Meaningful knowledge sharing via educational dialogue is the way to go

The more we share, the greater chance we have to identify the real problems and solutions.
I have confidence that discussions over time will shift from emotional watchfulness to reasoning and an understanding of success and failure in the educational system. Through this liberated process, we may educate our nation for the purpose of changing it for the better.
Last month, there was a roundtable dialogue on education. About 30 scholars came together to share their ideas in a bid to shape the strategy that best responds to the country’s educational needs. As they expressed concerns about Thai educational system, they also planned for its future.
The participants investigated the educational crisis that has plagued Thai society for decades. They echoed their insightful perception by using a free form dialogue.
According to the Bohm Dialogue, educational dialogue has emerged as a free form of exchanging the ideas and information that is fundamentally relevant to transforming culture and freeing it of destructive misinformation.
As I have joined this initiative, I would like to share my experience with my readers here in regards to various outlooks from the meaningful communication in that dialogue. The following prologues may represent aspiring missions of collaborative change and constructive involvement for a better Thai education.
1. The National Educational Research Institute: should be an organisation that gathers research on failures or successes in the education system, finding evidence and then reporting an intellectual recommendation to society. We must encourage education experts to research lesson study both nationwide and globally and work collaboratively on the complex educational system.
2. The effectiveness of teacher education: we must have a common understanding that the quality of children cannot be better than the quality of their teacher. Thus, the performance of teachers is a critical issue, including the pedagogical process, teaching and learning techniques, curriculum design, and standardisation of learning materials. How can we set a milestone to support the competence and performance of teachers, especially continuous professional development?
3. Curriculum reform: we need a real expert in curriculum design and reform. We must seriously set up an interactive process and recursive review of the curriculum nationwide. The curriculum is not just content development and its subject matter, but also the pedagogical process within the classroom in detail. It needs social involvement, mainly from parents.
4. School management: we must examine thoroughly district management and school structure – for example, the roles of principals in school management, the distributive authority, autonomous administration in school and the decentralised Ministry of Education.
5. Learning community: should we have a place for teachers to share their best practices and experiences? How can we create a community of practice (CoP) for educators and teacher educators? It should be a learning space where we can share and gain knowledge apropos educational practices.
Other matters for further dialogue include equity in education, basic literacy and numeracy, future generations, local curriculum design, teachers as learners, teachers as researchers, the assessment and evaluation process, measurement criteria, ethical issues, the solving problem process, social involvement and awareness process, Teachers Union, a national independent policy with no interference from politics, and so on.
All discussions have led participants to realise that in fact we have great potential.
So, let’s talk aloud about these issues whether you agree or not! All voices are valuable! Through the arguments and discussions, we will find ways to improve and deliver a better education for Thai children.