project thailand 2011 curriculum a

2

Table of Contents

2 CURRICULUM A: NETWORK BUILDING 3

2.1 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 3

2.1.1 Civic Engagement (Day 1) 3 2.1.2 Civic Engagement (Day 2) 8 2.1.3 Civic Engagement (Day 3) 11 2.2 PROJECT CREATION 16

2.2.1 Project Creation (Day 1) 18 2.2.2 Project Creation (Day 2) 19 2.2.3 Project Creation (Day 3) 20 2.2.4 Project Creation (Day 4) 21 2.3 GPAT (GROUP PRODUCTIVITY AMPLIFICATION TECHNIQUES) 23

2.3.1 Team Bonding 23 2.3.2 Running Effective Meetings 27 2.3.3 A Primer to Building Sustainable Organizations 29 2.3.4 Conflict Management 32 2.3.5 Team Assessment – A Logic Chain Exercise 33

3

2 Curriculum A: Network Building

A significant part of PT11’s stake is to address the sustainability and impact of Khai initiatives developed by Thai college students. Sustainability and impact could be incorporated into Khai initiatives if they focused on identifying the needs of the communities they serve and by creating long-term, continuous models of education. Every target group has different educational needs – Khai programs would leave a more lasting impact if they directly addressed their target group’s needs and delivered exactly what their target group needed. Target groups would also gain more educational benefits from forging more lasting relationships with their teachers and by having the opportunity to continuously build on their knowledge. Khai programs that only last for a few sessions cannot achieve these objectives; target groups would have a far more meaningful experience participating in Khai programs if they were to establish long term plans that included incentives to train new facilitators and plans to establish the continuity of their target groups’ learning.

PT11 has launched Curriculum A to establish a self-contained system that can optimize the potential to make an impact and sustainability within Khai programs. Curriculum A consists of three categories: Social Responsibility, GPAT (Group Productivity Amplification Techniques), and Project Creation. These three categories have the following objectives: to inform students who design Khai programs about the sustainability and the impact-making potential of a Khai, to inspire them to improve on the elements of Khai pertaining to these issues, and most importantly, to equip the Khai makers with the tools to make a Khai sustainable and impactful.

This part of the handbook is written for facilitators in Khai programs who have experience of delivering the Learning Train Model (LTM). Experienced facilitators can use Curriculum A as a guide to train the succeeding generation of Khai makers. Curriculum A is presented in the form of a report on what the PT11 Project Members (PM), did as the first generation of LTM executors to make PT11 a sustainable and impact-maximizing initiative. This section of the handbook will also include suggestions on how the audience could proceed to adapt or create more relevant workshops to fulfill the established objectives of the Curriculum A.

2.1 Social Responsibility 2.1.1 Civic Engagement (Day 1)

(1) RATIONALE

4

Many Thai students are unfamiliar with the concept of social responsibility – the moral obligation that every citizen has to serve others in the society. The purpose of this workshop is to introduce the idea of social responsibility to the university students while gauging precisely how much they know about Thai education. It also acts as a way to put the university students and the PM on the same level and give the University Students basic information about Thai education if they are completely unfamiliar with the topic. This workshop is meant to additionally give the university students a shocking introduction to the disturbing realities of Thai education. By giving university students shocking statistics about Thai education, they can begin to understand the severity of problems in Thai education and realize how much education matters to the future of Thailand. The exercise will hopefully help them develop a sense of social responsibility and encourage them to help solve problems in the Thai education system. Objectives

Students will gain a basic knowledge of the problems in Thai education and the gravity of the problems within the education system.

Students will become familiar with the concept of social responsibility.

Students will hopefully begin to feel an obligation to help with Thai education and engage with the inequalities around them.

(2) MATERIALS None

(3) ACTIVITIES

Introduction (5 minutes) Icebreakers – Ask the university Students for icebreakers. Let the university Students

lead icebreakers.

▫ Purpose: This gives university students the opportunity to teach us, and levels out the relationship between university students and facilitators. It eliminates a power dynamic where Project Members have the upper hand and sends the message that we are in it together.

Main Activity (25-30 minutes) True/False Statistics Game – Facilitators will read a shocking statistic about Thai

education and university students will decide whether they think it is true or false.

5

university students should discuss why they think it is either true or false before the answer is read, discussing experiences or facts about Thai education that led them to their conclusion. Facilitators should encourage the university students to be as involved in the discussion of each statistic as possible.

▫ Purpose – Concrete examples help convey how severe the problems in Thai education are to the university students. The discussion of why each statistic may be true or false naturally also informs university Students who don’t know as much about the issues in Thai education and puts them on a level playing ground with informed university students.

Statistics:

▫ 71% of Thai students go on to secondary school; 18% graduate from university

▫ Out of 56 countries, Thailand is the 2nd lowest ranked country in all of Asia for English proficiency

After this statistic is revealed as true or false, facilitators should explain why learning English is an important skill. Here is an example of how to address the question: “Does everyone understand why this statistic reveals a problem in Thai education? It is not that English is a language which is inherently better than Thai or because learning English makes students more intelligent. It is a problem that so many Thai students are not proficient in English because many of the best resources are in English. By not being proficient in English, students are disadvantaged by not having access to the best resources.”

▫ 88% of 3,973 computer science teachers failed the computer science exam

▫ 86% of 2,846 biology teachers failed the biology exam

▫ 84% of 5,498 math teachers failed the math exam

▫ 71% of 3,487 physics teachers failed the physics exam

▫ 64% of 3,088 chemistry teachers failed the chemistry exam

▫ 63% of 529 earth sciences and astronomy teachers failed the earth sciences and astronomy exam

▫ Every year, over 2 million Thai students drop out of middle school to go into unskilled labor

▫ 95 % of 40,000 school directors failed basic exams in computer technology and English

▫ In events where teachers must receive training to implement changes in curriculum, many Thai schools only send one teacher to training sessions. This

6

single teacher is held responsible for conveying all curriculum changes to the school.

