"The Participatory Learning Leading to Integrated Community Development Project: A Case Study of Bansunkong School" is a pilot project of learning reform in a whole-school approach. Teacher guidelines will be developed specifically for Bansunkong school and will be used in developing an integrated curriculum, as well as to promote child-centred teaching- learning methods, using the community as a resource for learning. The guidelines consist of seven steps in a case study approach:

(1) students collect information from the community;

(2) students choose a problem to study in depth;

(3) students present findings to stakeholders;

(4) community members and students consider various alternatives and choose one;

(5) community members plan a project along with teachers and student input;

(6) villagers implement the project with teacher and student involvement;

and

(7) students work with teachers and community members in evaluating the outcomes of the project and report their findings to the community. The learning strategies will be introduced into classrooms ranging from kindergarten to Grade 6. The school has 25 teachers and more than 650 students representing five hill tribe villages. It is also expected that there will be about 2000 community members involved in this learning process. The project activities will include workshops to develop the teacher guidelines, teacher workshops both in large and small groups at the school site, follow-up by implementation staff and educational service area staff, and self-reflection and assessment by school staff. The project serves a dual simultaneous purpose: localisation of curricula to support sustainable development and experiential learning promotion.

Building of classroom Students show visitors around the school We need to keep classroom clean and nice. environment, please help together We need forest and other natural resources back Please help us

The Bureau for Innovative Development in Education (BIDE) is an international collaborative department of development under the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), Ministry of Education, Thailand. There are 60 officers working in two main sections: Innovative and Research Projects and International and Private Collaboration. The tasks of the Bureau focus on overall learning reform, research and development of innovative approaches in education. It helps to improve the quality of education in the areas of teacher training and curriculum development at central and school levels, as well as development of participatory and learner-centred methods. The BIDE is the pioneer organization in education for sustainable development under the current educational reform movement in Thailand. Before the re-organisation of the Ministry of Education, the BIDE was the Special Office Project under the Office of the National Primary Education Commission, which helped launch learning reform throughout Thailand. By applying lessons learned both nationally and internationally, the BIDE plans to disseminate Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development to all schools during the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The Education for Sustainable Development centres are knowledge management-based centres supporting a teacher development database for storing and disseminating methods, documents, learning materials, websites, best practices, and other resources. BIDE also provides effective staff development programs at the ministry, provincial and school levels.

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