Like other nations around the world, Thailand is engaged in a period of concerted
educational reform and change. A national educational reform law passed in 1999
outlined new educational goals and structures for Thailand. While these changes
parallel those found in many Western nations, they represent perhaps a more radical
change given the educational traditions of Thailand.
Five years after passage of the national education act, there is a widespread perception
among the Thai public that the impact of these reforms has not reached the school and
classroom levels in significant ways. Parents, educators and system administrators are
wondering what it will take to translate policymakers’ intentions into actions that
bring about observable changes in teaching and learning.
This paper presents a case study of how successful change in learning approach
initiated in a single Thai school is spreading to a large number of other schools in
Thailand. The change involved a curriculum program – Integrated Pest Management
(IPM) that incorporates many of the learner-centered and community-focused features
highlighted in Thailand’s educational reform. While this curricular reform cannot yet
be characterized as a large-scale change, the change process we describe illuminates
features that we believe necessary for scaling-up a single innovation. These include a
combination of bottom-up, outside-in, and top-down strategies.