Note: In order to stress how severe the problems in Thai education are, facilitators could use the following tactic: when first presenting the information to the university students, the facilitator can present a statistic to be lower than it is reality. After the students have discussed whether the statistic they have presented with is true or false, the facilitator can quote the real statistic and discuss its implications. Here is an example of how to use this tactic: facilitators could say, “True or false: 66% of 3,973 computer science teachers failed the computer science exam”; after the discussion is over, the facilitator can reveal the answer by saying, “False, it’s not 66% percent – it’s actually 88%.” When the answer is given, regardless of whether university students have decided that it is true or false, the answer will be even more shocking than what they had previously considered.

Debriefing/Discussions (20-30 minutes) Facilitators should pose the following question to the group: “What does social responsibility mean to you? What is your definition of social responsibility?” Allow the group to discuss what they think about this idea and to share facts or experiences they have with serving the community that they associate with it (e.g. local issues, experiences in high school). Here is an example of what could be said to facilitate the discussion:

“When we talk about social responsibility, we mean the responsibility that each

of us has to other members of society. As individuals, we each have certain rights in society, but those rights also come with a duty to serve the society that provides those rights. Everyone here is a university student. We have all been privileged enough to have great education or to have money, but the majority of society has not been so privileged. Because we have so much, it is our responsibility to impart the gifts and knowledge that we have been so lucky to have to other people.”

During the discussion, facilitators should try to weave the following points into

the discussion of social responsibility to stress why social responsibility is worthwhile and what it can achieve.

Individual Power

Does social responsibility just pertain to big corporations and institutions, or can it apply to individuals?

▫ Discuss this with the group relative to corporate social responsibility. Distinguish between corporate social responsibility and individual social responsibility.

7

▫ Here is an example of what can be said to inspire university students to harness their skills as individuals and give back to society: “It is not just corporations that have a responsibility to serve society in the best way possible. Individuals also have the personal responsibility to give back. Why? We have all been blessed with certain privileges that others have not. Individuals with the power to create change and improve their surroundings have a responsibility to do so.”

Thai Pride

How can we make our nation the best that it can possibly be?

▫ Here is an example of what can be said to empower university students to contribute to change:

“We want our nation to be the best that it can possibly be, right? If that is our goal, then we need to do our part to help that goal become a reality. By taking ownership of the problems in our nation and contributing to their solutions, we can help Thailand and the people of Thailand be the best that they can possibly be.”

Inspiring/Empowering/Fulfilling feeling

How do you feel after you have done a Khai or visited a school or helped students?

It feels great to help others. Running a Khai program is beneficial for both Khai leaders and the students participating in the programs. Both the Khai leaders and the target students leave feeling inspired, empowered, and rewarded. That feeling of inspiration is one of the reasons why giving back is so worthwhile and rewarding. If a program were a long-term effort, the relationship between facilitators and target students has the potential to be much more rewarding.

Sustainability

Do you think social responsibility is fulfilled by just doing a one-time project?

▫ Social responsibility is about what is doing best for the people you are helping. If we consider the needs of the students, we can conclude that they will best under long-term, committed, focused programs.

▫ Sustainable projects that continue to address the needs of students are more effective than one-time shots.

▫ LTM is crucial to the Khai model because it has the potential to transform Khais from one-time shots to productive agents of change for education in Thailand.

(4) OBSERVATIONS

8

The discussion could carry on for a very long time and university students may lose focus. One possible solution is to take a break in the middle of the discussion to play a quick round of ‘Screaming Toes’ to pump everyone up before heading back into the discussion.

(5) SUGGESTIONS

Facilitators are not limited to presenting the statistics listed. Facilitators can and/or should try to find more shocking statistics about Thai education.

(6) GUIDELINES/RESOURCES

See articles in Category 1 – Social Responsibility, Day 2 – Identifying Needs for citation of the statistics

2.1.2 Civic Engagement (Day 2) (1) RATIONALE

Education in Thailand is in a dire situation. Can university students contribute solutions to this problem by making a sustainable impact with their Khai? They can undoubdtedly make an impact given that the projects they develop are consistent and structured. A one-off Khai will never be as impactful as Khai that has a follow-up where the volunteers can follow the progress of students they taught. Having a follow-up project on the same school or even the same batch of students can foster a much deeper level of engagement with the students of target schools. These interactions can lead to a personal connection between participants and target school students where the participants really care for the target school students. This connection can work two ways in which the participants will be motivated to come back to the school and assist the growth of target school students and the target school students will be inspired and develop greater self-motivation. Focusing on a particular issue or grade can have a more significant influence on education than trying to improve on many issues at the same time.

In Thailand, there is a huge discrepancy between the needs of students participating in Khai and the educational benefits Khai programs offer. Schools in Thailand have educational needs that cannot be fulfilled by Khai that are currently available. Khai programs would have a much more significant impact if they were to address these needs and adapt their curricula to mirror the needs of their target group. Students that need help with Science and Math, for example, do not necessarily need English camps and vice versa. Carrying out an English camp for such students would be a waste of effort and time. Identifying the actual needs of a school before doing Khai

9

would ensure that this would not happen. It is very important that Khai creators and facilitators identify critical issues before executing their programs – doing so would greatly improve the sustainability of the LTM and the overall quality of their target groups’ education.

(2) OBJECTIVES Participants learn to identify the more pressing needs of society

Participants learn to think of feasible solutions to school issues

Participants become aware of the importance of identifying the more pressing issues

Participants learn the importance of doing background research on schools before launching any projects

Participants learn to focus on a particular issue to actually make a meaningful impact to society

(3) MATERIALS School profiles (total of 3)

Articles regarding social issues in Thailand

(4) ACTIVITIES

Introduction (10 min) Here is an example of an introduction speech: “Now we have discussed the meaning of social responsibility, today we will be moving on to identifying needs of society. Finding problems to assist target schools is not sufficient; we need to be able to identify problems that critically affect a target school’s performance. In order to do that, we must have an idea about the school. Background research is key, obtaining vital information about the school can help us pinpoint problems and understand the magnitude of the problems as well. Without knowing the issues that are plaguing the school, we may not be serving to society’s needs. We are not efficiently and effectively helping the students in target schools. You are university students; you have many other responsibilities, which means you cannot be devoting all your time into doing Khai. What you can do however is to identify a problem and focus on solving it, or at the very least to improve the situation. Singling out one problem and solving it is something we should strive for. This way we can actually make a noteworthy impact on target schools, which is a world of difference in contrast to just being a highlight to students. Instead of being an inspiration to students

10

for just a short period of time, we want to change their perspective on education. We want to them to know why education is so important and we want to them to aspire to be better. Today we are going to assign each group a school, look carefully at the information on the schools and find a problem that you think is a major problem. Find one problem that you think as university students, your efforts will make a significant difference to the target schools and students.”

