1.3 STUDY RATIONALE
As described earlier, the researcher formulated a rationale for the present
research as follows:
• The Ministry of Education has prescribed an EP Curriculum for schools that
wish to teach some major subjects in English as part of the education reform.
• The Ministry of Education also allows schools to modify the prescribed
curriculum up to 30% of the content in mathematics, science, foreign
languages, and in bicultural programs, using a bilingual approach.
• There have been questions on how schools should modify the prescribed
curriculum and what should be the best approach to implement the modified
curriculum.
• Satit Bilingual School of Rangsit University has modified the EP Curriculum
in mathematics and science with supplementary content drawn from
international sources such as IGCSE and IB, and using as the language of
instruction, English. The ‘natural approach to learning a language’ was adopted.
• It is important for schools such as Satit Bilingual School of Rangsit
University to learn what are the perspectives of parents with respect to the
implementation of its modified bilingual curriculum.
• To provide another perspective, a second bilingual school was studied.
That second school also had modified its bilingual curriculum but with an
emphasis on art and music.