Enhancing participatory executive functions to improve the quality of life of preschool ethnic children in Thailand’s border patrol police schools

Abstract

This research aimed to (1) develop interventions for enhancing executive functions (EFs) and (2) examine the effects of participatory EF enhancement in ethnic preschool children. The researchers sampled 197 preschool teachers and parents from 7 Border Patrol Police Schools in northern Thailand using simple random sampling. The research instruments included questionnaires, interviews, a curriculum, a lesson plan, and assessment forms. All interventions were validated by experts, with content validity indices ranging from 0.80 to 1.00, indicating high quality and reliability. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and standard scores (T-score). The research findings revealed that: 1) the curriculum for enhancing preschool EF teaching skills was valid and of high quality; 2) the evaluation results of teachers' lesson plans and teaching skills were at a very good level; and 3) parental participation in the EF enhancement process is important. Comparing the EFs of preschool children before and after learning, a t-value of 46.62 was obtained, indicating a statistically significant difference at the 0.05 level, showing that the average EF score after learning was higher than before learning. The research revealed that interventions significantly improve preschool children’s systematic thinking skills and may improve social performance in the long term.