Warm-up (10 min) Brainstorm for potential topics for Khais – Participants are split into 3 groups and are

asked to think about issues that they feel has to be tackled.

Activity (25 min) Participants are split into 3 groups

Each group is given a school profile, which contains all kinds of information about the school. (E.g. school location, teacher to students ratio, students to class ratio)

The information will indicate that the school assigned to each group has multiple issues and the group has to discuss which issue should to be dealt with first and how they would deal with such issues.

Participants then are given time to discuss which issue has to be dealt with more urgency and how they would deal with such issues

There are no right or wrong answers in this discussion, however the point of this problem set is that the participants should be able to learn that serving to society’s needs is more important than just doing Khai blindly.

Finally, each group will give a short presentation.

Debriefing/discussion (10 minutes) Once all the groups have presented their work, facilitators will give feedback to their assigned groups. The facilitators must make it clear that just putting effort into Khai will not leave a sustainable impact on the target schools and the students. Supplying Khai that is needed by schools or students would be so much more beneficial for both parties compared to helping out on aspects that do not necessarily require Khai. The importance of doing background research on schools before identifying the issues should be highlighted as well. Facilitators must emphasize these key points in order to drive home the point of the exercise.

Wrap-up speech

Example of a wrap-up speech:

11

“So, when we discuss social responsibility, we’re talking about how every Thai citizen has the responsibility to help Thai society. But one thing that these exercises have helped us realize is that there is a huge difference between just giving help and giving the most effective help. Instead of asking what the needs of the students are, we can ask what the most pressing needs are. Service leadership, or servant leadership, is the idea that as leaders, we do not serve our own ideas or desires, but those of the people, we are serving – the students. So, while it is great to play more games, sing more songs, build a library, or have an incredible English club, those things may not be the ones that the students need most. We want to think outside of the box to realize that sometimes problems in education are bigger than helping out with math or science or English. Depending on the context of the specific school and the experience of the students there, maybe what the students need most to improve their education is help with public speaking or bullying or self-motivation. Service leadership is what we want to try and use in combination with the LTM model. Instead of fulfilling the things that we want to supply, we instead focus on what the students demand, and we can do this by educating ourselves about the problems that each specific school faces. We’ve given you a packet of articles that we found on the Internet about Thai education. We’ve highlighted the important parts, and we’d like you to look over the articles and realize that this is something that you can do too. You can search the web for information on Thai education and begin to really become experts on the challenges that Thai students face, and therefore, prepare yourselves to identify the most pressing needs of a school. We want to be able to not just make a positive impact, but also make the most positive impact so we can help Thai students as much as possible; this is why we’re all here. We cannot thank you enough for how much work and patience you’ve put into this project! Thank you, thank you, thank you for being so wonderful!”

2.1.3 Civic Engagement (Day 3) (1) RATIONALE

This workshop is meant to be a truly inspiring one. It highlights real-life stories of inspiration, statistics and media related to Thai education and culture, as well as a video of inspirational quotes and realities. This workshop is meant to bring together civic engagement, identifying needs as well as service leadership. Service leadership involves taking initiative related to social responsibility, but in a means that it is entirely for the benefit of others, and not one’s self; it is somewhat like “Servant leadership.”

(2) OBJECTIVES Inspiration to serve others, take initiative, and work on sustainable plans

12

Think out of the box

Students learn from experience, through Project Members’ stories – realization that age nor level education is a barrier

Students also learn that obstacles will be faced, and means to work around them through the personal stories

Students learn of the realities of Thai society’s needs through the discussion of the articles

(3) MATERIALS Projector

Screen

Laptop

(4) ACTIVITIES

Article discussion (20 min) In this section of the workshop, university students will be asked to discuss and present their opinions on the articles handed to them in the previous workshop (see Lesson Plan 2 of Social Responsibility for the articles.) Allow 2 minutes for students to look over the articles and refresh themselves. Project Members should have previously highlighted points that need to be discussed before printing out copies for the University Students. Examples of points discussed are:

“More than 2 million children drop out of middle school to go into unskilled jobs every year.”

“Has the Thai curriculum made students understand themselves and their environment? Has our school system enabled students to develop based on their skills, instead of molding them to certain norms?”1

Video – The Leader Who Had No Title (20 min) In this section of the workshop, University Students will watch the video, “The Leader Who Had No Title,” a promotional video of Robin Sharma’s publication. Show the film once through, and then stop it at every important quote to explain in English and Thai for the audience.

1 “Thailand ignores education reform at its own peril” http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/06/14/opinion/Thailand-ignores-education-

reform-at-its-own-peril-30157723.html

13

Story-sharing (25 min) In this section of the workshop, Project Members (PM) will share some personal and inspirational stories about social responsibility, service leadership and civic engagement. Such stories include those:

Inspiration due to the loss of a friend

Inspiration due to the realization of the dichotomy between those who have the chance and those who do not

Experiences in sex-trafficking rehabilitation centers

Experiences and reasoning behind the entire project

Wrap-up (15 min) This is the final section to this workshop. One project member wraps up the workshop by sharing stories of their own experiences and by giving a wrap-up speech.

Note – Make speeches as simplified as possible. Use short, uncomplicated sentences. Have a translator translate after every sentence. Have the translator not use formal writing Thai while speaking, but speaking Thai without the subject (I, she, etc.). Try to make it a fluid translation, almost as if people don’t realize they’re listening to translation.

Speech

I met my best friend when we were both four years old. When we were 6 years old, we accidentally set her cat’s tail on fire. When we were 8 years old, we tried to bake a cake, and accidentally blew up the

microwave. At age 9, we both won awards for writing storybooks. When we were 10 years old, we made a pact that when we went to university, we

would go to the best universities in the world. At age 13, I decided to start taking Latin, and my best friend decided to start

smoking pot. At age 15, I was named one of the top 8 jazz singers in Illinois, and my best friend

crashed her car while high on heroine. And at age 18, I found out that I had been accepted into the number one

university in the United States, and my best friend found out that she was pregnant. I have friends who wanted to be teachers and change students’ lives, but instead

they got married and dropped out of school. I have friends who got into some of the best schools in the country, and chose to

go to worse schools because they knew that it would be easier.

