Social skills are the skills we use to communicate and interact with each other, both verbally and non-verbally, through gestures, body language and our personal appearance. Human beings are sociable creatures and have developed many ways to communicate messages, thoughts and feelings with others (Skills You Need, 2013).  In this study, the social skills as components of life skills in general were studied. The World Health Organization (1997) defined the importance of social skills for adjusting and maintaining good conduct which would help people to cope appropriately with their expected needs as well as different challenges that occur in daily life. This was relevant to the creation of Thailand’s Core Curriculum of Basic Education 2008, in which life skills were determined as one of the major competencies for students, covering knowledge, feeling and thoughts, interpersonal relationships, adequately solving conflicts, adjustment to keep pace with social as well as environmental changes, avoidance of inappropriate behaviors that would affect both themselves and others, self-defense in critical situations and life management that is congruent with their society and culture.  Four components of major life skills for creating and developing immunity for children and youths in contemporary social situations were determined, and included the following:  1) awareness of self and others, and finding value in both; 2) analytical thinking as well as decision making, and creative problem solving; 3) emotional and stress management; and 4) good interpersonal relationships (The Office of Basic Education Commission, 2011). These four are intended to cover the life skills in both psychomotor and social domains. 

The Thai family has been transformed by the rapid and complicated changes in economy and society. The traditional Thai family structure was the “extended family,” which means that at least three generations would live together in the same house. Extended Thai families commonly included grandparents, parents, aunts or uncles, and children and cousins. All the family members worked toward common goals such as raising and morally guiding the children and keeping up with the household duties. However, the Thai family structure currently tends to accept the models of the “nuclear” or “Single Parent” families, in which a household consists of a couple or a single divorced parent living with their children. In a society dominated by single parent families, as parents work outside rather than do household duties, their children are raised or taken care of by grandparents, babysitters, or day nurseries. A series of consequent problems caused by this situation was found by a child watch survey of Ramajitti Institute. The survey sampled an area of 17 provinces, with a minimum sample size of 1,000 people in each province, with a total of 18,269 children and youth (Ramajitti Institute, 2012).  The details are shown in Table 1.

Nowadays, there are concerns that these situations are bringing risks that can result in more violence that is more widespread, and Thai children are vulnerable to dangers of  a   problematic  social  structure,  of  which  the  above problems are symptomatic.

Due to the above social problems, all sectors of the society have to collaborate in preventing and solving the problems. The easiest way in doing this is to train the  children and youths in appropriate “social skills,” so that they would be able to adjust themselves and behave in appropriate ways to face the different challenges in daily life effectively. Specifically, sixth grade students are at the early stages of adolescence, an age when they face physical, emotional, and social changes. Children who are confused in early adolescence would encounter emotional stress, which leads to undesirable and problematic behaviors. (Department of Curriculum and Instruction Development, 2000).

Various research studies have been conducted on the teaching of social skills. Arslan (2011) found that the mean scores of positive social skills based on perfectionism levels did not significantly vary. In addition, it was found that the mean scores of negative social behaviors of children with high perfectionism levels varied significantly.  Furthermore, the mean scores of social behavior of children with higher rather than lower levels of perfectionism were themselves higher.  Deniz (2013) found that there was a significant correlation between emotional intelligence and problem solving. Poomkaew (2012) developed a life skills curriculum, and found that the posttest scores were significantly higher than the pretest.  Kantajon (2010) found that there were significant differences in social skills scores between children attending training sessions of different duration and who experienced different child rearing practices. Additionally, their posttest scores were significantly higher than the pretest.  This study was to develop a learning model for enhancing six aspects of social skills in grade sixth students in order to prevent six kinds of problem including the substance addiction, alcohol drinking, quarrelling, internet danger, smoking, and inappropriate sexual behavior by using three pairs of social skills: interpersonal relationships and communications, decision-making skills and problem-solving skills, and coping with emotional skills and coping with stress skills. The goal was to provide them with immunity when they graduated from school and entered into their daily life.

Research aims

1) To study the social situations that may be a problem and define the needs for a learning model that could enhance grade sixth students’ social skills in dealing with the consequences of these social behaviors.

2) To develop a learning model that would address the needs as defined above to enhance grade sixth students’ social skills.

3) To study the effectiveness of the above learning model.

4) To assess the impact of the learning model by comparing pretest and posttest scores on a pre-designated assessment of social skills.  

5) To inquire of the opinions of students and teachers on the resulting learning model.

The learning model was structured into a series of learning units teaching social skills which had been ranked into 20 plans by the teachers as shown in Table 2.  

