A Study of Kromaluang Wongsathiratsanit’s Version of Chindamanee as a Textbook for Thai Children

Abstract

This article presents a comparative study of two contemporary versions of a Thai literary text entitled Chindamanee — Kromaluang Wongsathiratsanit’s version and Phra Horadhibodi’s one. To enunciate the effectiveness of the textbook for Thai students at the time, we examine their organization, content presentation, and soundness of the content according to Thailand Ministry of Education’s modern textbook criteria. Our analysis clearly shows that the Kromaluang Wongsathiratsanit’s version is well structured while the Phra Horadhibodi’s one is an unstructured narrative. We found the former systematically covers more rudimental topics from Thai orthography to prose and poem compositions, all of which are logically explained and graded by difficulty. The latter is, in contrast, much less organized due to its more ancient narrative style. We suggest that the Kromaluang Wongsathiratsanit version is more suitable to Thai students at the time with respect to its appropriate amount of content, organization, presentation, and academic soundness. Easy to understand, thought-provoking, and wide-coverage, the Kromaluang Wongsathiratsanit’s version appears to be more effective for teaching Thai.