14

I have friends who were on their way to becoming neurosurgeons and doctors, but they decided to become bankers because they knew they knew they would make more money.

All of my life, I have watched so many brilliant people who had so much to give, so much to share, so much to potential to help other people and make the world a better place just throw it all away to get rich or to have fun or to live an easier life. They never really took the time to really stop and think about the difference they could have made for others.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make money or raise a child or have fun. But maybe there is something wrong with being capable of doing so much more and just settling for an easy life.

Last summer, I spent three months in Africa. I fought some lions and did some tribal dances and ate some bananas. But two of the most special jobs that I did there were to teach English to woodcarvers and to care for AIDS patients in their homes.

The woodcarvers that I taught ranged from age 16 to 75. Almost all of them had dropped out of school at age 14. I had one thirty-five year-old student who could not read one letter of the alphabet. One time one of my students told me that he wanted to be a doctor. I asked him if he was working to save money formed school. He replied, “No. I’m working to save my life.”

One woman that I visited every week with the AIDS group had HIV and tuberculosis. She was 45 years old, but looked like she was 95. You could see all of her bones and her skin just hung off of her like scraps of paper. She was too weak to eat anything, nearly too weak to talk, and had to take such a huge amount of medicine that she couldn’t eat anyway, because her stomach would already be full of pills. She was dying. On the last day that I went to visit her, I asked her what she would have wanted to do if she hadn’t gotten sick. She told me that she would have made dresses, that she loved to make dresses, but that there was just no way she ever could because she had become so sick.

And I thought about all of my friends back home, my friends who had the world at their fingertips. They could have been anything, done absolutely anything. They could have chosen to be doctors or teachers and made all the difference in the world, and they passed it up in favor of what was easy. And here was a woman who had nothing, who did not even have the choice to become anything, and yet my friends had had everything and thrown it away.

I want you guys to picture a brand new ship. Fresh paint, beautiful sails, pristine and spectacular: the most beautiful ship you have ever seen. Now think about the sea in the middle of a huge storm. The water is black and the waves are fifty feet high and the wind is blowing and you’re surrounded by sharks and whirlpools and the ship, the whole ship could sink, and gosh, if you would have just stayed at home, tied safely to

15

the dock, none of this would have ever happened. Ships are safest in the harbor. But that’s not what ships are made for.

It is so easy, so comfortable to not challenge ourselves, to not face our flaws or our fears and work to conquer them, to not ask ourselves what you are capable of and then fight to accomplish it. It is so easy to play it safe. But we were made for something bigger and better, more beautiful and wondrous than the easy route could ever be. We were made to give all of ourselves and all of our hearts, all of everything that we are to everything that we do, and it is scary as hell, but it is exactly what we were created to do.

Every single person has the potential to be extraordinary. Every human has the right to be the best that they can possibly be. It is a choice to decide to be great. And we have been blessed with that choice. We all have been privileged enough to have made it this far, to have received a great education, to go to wonderful schools, and to be involved in a program like this. We are lucky enough to be able to have the opportunity to be able to decide just how great we each want to be.

But people like the woodcarvers, or the AIDS patient, or the students from the opportunity schools whose teachers tell them that they are the junk of society -- they don’t. They don’t even have the opportunity to choose if they want to be great, because they are already so limited by their circumstances. There are so many people that have not been blessed with a great education, and will never be blessed with a great education, and will never even have the choice to be great unless someone takes a risk and starts doing something about it.

I know that it sounds so scary and big. We’re just students, right? What can we do?

But we can’t be scared about going into the world and not making a difference because we already have by being here. You can’t be nervous about not being great because you already are. You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything, absolutely everything to gain and to contribute.

We’re all going to leave here in a few days, and we’re going to have the choice to just leave it all behind or to take it with us. Let’s leave here and ask ourselves what we are capable of and how much of a difference we can all make for other people. We have the power to give others everything that we have been so lucky to experience, because ultimately, it’s not about us. It’s about them. And it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be really, really hard and sometimes even frustrating, but in the end, it will be beyond worth it. So don’t just leave here and take the easy route. Don’t just be yourself. Be your best self!

I want you guys to take a minute to think about everything that we’ve done here this week. Every single person here gave 100% of themselves 100% of the time. We have all learned so much from one another; we’ve made an impact at 3 different target schools, created projects and workshops, and grown in so many ways. And we

16

accomplished all of that over the course of seven days. Now imagine if what this project could do in a year, in 2 years, in 5 years. Think of how much of an impact we could have. We all have the potential to do great things

Take a look around the room. Look at the faces of the people who you have learned from this week, who have helped you grow, and who you have helped in return. And it’s not just us teaching you; we have learned so much from every single one of you. I think we can all say that we entered here different from the person we will be leaving.

We will never be the group that we are right now ever again. We may never even see one another again. But we can all leave here and take the impact of this with us. Right now, in this moment, we can choose for this to be an ending or a beginning. Think about how much we have accomplished after only a week together. Remember all of the things that we’ve done here.

We cannot thank you enough for really giving your all this week. It only takes a spark to start a fire, and maybe it’s just me, but I think that we already have a fire going. Every single person in this room is incredibly brilliant, talented and capable of achieving so much. I look around this room and I see the next generation of Thai leaders. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for giving your all. We love you!

(5) OBSERVATIONS English to Thai translations can often cause a “lost-in-translation” phenomenon.

The inspirational stories from the Story-Sharing activity, which were spoken in English and translated immediately into Thai, tend to lose their impact on those listening to the stories.

(6) SUGGESTIONS Keep time check properly as story-sharing can often run over time and cut into

efficient wrap-up time

Make sure story-sharing is kept within a circle of students- similar to a “Circle of trust.” It is imperative that the discussion facilitators are calm, quiet and keep the mood solemn and thoughtful. The impact of the story sharing is meant to be emotional and moving and will be lost if there are any disruptions.

(7) GUIDELINES/RESOURCES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA9Qu4-b-M0

Robin Sharma’s “A Leader without a Title” promotional video.