Data analysis

Results from the questionnaires were analyzed for frequency, mean, percent, and standard deviation. In-depth interviews were analyzed by transcribing the audio recordings and coming to interpretations and conclusions. Finally, pretest and posttest scores were analyzed using a dependent t-test in order to compare the pretest and posttest. Mean values of the questionnaire results were calculated from responses from the teachers and students.  

An analysis of the findings is shown in Table 3. Problems which were reported by more than 60% of the teachers as being needed to insert into learning activities ranged by priority were narcotic taking (78.77%), alcohol drinking (76.03%), quarrelling (violence, aggression, offence) (75.34%), cyber dangers (chatting and playing games) (71.92%), smoking (68.49%), pornographic materials (video clips, comics, VCDs) (63.01%), and sexual misconduct (60.96%).

 For teachers, the highest level of mean value was in response to the question that the learning model could enhance the students’ development of interpersonal relationships and communication (= 3.72). Competency in enhancing the students’ decision making and problem solving skills was second (= 3.61), and the students’ activity management could enhance the emotional and stress management skills was third (=3.56).

The objectives of this study were: 1) to study the situation, problems, and need for a learning model, 2) to develop the learning model, 3) to study the effectiveness of the learning model, 4) to compare the social skills between pretest and posttest, and 5) to inquire of the opinions of students and teachers on the resulting learning model.  Four issues arose to be discussed as follows: 

1.The problems that  the teachers thought would occur among the sixth grade students included narcotic taking, alcohol drinking, quarrelling, cyber dangers, cigarette smoking, pornography, and inappropriate sexual behavior, in that order. This speculation was supported by reports of risky situations faced by Thai children conducted by  various  research teams in many provinces. Various sources of data were collected from many years.  The common problems of concern were found to include:  1) alcohol drinking; 2) cruelty and violence had increased; 3) gambling, especially online, 4) various issues around sex, including free sex and unsafe sexual relations (Nakontap, 2011). The study indicated that those problems obviously affected Thai children and youth in their daily lives, and these issues were likely to become increasingly serious.  Consequently, in order   to   alleviate   those   problems,   there   should  be  a   learning model for enhancing the social skills of vulnerable children and youth so that they would be more able to survive from these problems. 

2. The developed learning model for enhancing the sixth grade students’ social skills, consisted of six components: 1) foundation approach and theory; 2) objective; 3) learning steps (syntax; 4) social system; 5) principle of reaction, and 6) support system. Syntax consisted of six steps: Build awareness, Enhance the experience, Exchange, Presentation, Concept conclusion, Application of the concept.  The evaluative findings were scored at a “high” level of propriety. The developed learning model was based systematically on the approach of Joyce, Weil and Calhoun (2004)  whose own model included stating the goal of learning, the principle or basic approach of the model, the details of all the teaching steps, and an evaluation based on the model. Arends (2001) too concluded that the essential components of a learning model need to include the goal of the learning activity, which should be based on a proper theoretical approach in developing the learning model. Additionally, the expected learner outcomes, the learning management techniques for accomplishing the model’s objectives, and the learning environment which would lead to the expected outcomes need to be fully articulated.  Furthermore, the researcher interviewed the panel of experts who had related experiences with social skills development in these sorts of social issues. These gave the researcher valuable insights related to what the components of the learning model should be in order to effectively develop the students’ social skills in concrete form. Furthermore, the six steps of learning depended on the application of the design of the lessons for developing every issue of the targeted social skills.  In each step, the basic theoretical approach of the learning model was ranked in order from easy to difficult. This approach was supported by Kammanee (2010)’s conclusion that the development of a learning model had to be systematically organized by considering the related theories and principles, and they be related with each other in order to lead the students to accomplish their goals.  Moreover, Sirithadakunlaphat (2008) developed a learning model for enhancing the social skills and emotional quotient for second class level students with special ability. Her model used six steps of the learning process: 1) thinking inspiration; 2) thinking expansion; 3) real practice; 4) group presentation; 5) conclusions and evaluation; and 6) application and knowledge use. She found significant differences in posttest scores of social skills and emotional quotient between the experimental group and those of the control group. 

3. The findings in implementing the learning model were that: 

1 The effectiveness of the learning model was higher than the specified criterion (80/80).

2. The comparison of pretest and posttest scores found that the posttest mean score was significantly higher than the pretest at .05 level.

