This article was being written as Muslim terrorists bombed several nightclubs in Bali. Over 180 tourists were killed and at least 300 were injured. At the time, I was wandering around Vietnam loaded up on some strange anti-malarial medication. By sheer fate, I ended up in Vietnam rather than Bali, which made me consider the fragility of life.
This travel story was almost included in my book, Road Rash, but it barely missed the deadline due to post-bombing delays. (more…)
This article was published on Christmas Day, so I decided to really create something playful and fun. It looks at how the story of Santa Claus can lead to unexpected educational insights.
This article takes a raw and honest looks at fake university degrees in Thailand, which have existed in Thailand as far back as the 1970s. This article was originally considered too controversial for the Education section of the Bangkok Post; however, a different version did make it to print in a special catalog for international schools.
This article tracks down the surprisingly short but chaotic history of international schools in Thailand. Even though there are over 100 international schools surviving in Thailand today, the early times were filled with restrictive politics relating to the employment of foreign teachers, western-oriented curriculum, and the promotion of English in Thai classrooms. This article was considered too controversial for the Education section of the Bangkok Post. Instead, a draft was printed in a special catalog for international schools.
The Rotary Center at Chulalongkorn University brings world citizens together with a new Peace Studies program. This article explores their cutting-edge teaching methods and risky fieldwork in war-torn areas. Ultimately, the article seeks to understand what motivates these students to work towards peace.
It is said that lightning never strikes twice. Thailand’s history, on the other hand, may repeat itself to a surprising degree. Five decades ago, during one of Thailand’s many military coups, a number of university students gathered illegally to demand a voice in government affairs. One of their first topics was improving education.
If you want to learn Thai, there is a smorgasbord of schools, teaching methods, and prices to choose from. This article compares different schools of thought on how foreigners can develop their Thai skills best.
Hundreds of students and professionals hone their English oratory skills every week in a cordial, no-pressure setting. This article studies Toastmasters International and how it came to Thailand to encourage better speech-making.
This articles tells the story of Thai education through the life of a simple school — from its humble origins as a wooden school without walls, for a small community of Laotian war captives, to its royal patronage by HRH Princess MahaChakri Sirindhorn.
This article examines the Kiwi connection in Thailand’s education reforms. Although few would know it, New Zealand played an influential role in the drafting of Thailand’s National Education Act (1999), which mandated setting up national education standards.
This article was written for the sixth anniversary of Learning Post (the “original” education section of the Bangkok Post). Beginning with English lessons sent by fax and learning activities tucked inside the classified pages, the Learning Post was officially founded by Ajarn Terry L. Fredrickson on December 11, 2001.(more…)
I wrote this article while my students were busy taking one of my exams. I tried to capture what goes on inside a teacher’s mind as students suffer to find creative answers to open-ended questions.
This lengthy article is a comprehensive and inquisitive look at the history of Thai education and the role that English played in various reform movements. Everything that need to know about the evolution of Thai education can be found in this article. Read on!
The English Language Institute, established in 2007 by the Ministry of Education, is spearheading a number of progressive teacher training programs and language development projects
As Hungary passes a referendum that will stop new tuition fees from being introduced into state colleges, three Hungarian educators discuss their experiences with English teaching before and after the fall of the Communist regime
Vocabulary development is perhaps the most underestimated language skill. Students usually prepare for English examinations by focusing exclusively on listening, reading, writing and speaking; and for this reason, class lessons are designed to emphasize grammar rules. However, vocabulary is possibly even more important when it comes to the practical use of English.