2.2 Project Creation

17

(1) RATIONALE In order to achieve the issue of sustainability, which is the significant part of the stake of Project Thailand 2011, Project Creation workshop has been set up, in hopes that the university students will integrate the essence of the Learning Train Model (LTM) to their conventional English khais. There will be two projects under Project Creation Section: the first one will be supervised by the English Teacher club (under supervision of Faculty of Education). A separate group, the English club, will be in charge of another project (under supervision of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences). We believe that we can teach the students will be able to create a more impactful and sistuatinable Khai program by equipping university students with the knowledge of a project proposal writing process, facilitating group discussions, and providing them with a thourough project proposal template. We hope to help the university students establish effective, impactful and sustainable community service project and lead them to the completion of project proposals for further grant submission.

(2) OBJECTIVE

· To make Project Thailand 2011 a sustainable project. That is, a starter project that could potentially be a role model for other projects of the same kind.

· To create complete version of Thai and English project proposals for Khai of university students to the points that are ready to be presented, executed and submiteed for grants from the university as well as other funders

• To expose university students to hands-on experience in initiating community service project by following properly planned system as previously structured by PT11

(3) MATERIALS Projector

Stationery( such as pen or pencil)

Paper

Microsoft Word

Internet

Template/Format of project proposal

(4) RESOURCES

18

Guidance in writing a project proposal by United Nations

Singapore Young Changemakers Handbook

2.2.1 Project Creation (Day 1) (1) ACTIVITIES

Introduction (10 min) Project Creation workshop aims to provide directions and guidance for university students on how to write a project proposal in order to submit to the university or other funding sources. Students will learn elements and stages of writing a community service project proposal such as allocation of human resources, responsibilities, and budget.

Presentation (50 min) Elements of project proposal

Examples of well-written project proposal

Common mistakes

Group Discussion (45 min) Break 14 students into 2 groups

▫ Topic 1, “Rationale”: Students should be able to address objectives of a community service projects (goals of target beneficiary that expect to be acheived) and objectives of learning ( What participant/project members think they would gain from carrying out the community service project)

Homework Translate conclusion from English to Thai

Start pondering about topic2, “Target Beneficiary” and topic 3, “Details”

Conclusion (15 min) Students were assigned to translate conclusion into Thai and start brainstorming about

topic 2, “Target Beneficiary” (For those who are in need) and topic 3, “Details”(Date time and location). By the end of the first day of Project Creation Workshop, students learned the overall picture of all the stages necessary in writing a project proposal and discussed each stage of the process.

19

(2) OBSERVATIONS The students were shy to speak out or participate in the discussion, but they were more

comfortable with writing to express their opinions.

The presentation went too long.

The university students sometimes drifted out of the topics during discussion.

The university students did not discuss on the topics given.

Many of the students took notes in English, but the discussion was in Thai, resulting in a waste of time for translation.

The university students felt as if they were forced to participate in the activity.

The university students ran the discussion very productively.

(3) SUGGESTIONS The presentation should be made more concisely.

Homework should be assigned more specifically and to the point, and objectives should be clearly made.

The students should be left discussing among themselves.

There should be more roles for non-Thai facilitators to be in charge of.


Homework Follow-up (15 minutes) Discuss and review homework from the previous session.

Technology for Writing (10 min) Explain how to use Google Documents as a medium for collaborative working and

project presentation.

Group Discussion and Proposal Writing (95 minutes)

Start off by designating a note taker.

For topic two, “Target beneficiary,” students should discuss the target beneficiary they would like to aid, and explain the rationale behind their choice.

20

For topic three, “Details,” university students should designate the dates and times that are suitable for organizing their activities, including the intended length, frequency, and appropriate location for their activities.

For topic four, “Involved Parties,” university students should specify the groups involved in organizing the activities, ways in which they intend to gather participants, which professor they will choose to advise the project, and the total number of participants to be involved.

For topic five, “Duration of Time,” university students should create a comprehensive plan of all their activities, starting from the planning stages to the actual carrying out of the activities. Students should designate a period of time for each activity, noting a starting time and ending time for each step.

Homework Students should collect all the content discussed today and summarize them in a

Google Document in both Thai and English

(2) OBSERVATIONS Very few students (6) participated in the activity.

Students were more eager to express their opinions when left to discuss the topics among themselves.

There were many radical changes to the project proposal.

There was no systematic, consistent note-taking among the groups.

The non-Thai speaking facilitators were unable to take part in the discussions.

This activity went over time by 30 minutes.

(3) SUGGESTIONS There should be a note taker during the discussions.

Groups should find ways to allow non-Thai facilitators to have more roles in the activities.



21


Once again, designate a note-taker.

For topic seven, “Roles and Responsibilities of Organizers,” students should identify the scope of each position in the organizational committee

For topic eight, “Subcommittees,” students should designate different working committees as necessary, such as finances, relations, and logistics.

For topic eight, “Human Resource Management,” students should create a roster of names for each committee.

Homework For homework, students should divide into groups to decide on what materials they

will need for their activities, in addition to an estimate of required funds. This should be written down in the proposal, under topic six, “Budget,” and topic eleven, “Logistics.”

Assign one student to draft the complete project proposal.

(2) OBSERVATIONS Observations made by a PM facilitating the session:

We discovered that the university students did not do their assigned work in the Google Document, as they had never used this program before.

There was a much larger number of participants during this session, making the discussion difficult and not as productive as it could have been.

The process of designating roles gave the discussion much more direction and focused.

There were two meticulous, effective note takers.

The non-Thai facilitators were once again unable to participate in the discussion.

(3) SUGGESTIONS Facilitators should allocate more time for participants to practice using Google

Documents.

Working on both the Thai and English versions of the proposal simultaneously would allow non-Thai facilitators to have more of a role in the discussion and activities.

2.2.4 Project Creation (Day 4)

22

(1) ACTIVITIES



For topic six, “Budget,” students should specify in detail their budget, including possible sources of funding.

Editing and Perfecting the project proposal (40 min) After completing these activities, students should work together to complete the

project proposal, noting and correcting any mistakes.

Filling in the details (50 min) Make a detailed schedule of the project camp, noting the activities of each day.

Preparing for the project proposal presentation (20 min)

Prepare a 5- 7 minute presentation, keeping in mind that the listeners will never have had any prior knowledge of the project.

