DEVELOPING COMMUNICATIVE WRITING COMPETENCY OF MATTHAYOMSUEKSA 3 STUDENTS AT THE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOL OF MAHAMAKUT BUDDHIST UNIVERSITY THROUGH TASK-BASED LEARNING

Abstract

The objectives of this research were: (1) to compare the communication writing competency of Matthayomsueksa 3 students at the Demonstration School of Mahamakut Buddhist University before and after learning through Task-Based Learning (TBL), and (2) to investigate the students’ opinions toward the TBL approach. This study employed a one-group pretest-posttest pre-experimental design. The target group consisted of 30 Matthayomsueksa 3 students studying in the second semester of the 2025 academic year.

          The research instruments included: (1) ten task-based lesson plans with an appropriateness rating of 4.38, indicating the highest level of suitability; (2) a communication writing competency test consisting of a 20-item multiple-choice test with difficulty indices ranging from 0.25 to 0.75, discrimination indices ranging from 0.25 to 1.00, and a reliability coefficient of 0.97, and a two-item subjective test with difficulty indices ranging from 0.47 to 0.55, discrimination indices ranging from 0.37 to 0.74, and a reliability coefficient of 0.87; and (3) a questionnaire on students’ opinions toward TBL, with item-objective congruence values ranging from 0.80 to 1.00 and a reliability coefficient of 0.83. Data were collected over five weeks, totaling 12 instructional hours. The statistics used for data analysis were mean, standard deviation, percentage, and dependent-samples t-test.

          The findings revealed that: (1) the students’ posttest mean score on communication writing competency was significantly higher than the pretest score at the .05 level, with mean scores increasing from 19.33 to 41.73; and (2) the students’ overall opinions toward Task-Based Learning were at a high level (M = 4.43, SD = 0.05).