This interview is with an aging American-born woman who learned to become an elephant mahout. She explores the politics of being a foreign woman in a trade dominated by Thai males, her deep love for elephants, and the idea that she will have to leave this line-of-work one day.(more…)
This travel article was an attempt to understand the boom in Thailand’s tourism industry, and how tourist ghettos such as “Khao San Road” originate. This research involved tracking down decades-old Lonely Planet guidebooks, and then physical visiting the locations mentioned to see the impact and change. (more…)
This article is inspired by a spontaneous culinary experiment with Thai “jungle” food — fresh cobra, crocodile entrails, jelly fish, wild boar, and a variety of bugs. The dinner was mixed with an aperitif of warm snake blood congealed with whiskey and the raw bile sack.(more…)
This article focuses on the first wave of foreigners to ever work in Ayutthaya’s industrial parks. This initial expatriate boom started in the 1990s and continues today. This material is based on an interview with a sometimes frustrated expatriate who sought to invest in a handicraft village that makes knives and swords.(more…)
The English as a Foreign Language (EFL) industry has had tremendous impact in the development of Ayutthaya. This article looks at the first English teachers to be hired and how the teaching scene has changed over the years. (more…)
This article studies the strange world of a Swedish encyclopedia writer and his 20 year pursuit to find rare material about Chinese-Western relations.(more…)
This article studies one organization’s attempt to bring foreign and Thai educators together to share ideas and promote professional development.(more…)
Teaching certificates saturate the EFL industry. This article looks at the humble history of certificate programs, and how one company has mutated internationally into 25 centers in 17 countries.(more…)
A nomadic, seafaring, minority group in Thailand, known as the Moken or Chao Ley, struggle to adjust to formal education and stationary learning. (more…)
This article is based on a detailed interview with Dave Sperling - a ground-breaking player in the global EFL industry. His website has found thousands of jobs for English teachers since 1995. Read on to learn the origins of this popular website.(more…)
In the last decade, Thailand’s education system has experienced a chaotic shuffling of administrators. This article examines the details at Thailand’s Ministry of Education (MOE) and showcases one of the cutting edge players in educational reforms.(more…)
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is bringing thousands of Japanese youth into the global limelight with its volunteer-based development projects. This article explores the complications of Japanese graduates struggling to use toold such as English in a global environment.(more…)
Starting his career as an educator in Thailand over forty years ago, Terry Fredrickson cuts to the edge of English skill development with his sharp use of newspapers. As the founder of the Learning Post section of the Bangkok Post, he has opened many doors for local education. This article looks at the rise of the EFL industry and the role that newspapers play in language development — special links to free teaching material are provided. (more…)
This article was the final submission for the “Views from the Outside” series. In this submission, I look at the flaws in my teaching methods and how I could offer a remedy.
In this article, I alert readers that my “Views from the Outside” series was coming to its logical end. My tourism students were graduating, and no new students would be permitted to enroll. In fact, the International Studies center was about to be permanently shut down. I started my series in hopes of saving the program and making a lasting imprint on the local tourism industry. In the end, only three out of 23 students found jobs in the tourism industry. Student felt the tour guide salary was too low and worried about various kickback they would be required to pay. They didn’t want the responsibility that came with the job and disliked working in the heat. Most of this class eventually became teachers or found jobs at local factories. (more…)
While I was a weekly columnist at the Bangkok Post, it used to frustrate me how some stories never seemed to make it into print. A number of police crackdowns had taken place at various schools in Thailand, resulting in the arrest of several foreign teachers for fake degrees. With this article, I tried to explain the complexity of the situation and bring to light that Thai recruitment agencies were left untouched.
Unfortunately, my editor refused to print this article. His rationale was that there was already too many negative stereotype about foreign teachers, and he did not want to contribute any more to this perception. Should this article have been printed or not? You can read it and decide.
Teaching seminars are great for teacher development. One can be exposed to many new ideas during a single weekend and establish networks with like-minded educators. As a bonus, some schools will even reimburse us for attendance fees.
The downside is that these seminars suffer from Power Point overkill. The teachers that attend such conferences often behave as badly as our students — talking in class, speaking on mobile phones, gossiping about unrelated matters. This article was inspired by a TESOl seminar in Bangkok. Oddly, it was one of the most controversial article that I wrote. My email inbox was stuffed full with complaints and supportive comments. I must have hit a nerve.