Conclusion/Debriefing (10 min) Do one run-through of the presentation, then collect all the contact information from

the students to follow up on their progress.

(2) OBSERVATIONS There were a lot of students. This made the discussions very productive.

Not everyone had a role in expressing their opinions or discussing the final product.

(3) SUGGESTIONS Breaking the groups into smaller groups, such as one for proofreading, planning, and

presentation, etc., would allow for everyone to have a more involved role in the work.

23

2.3 GPAT (Group Productivity Amplification Techniques)

2.3.1 Team Bonding (1) RATIONALE

A team is a group of people, but a group of people is not necessarily a team. Although a group may share a common goal, success is never guaranteed. It is our belief that teamwork is a key ingredient in improving and maintaining a good team work ethic, therefore increasing the likelihood of success. As teamwork is intrinsically related to team output, we feel that it is essential to stress the importance of team bonding activities as a tool to amplify group productivity. With this workshop we aim to prepare the mentees for the task of handling their newly created LTM club as effectively and efficiently as possible. Minimum ratio of students to facilitators = 10:1

(2) OBJECTIVE Short Term

Understand the significance of team bonding through first-hand experience

Be familiar with the stages of group development

Have knowledge of types and examples of team bonding activities

Long Term

Be able to utilize team bonding activities as a tool to improve team efficiency and therefore maximize team output

Be capable of identifying the stage of development in which the team is in and react accordingly

Be adept at creating team bonding activities to suit the leader’s needs

(3) MATERIALS Handouts (copies of the PowerPoint Presentation)

PowerPoint Presentation

A rope

24

(4) ACTIVITIES

Introduction (10 min) Chippy Chip (1 min)

This game is a variation of dancing games. Students along with facilitators will form a circle and one facilitator is assigned to be the leader of this game. The leader will start off the game by dancing any way he wants while the group chants “Chippy Chip”. After the leader has finished his first dance move, the student on the right hand side of the leader (second student) will copy the leader’s first move, while the leader does a new move. The third student will then copy the second student while the second student copies the leader’s new move. This process continues for every subsequent student, with the leader continuously making new (and hopefully hilarious) dance moves. Another way of viewing is game is to imagine the dance move as a message, being sent through students. The game ends when one of the students does not follow his/her predecessor’s last move.

Introduction (9 min)

PowerPoint slides were used. All suggestions accompanying the slides were made by facilitators:

▫ [Slide 1] Outline GPAT, Outline Team Bonding, Introduce meaning of team bonding

▫ [Slide 2] These are the 5 categories of Group Productivity Amplification Techniques (GPAT) that we will address in our workshops. As you know, this workshop addresses team bonding.

▫ [Slide 3] First, we will introduce and explain the significance of team bonding. Secondly, we will explain a model of group development that, we believe, effectively categorizes the stages a group passes through to become a team. Lastly, we will make clear the types and examples of activities.

▫ [Slide 4] Today we will be addressing the question of “what is team bonding?” A general definition of team bonding is that it’s the process of enabling that group of people to reach their goal and that it accelerates the team’s development. We shall delve further into this later on in the presentation.

Q&A session (10 min) Ask, “What are the qualities of the team that works well together and how do you get

there?”

25

Refer to slides; Suggestions for answering questions can be obtained from the PowerPoint presentation.

Presentation (15 min) Handouts handed out here

▫ Significance of the team bonding

▫ Tuckman’s stages of group development

▫ Types and examples of activities

Collaborative exercise (15 min) Get students to form a tight circle and then ask them to lie down flat, keeping in mind

that their feet should always stay on the same spot. Then, ask the university students to place an object at the tip of their heads and then to stand up. Ideally, the distance of the object from the student is the university student’s height (head to toe). The facilitators should then proceed to place a rope around the students’ legs forming a circular outline around the students. The game should start at this point. The facilitators should ask the students in the circle work together to grab their own objects (only the student that placed the object can pick the object up), without any parts of their body touching the floor outside the circle. The game ends as soon as everyone has picked his or her respective objects.

Techniques: Have one university student (strongest one) hold the hand of the student who is going to try to pick his/her object up. The rest of the students should be anchoring the student holding the hand of the university student. This technique should only be told to the students if they are unable to pick up the objects after attempting the exercise for a long time.

Debriefing/Discussion (10 min) Discuss the reasoning and meanings that can be constructed from the collaborative exercise. This debrief happens in a discussion format; the university students will be asked how they needed to use teamwork to accomplish the exercise. The facilitator of the discussion will stress the points below.

▫ The university students working together to reach one pen at a time signifies that only by setting common goals, will they be able to achieve their objectives.

26

▫ The more teamwork the team has in this activity, the faster the university students will be able to finish the game. This shows that teamwork is an essential ingredient of team efficiency and team productivity.

▫ Each team member has different physical strengths and therefore different roles to play in this game. Point out that to the students, that to succeed, the each student should identify their weaknesses or strengths and act accordingly, in a way such as to utilize each member’s strengths while minimizing each other’s weaknesses.

(5) OBSERVATIONS The team is able to accomplish the task only by coming up with a strategy similar to

the one outlined in the techniques above

During the debrief/discussion, the facilitator will have to ask various questions by gauging the answers of the group in order to link their answers with each specific point

(6) SUGGESTIONS The optimal size for the exercise is 10 students. Anywhere from 6-14 students is

manageable, but the students will face increased problems with too few/too many students

Encourage the students to take notes during the PowerPoint presentation, whether or not they receive copies of the slides

During the PowerPoint presentation, it is important to stress that Tuckman’s Model is a well researched and highly regarded model – it is not just rhyming words that were made up by the presenters

Stress that team bonding activities will help in the formation of a team as explained by Tuckman’s Model

Look up Apollo Syndrome (Introduction) if unfamiliar

(7) GUIDELINES/RESOURCES Sites for understanding team bonding

▫ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_building

▫ http://www.sandstone.co.uk/successful-team-building/

▫ http://www.innovativeteambuilding.co.uk/pages/articles/benefits.htm

Sites for examples of activities

27

▫ http://www.oakharborcheer.com/TeamBuildingGames.html

2.3.2 Running Effective Meetings (1) RATIONALE

Meetings provide an important avenue for teams to generate ideas, discuss concerns and communicate information. They are indispensable to the proper functioning of any organization. Unfortunately, many team meetings are often poorly organized resulting in the wastage of time and energy. Running effective meetings will enable organizations to become more productive – getting more done in lesser time.

