Developing Learning Innovation of Digital Open Badge in Social Studies to Enhance Citizenship Characteristics of Secondary School Students

Abstract

This study aims to synthesize theories and concepts related to educational management, personality traits, and citizenship characteristics evident in the education systems of the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Singapore, and Thailand; to develop an innovative model of open-badge digital social education to enhance the cultivation of citizenship characteristics among high school students in Chiang Mai; and to study the results of developing digital badge innovations to enhance the development of students’ personality traits and citizenship characteristics in the educational innovation area of Chiang Mai province. A mixed-method approach is employed in order to synthesize the universal core values that ensure societal peace within diverse communities from the curricula of the five countries. When comparing the results with the Thai context, it becomes apparent that the Thai curriculum still lacks precise definitions of “universal core values” and activities that instill these core values. Through purposive sampling, this study extracts the necessary values from the opinions of involved personnel and pilot schools in the Education Sandbox program in Chiang Mai. The results suggest that ten core values need to be addressed firmly in the Digital Open Badge learning innovation and guidelines for both in-class and out-of-class activities. The citizenship characteristics platform and guidelines in social studies are designed based on the 5Ts Action Learning model with 40 hours of observation. The outcomes demonstrate that overall satisfaction with the curriculum is high. Notable changes from interviews and observations indicate that responsibility and cooperation are the most significant changes in students’ character traits. These traits are expressed mostly at the individual level (35.02%), followed by the family level (29.39%), the community level (22.62%), and lastly, the global level (12.97%).