Rivalry between different Thai schools has lead to much violence. Technical and vocational colleges are particularly notorious for fighting among opposing students. A student had been killed in Ayutthaya around the time that I wrote my weekly column. As a result, I decided to promote the idea of two universities working together. After a special visit to the Siam Society, I was able to come up with some concrete examples that I could share with my students.(more…)
This article came to me by accident. I was exploritively boating down the Noi River when nightfall abruptly struck. We had to spontaneously find accommodations on a moment’s notice. On a whim, I called up one of my tourism students in Sena, and she was able to network with other students toward our goal. It gave me hope that the skills that I taught them had taken effect, and they were able to successfully negotiate with members of their community. I began to wonder what support these student networks could offer them post-graduation.(more…)
After my students turned down some solid job offers that I had lined up, I became jaded and disillusioned about why I was teaching. I started to question the student-centered, active learning, methods that I had promoted. As a result, I wrote this “soft” article just to provide tips on how learners could improve their English skills.(more…)
This article documents my attempt to find students quality jobs for after graduation. I walked them through the process of resume writing, interviewing skills, and job readiness. Meanwhile, I networked with a local employers that vowed to hire them all. Much to my dismay, I learned the hard way that my students had no desire to actually work. (more…)
What happens when students from multiple universities unite for a single project? In what was probably my most complicate teaching task ever, I had my students organize three large-scale tours for a class from a different university (as well as various tourists from around the world). This had to be meticulous organized and scheduled. A video was made of this project by an educator at Chulalongkorn University, which is available by request. (more…)
Sometimes you have to let your students go to see what will happen. After taking them on tours for several months, I decided that they had to design one of their own. They had to create a real tour based on community resources that I had introduced them to. Moreover, they had to introduce another group of students to the canals, rivers, and temples within Ayutthaya. They had to pass their the torch of learning onto the next round of students.(more…)
Technology opens many gateways to learning. At the same time, these tools can lead to more efficient ways to cheat on tests and to plagiarize academic papers. The invention of productive new technology leads to more questions about student responsibility.(more…)
This article explores how the motivate teacher nationally. Thai teachers and native-English speaking teachers can easily fall into a routine, thus halting their development and progression as an educator. How can they be inspired to keep learning and improving in the classroom? This article explores Thailand’s National Education Plan and what it has in store for the country’s teachers.(more…)
Is education the gateway out of poverty? A university degree can lift the quality of life for many people. However, the cost of tuition can also lead others into great debt. This article looks at various types of learning — academic, spiritual, financial — and demonstrates one man’s path from poverty to a PhD.
This article is an in depth look at specific Americans and British educators who have made an impact on Thailand’s education system. It looks at how Westerners were once welcomed to Thailand and allowed to contribute to the country’s schools. (more…)
Thailand’s education system often walks a tightrope between traditional values and Western ways. Modern education sparks many local debates and controversies. On one hand, Thai schools were traditionally built around Buddhist temples. On the other hand, secular education often promotes new ideas and methodologies. This article looks at politics of modern education in Thailand.(more…)
A major problem at some Thai school is over-stuffed classrooms. Teachers are sometimes required to instruct as many as 50-70 students at the same time, which makes learning very inefficient. This article warns Thai administrators about the importance of reducing the number of students.(more…)
This article was written as I experienced a major flood. At the time, I had to paddle my boat just to get to school, and a number of local ruins were threatening to collapse from the strain. Ayutthaya was heavily flooded in order to protect Bangkok, which was a touchy issue among locals who had their homes destroyed.
Unfortunately, the draft that actually appeared in the Bangkok Post was heavily censored. No negative mention of Bangkok was allowed. The idea of expatriates helping out other expatriates was also curiously downplayed. False information was mysteriously added. For example, my editor wrote that students were teaching me to paddle a boat — when few of them actually had this skill in the first place. (more…)
Job training is a mandatory component at most Rajabhat universities. Students receive academic credit while developing their resumes. However, this training might not reflect the actual jobs that students are most likely to find after graduation. This article ask how on-the-job training programs can prepare students better.(more…)
What qualifies somebody to be a teacher? Many people in a community easily fall into the role of an educator — regardless of their academic level. Knowledge can be found in many directions; therefore, this article looks at various members of a community that we can all learn from.(more…)
This article focuses on my attempt to have students produce original research based on their family ethnography. I set up a list of interview questions and encouraged them to write reports from the answers. I have since used this data to teach other classrooms.
This article looks at why Thai students have difficulty reading maps, and the process of having my class create its own a map of Ayutthaya to learn from. Bored of the standard activity of finding locations on a London map, my students started to develop their own material, which could be used to teach future students.
This chapter looks at community development and how knowledge is shared collectively. It starts with an analogy of how locals and expatriates worked together to put out a fire at the Hua Ror market. I ask what students could accomplish if they work together to produce original community-based research.
This is the introduction to my “Views from the Outside” series. I highlight the historical background of Rajabhat University Phranakorn Si Ayutthaya and explain why Rajabhat students have such a bad reputation. My goal was was to inspire these students to learn while showcasing western teaching methods. I wanted my students to become more creative through active learning and hands-on research.(more…)