(2) OBJECTIVES To teach university students one model of conducting effective meetings (‘hard skill’)

and to help university stuudents become more effective during a meeting (‘soft skill’)

(3) MATERIALS Per Participant

Handout of Slides (Annex A)

Lecture summary sheet (Annex B)

Sample of Meeting Memo (Annex C)

Sample of Meeting Minutes (Annex D)

Sample of Outstanding Matters List (Annex E)

Per Team

Team Role Play (Annex F)

(4) ACTIVITIES

Lecture The lecture is split into 4 components

Introduction

The facilitator should emphasize the importance of running effective meetings. university students could be asked to think about meetings that they had that were poorly run and to contrast them with ones that were well run.

▫ Effective meetings are usually structured and have a clear and specific goal. While it may initially appear tedious to put in the effort to structure a meeting, it

28

is often that case that unstructured and poorly thought-out meetings end up costing more time and energy in the end.

The following lesson plan presents one model for structuring meetings. University students should feel free to adapt it according to the needs of their organization.

Before the Meeting

Unless it is an emergency, university students should be given sufficient notice prior to the meeting. Organizations often find it useful to have regularly scheduled meetings so that members can plan their personal schedules accordingly. Regardless, the Secretary of the meeting should send out the following at least 3-5 days prior to the meeting

▫ Meeting Memo – includes the date, time, location, agenda and reply-by date

▫ Previous Meeting Minutes – notes from the previous meeting

▫ Previous Outstanding Matters – assigned tasks from previous meetings

During the Meeting

The following are useful techniques for enabling effective discussion during the meeting.

▫ Assigning roles

▫ Having a facilitator/chairperson to keep the meeting focused

▫ Constant tracking of time

▫ Ensuring that no one dominates the meeting and all voices are heard

▫ Establishing a means of dealing with conflict

▫ Establishing decision rules (how does the group arrive at decisions)

After the Meeting

After the meeting, the Secretary should send out the following at the earliest possible time

▫ Meeting Minutes

▫ Outstanding Matters List

Role-Play The role-play (Annex F) provided university students with an opportunity to practice

the ‘during the meeting’ techniques that were taught. The scenario provided put participants as members of the management team of Red Bull in a meeting to decide on a new logo for the company.

29

Evaluation and Feedback After the role-play, the facilitator should set aside 10 minutes to recap and discuss the learning outcomes of this activity. Suggestions should also be taken on how this activity can be improved.

Wrap-Up Speech

Here is an example of a wrap-up speech:

“In this workshop, we reviewed both hard and soft skills required to run effective meetings. In terms of hard skills, it is important to keep meetings structured by having a memo, agenda, minutes etc. In terms of soft skills, we saw in the role play the importance of ensuring that all voices are heard, dealing with conflict, establishing decision rules. This workshop was meant to provide the basic skeleton for an effective meeting. Along the way, your organization will most certainly adapt your meeting norms to the own requirements. Good luck!”

(5) GUIDELINES/RESOURCES The meeting guidelines were developed from several web resources (included below) and from Shawn’s experience during his military days. The role-play was crafted by Ali and Chutapatr.

http://www.businesswritingblog.com/business_writing/2006/01/tips_for_writin.html

http://www.flippingheck.com/Writing-good-meeting-minutes-revisited-2

http://www.effectivemeetings.com

2.3.3 A Primer to Building Sustainable Organizations

(1) RATIONALE Many organizations are often over reliant on their founders or leaders. While this is understandable and even required during the early stages of building an organization, this model is ultimately unsustainable in the long run. Indeed, it is not uncommon to see organizations that have collapsed after their founders or leaders have left. Sustainable organizations require many elements that are crucial to their sustainability. This lesson plan will cover one element of sustainability – building systems. The model described below was adapted from the ISO 9001 certification requirements.

(2) OBJECTIVES

30

To teach university students a framework (adapted from the ISO 9001 certification requirements) for building systems that supports an organization’s mission.

(3) MATERIALS Per University Student

1 x Handout of Slides (Annex A)

1 x Sample of Flowchart (Annex B)

(4) ACTIVITIES

Lecture Motivation and the Importance of Systems

The facilitator should provide the purpose behind the lesson. Specifically – what happens when systems are not put in place? This could be conducted as a discussion.

The Modified ISO Model

The facilitator teaches the modified ISO model and explains the pyramid consisting of mission, instructions and records in detail.

Introduction Here is an example of an introduction speech:

“We want to start by having everyone imagine a situation, which we call “The Secret Recipe Situation.” Mr. X comes up with a recipe for the best pad thai in the region, begins his own restaurant and soon becomes extremely successful. Many members of his family help run the business and they all mutually benefit from its success. However, one day Mr. X suffers from a heart attack and passes away. The family members are left with the business, but without Mr. X’s secret recipe, the restaurant eventually fails.”

“This seems like a typical situation that would happen in a restaurant, but in fact, this situation is not that uncommon to the business world. The effectiveness and continued success of many organizations are based around the role and capabilities of a single leader, founder, or specialized person in the organization. However, what happens when this person leaves?”

“Today we want to talk about systems because systems ensure that a company or organization’s sustainability is not dependent on any single person. Systems drive behavior and ensure continued quality.”

31

Practice University students were asked to draw a flowchart for how a regularly scheduled meeting should be organized from start to finish. This leverages the knowledge acquired in the earlier lesson on “Running Effective Meetings.”

Debriefing/Conclusion Systems are put into place by having a clearly-defined mission statement, instructions

on how this statement will be carried out, and records ensuring that these instructions have been carried out.

One form of instructions is the flowchart system adapted from ISO 9001.

University student may not need to follow the same flowchart format, but must recognize that they cannot rely on one person, leader, or upperclassmen for knowledge on how their organization, Khais, or clubs should be operated. Facilitators highly recommend that university students write down the process, techniques, and tips of their organization in some written form that can be kept and circulated.

Evaluation and Feedback After the practice, the facilitator should set aside 10 minutes to recap and discuss the learning outcomes of this activity. Suggestions should also be taken on how this activity can be improved.

