The effects of experiences with constructivist instruction on attitudes toward democracy among Thai college students

Abstract

The study draws on Dewey's theory that constructivist instruction embraces the philosophy of democracy with regards to enhancing students' individual and social constructivist learning. As a result, the hypothesis is that constructivist learning practices might be an effective indirect way to learn and value democracy. The hypothesis was confirmed by the structural-equation-modeling analysis result, indicating that Thai students' prior experiences with constructivist instruction were positively correlated with their attitudes toward democracy. Through a multistage sampling method, a group of 717 freshman college students were randomly selected from one public university in Bangkok, Thailand. They were surveyed by group-administration with a student questionnaire about their prior constructivist learning experiences in high school, as well as about their attitudes towards democracy. Moreover, the students' personal profiles such as gender, parent education, hometown location, and academic department were examined to find potential variables in the Thai students' attitudes toward democracy. The key findings derived from these statistical results were highlighted and discussed in order to provide some educational policy implications for Thailand.