A study of the level of irrelevancies between instructional activities in elementary schools and cultural behavior of students with islamic belief in the three southern border provinces
Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to study the level of irrelevancies between 31 selected instructional activities in elementary schools and cultural behavior of students with Islamic belief in the three southern border provinces. The findings of the study were as follows: All of the 31 instructional activities studied could be categorized into three levels of irrelevancies as follows: The instructional activities with the high level of irrelevancies included students' salutation of "Krabtaow" in a letter, students' reference to all things held sacred in the blessing formula, students' understanding of the natural origin of the earth and theory of man's evolution from monkeyi the students' practices of "Wai" in showing respect to parents and elderly relatives and of rhythmic dance in male-female pairs, students' singing songs containing beliefs in other religions, students' performing of "Wai" in a dance, female students' wearing "Sabai" in a Thai classical dance, students cleaning stuff to be prepared as food without running water, students' making things for use in ceremonies of other religions, students' performing "Waikru" ceremony in which candle and joss-sticks and flowers were used, students' participation in Loy Krathong Day's activities and the activity of paying homage to the King, male students' being dressed as a female and vice versa in a performance, and female students' wearing short pants in sport sessions. The instructional activities with the middle level of irrelevancies included students' reading texthooks mentioning ritual performance of other religions and man-dog relationship, students' organizing an exhibition displaying illustrations of Buddha image or children's paying respect to the Buddha, teachers' explanation that venereble objects were the objects to be respected and appropriate colors for funeral were black and white, students making a sculpture of man, students' singing songs not belonging to their custom, students' meditation practice, students' learning how to castrate cocks, the boy scout reservists' vowing during Grand Howl activity, and the boy scouts participation in a camp fire. The instructional activities with the low level of irrelevancies included teachers' explaining lessons only in the Thai language, students' learning other religions' principles, teachers' explanation that spoons rather than hands should be used for hygienic reasons in eating rice, and female students' practising gymnastics.