The literature that informed the developed learning model included such important theories as Piaget’s Constructivism (Woolfolk, 1995) focusing on the stimulation by questioning in order to cause new knowledge. Use was made of Vygotsky’s approach emphasizing the students’ ability to construct knowledge through the social interactions with other people, who can support the students who were in lower level of Zone of Proximal Development by scaffolding from teachers and friends through the emphasis on group activity (Slavin,1994). Importance was also placed on the application of the social cognitive learning theory of Bandura (Bandura, 1986) in observational learning from the model.  Since the teachers and friends were major sources of cooperative learning, the student-centered approach to learning involved small groups helping each other, communication, teamwork, collaborative thinking and problem solving, and mutual encouragement. These forms of enhancing each other’s learning competency to accomplish the learning goal by emphasizing on the group success affected each other’s success (Kagan, 1994). Participatory learning was combined with group process based on components of cycle in experience learning (Kolb, 1991). As a result, the students were in a context to share their knowledge with each other, and collaborate in working in order to accomplish their goals. Many previous research studies have supported these approaches in successful learning. Queen (2009) found that the cooperative learning package could enhance the students’ higher order thinking as well as problem solving skills. This method was able to develop the students to achieve better learning and resulting in positive social changes. The students could learn by themselves and cooperate in learning. Johnson (2009) found that the cooperative learning techniques had positive effects on students’ learning in lower secondary school through the interaction with others, including children and adults, their parents, teachers, and friends. Docksai (2011) devised a model affecting the students who had adjustment mental problems which would affect their study in other subjects.  The model was called SEL (Social and Emotion Learning), focusing on their livelihood in society, caring for others, the development of friendship and communication, and decision making and problem solving  It was found that SEL (Social and Emotion Learning) could increase the students’ social skills. McClatchy (2011) studied how to practice in order to cause the students to obtain their social skills as well as good manners in society by using a learning package focusing on the parents’ participation in practice, serving as role models, and the students’ learning.  Consequently, the students improved their social skills as well as acquiring the habits of sustainable learning. 

4. The results of the questionnaires of student opinions found that the overall mean value was at the “high” level. The highest score was the students’ opinion on the connection of the learning activity to their daily life. The second was that participation in the activity was similar to their real lives, and that it provided opportunities for students to think and work independently without stress.  Likewise, it was discovered that the teachers’ overall opinion was also at the “high” level.  The highest scores were ranked in three categories: interpersonal relationships and communication skills, decision making and problem solving skills, and coping with emotion and stress skills. The stories used were described as being age-appropriate. As a result, teachers reported that the students were able to comprehend easily.  In addition, the learning activities were not complex and were flexible. The students could present their performances in many forms, especially the role playing, which motivated the students and provided enjoyment participating in activities. This result was supported by Brunson-Upshaw (2009), in which four students between 8-10 years old with moderate autism were studied.  During the experiment, the researchers read stories for students, repeated the same stories, then each of the experimental groups played roles according to the stories that had been read by the researcher.  Four weeks later, it was found that the students had better social interaction development in some skills.  Moreover, the learning model used forms of authentic assessment from observation of the group process. This served to make the students less anxious. In Thailand, the guidelines of the Office of Basic Education Commission (2011) found that the students’ competencies for coping with different situations should be evaluated by observation, problem solving in specified situation, and analysis of changes in students’ thoughts, beliefs, level of thoughtfulness, and intellectual immunity through reflection. Consequently, the teachers could view clearly while they were participating in the activities. 

Conclusion

This study was the development of a learning model for enhancing the social skills of sixth grade students by developing a learning model and instructional activities based on input from a broad sample of teachers. It was found that the developed learning model was effective as specified by the criteria.  In addition, the students taught by the learning model had higher posttest social skills than the pretest.  Both of teacher and student answered the questionnaire positively, reporting that the activities could truly  develop  their  social  skills.  Specifically, the model sought the development of social skills for preventing future potential social problem when the students would be adolescents. This learning model could be applied in developing both social skills and life skills. Furthermore, the model could be applied in learning activity management for developing the social skills or life skills in other classes by designing the content to be appropriate with those classes. For teachers who would use it with students in classrooms of different sizes, the lessons are flexible in duration and varied in activity according to the propriety.  Moreover, other techniques for data collection should be considered, such as focus group discussions for teachers or student-parent meetings to express their opinions on the current social problems they face and the needs their children have for developing their social lives in order to obtain broader and more varied information.     

The author(s) have not declared any conflict of interests.

This study was part of a innovation development project. We would like to thank the Faculty of Education, Mahasarakham University for their financial support. We would like to thank the teachers and students for their participation this study.