Academic development. As noted above, the curriculum for each subject follows the standards established by the Ministry of Education for each grade. PM is the only language of instruction in Kindergarten 1 and Kindergarten 2. In Grade 1 and Grade 2, teachers use PM to teach concepts and introduce academic terms in Thai relating to each concept. In Grades 3 and 4, teachers use both PM and Thai for teaching. In grades 5 and 6, students use Thai textbooks but if possible, teachers( or PM teaching assistants) use PM to help them understand, as needed.
The MTB BE curriculum emphasizes meaning as well as accuracy in all learning activities for all subjects in all grades. It also emphasizes higher level thinking from KG 1 to the end of Grade 6.
Socio-cultural development. Suwilai Premsirirat and Uniansasmita Samoh( 2012) describe the place of socio-cultural development in this MTB BE curriculum:... the program honors students’ home culture and social background and recognizes them as a resource for the nation as a whole. It also teaches them about their rights and responsibilities as citizens of the larger society. Teaching and learning activities and materials reflect the values and goals of their parents and the community. For example, the children should be able to Salam( Muslim way of greeting) to their parents and others as well as to be able to wai( Thai way of greeting). And to best take advantage of their situation, the children should be able to speak, read and write well in both Patani Malay and Thai. Moreover, the children should be able to keep their identity at the local level and also have a sense of Thai identity at the national level. Through this cultural bridging, they can live with dignity in the wider Thai society to foster true and lasting national reconciliation( Suwilai Premsirirat and Uniandasmita Samoh, 2012, p. 93).
Teachers gave the project grades ranging from 80-90 %, noting that, while the students in the project exhibited much more creativity, confidence, and enthusiasm than students in traditional monolingual Thai classes, the MTB BE approach is very demanding of the teachers.
Booklet for Programme Implementers
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