(5) OBSERVATIONS Observations made by a PM facilitating the session:

“As this workshop was primarily based on lecture, it was difficult to gauge the level of understanding or engagement in the subject material. Students seemed attentive but did not ask any questions. When university students were asked to create a sample flowchart for the process of a meeting, many seemed hesitant and were unable to complete the flowchart in the given time. Some were able to complete half of the flowchart but did not have enough time to continue. These problems may have been due to a lack of knowledge rather than understanding; students may have not remembered the process for conducting meetings.?

(6) SUGGESTIONS Suggestions made by a PM facilitating the session:

32

“While university students seemed to understand the importance of having a system rather than relying on a single leader, they seemed to be disinterested in implementing this idea through creating a flowchart. We are not sure if they found this format applicable to them, and it may be possible that they will not use this exact flowchart system for themselves. We think that it would be helpful to include other kinds of ‘instructions’ and not only a flowchart.”

“In the case of the flowchart, we suggest that university students be given a worksheet to fill in rather than starting with a blank piece of paper. At the end of the activity, they should also be given the actual flowchart they were supposed to create. Additionally, changing the subject matter of the flowchart to something more relevant to their goals may draw more attention in the future.”

“Overall, we believe that half an hour is not enough to truly convey the importance of creating a sustainable system. Students should be given more time to reflect on the process as well as create their own ‘instructions’ for their organization and apply this system for themselves.”

(7) GUIDELINES/RESOURCES This activity was adapted from the ISO 9001 Certification requirements, in addition to the experience of one of our team members. For more information, go to: www.iso.org

2.3.4 Conflict Management (1) RATIONALE

In every group, conflict is inevitable. To help them deal with any conflicts that may arise, the conflict management category teaches the techniques behind mediation, why it is effective, and how to best mediate and reach a sustainable resolution between two parties.

(2) OBJECTIVES Teach techniques for resolving conflicts using mediation

(3) MATERIALS Handouts

(4) ACTIVITIES

Introduction/Handout (10 min)

33

see handout

Case Reading (5 min) see handout

Skit/Debrief (10 min) A representative for the university students will be a mediator for two role-playing

two teachers who act out the characters in the case. The student mediator will be guided by another facilitator and other university students if they need help. The skit is deliberately unscripted to give the mediator a realistic situation while also allowing the role-playing teachers to be mindful of time restrictions and speed up the skit.

The debrief consists of suggestions for how the mediator's performance in the skit can be improved plus a question & answer session.

(5) OBSERVATIONS Presentation was not very engaging, so university students didn't absorb much of the

information needed to make the skit go well

The mediator in the skit would have benefitted from a Project Member partner who could give suggestions/hints as to what steps should be taken

Skit was effective because it was funny and engaging

(6) SUGGESTIONS Assign one of the teachers to assist the mediator or just use only one teacher in the first

place to act the role of mediator in a scripted way

Redesign the presentation to include more activities or student interaction

(7) GUIDELINES/RESOURCES Professor Holly Schroth, UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business

2.3.5 Team Assessment – A Logic Chain Exercise (1) RATIONALE

A team must have a quantitative or qualitative way of measuring their impact on the target group. They must be able to identify if the target audience was reached and to what extent the intended impact was carried out.

34

(2) OBJECTIVE A team of university students will be able to use the logic chain to evaluate their own

system and determine a method for understanding and quantifying their impact.

(3) MATERIALS The three attached documents

(4) ACTIVITIES

Introduction (5 min) Here is an example of an introduction speech: “Any team needs to determine a method to identify whether or not their goal or objective is attained. In some instances, it is easy to determine if the intended impact was indeed carried out. For example, the TOMS shoe company model will give one shoe to a child in need for each shoe that someone buys. By knowing the number of shoes that they have sold (and given away) and the rate at which the child in need that are not wearing shoes contract diseases associated with that (28 out of 1 million children without shoes), they can come up with an estimated number of diseases that they have prevented by giving shoes to children that would otherwise not have them. However, in the case of the LTM model, it is difficult to quantify the impact. There is no clear way to know how many students will benefit in the Khai’s that we carry out (as it would be difficult to pinpoint a student’s success on our model itself). Since this is the case, a logic chain is a method that can be used in attempting to estimate the impact that the team will have on its target group.”

Exercise (15 min) The university students will be given the first two attached documents. The first includes the four steps in the logic chain – input, activities, output, and impact – as well as the goal or objective of the project (that completes the circle). The second document is the same format as the first; however, the first document gives brief descriptions of what each step in the logic chain means while the second has blank space for the students to attempt to apply the steps to a given example (the SEALNet model in our case). The university students will then be given time to understand and ask questions about the logic chain as well as fill in the second document to the best of their ability. Time will be provided for them to brainstorm and come up with examples for each step.

35

Debrief (5 min) Facilitators will hand out the third document that is also in the same format but has our filled in ‘solutions’ to what specifically in our SEALNet project belongs in each step. Facilitators will then explain how there is no easy answer to our impact. Facilitators will not know how the children in the target schools will benefit from their project or if their handbook (which is the clear output of our project) will lead more students into better universities or if it will be an avenue for social mobility. Facilitators can only come up with clear answers for the input, activities, and output of our project. The impact will definitely be long term and would be extremely difficult if not impossible to quantify. The university students need to understand that their project works the same way. They will have no way of telling how many students gain long term benefit from the Khais that they will conduct. The university students need to understand that, although a quantifiable way of estimating the impact is unfeasible, it is important to consider what objective that team is trying to carry out and to understand how the input, activities, and outputs could be used to render the best chances of attaining the intended impact.

(5) OBSERVATIONS University students were timid and did not want to voice their opinions

Some of them did not pay attention

Some university students did not complete the exercise

(6) SUGGESTIONS Split the students into smaller groups and have them discuss

Have a longer class so that there is more time for discussions

Utilize PowerPoint presentation to keep students engaged

(7) GUIDELINES/RESOURCES http://www.innonet.org/client_docs/File/logic_model_workbook.pdf

http://www.uj.ac.za/EN/Faculties/humanities/departments/publicgov/Documents/Prof%20P%20Rogers%20How%20to%20develop%20logic%20chain%20models%20for%20evaluation.pdf

http://www.audiencedialogue.net/proglog.html