learning activities based on the philosophy of sufficiency economy. It was at a high satisfactory level (𝑥̅= 4.32, S.D. = 0.52).