ATTITUDE TOWARDS TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL

1.1 Introduction

Social Studies Curriculum as a policy document and academic programme was introduced to educational system in Nigeria with the aim of inculcating positive values and building of better Nigeria. This could be possible only when there is effective implementation of social studies curriculum at all levels of education. There is a problem of non-availability of audio/visual for which teachers alone may not be blamed. The heads often do not motivate the teacher in terms of providing instructional materials. Furthermore, most school lack of funds and as a result, they find it difficult to purchase the required audio/visual aid. Generally, failure to use audio/visual material in the teaching of Social studies result in lack of interest among student in learning activities which affect performance in school and pupils not being able to assimilate lesson at their own rate and pace.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Teachers’ attitudes toward social studies have implications for the successful teaching of essential skills and values, which are central to the social studies education. Research on enthusiasm of the teacher is strongly connected to students’ success (Spark, 2008). MacDonald (2005) describes an attitude as “a predisposition to act in a positive or negative way towards persons, objects, ideas and events” several studies conducted on teachers’ attitudes, a few of which Kratz (2009), Sweeney (2002) have shown that teachers’ attitudes are important factors in the learning process as well as in academic performance. Kratz found a significant difference between teachers’ attitudes and students’ academic performance.

Cruickshank et al., (2003) report that effective teachers are enthusiastic over their work. In the Nigerian classroom situation, it is observed that many teachers’ regards social studies as a low status subject that could be taught any-how (Okon 2007) hence making social studies hazy and distorted in image. Okon further contends that prospective social studies students tend to have doubt regarding the high status of the subject. Hobbs & Moroz (2001) found in their studies that students believed social studies was useful but did not believe that social studies would help them get a job. Among the social sciences, people seem to think of social studies, as low status subject (Hobbs & Moroz, 2001).

Learning social studies brings the teacher into contact with contents, goals, teaching methods, classroom environment and students. His disposition towards the above reveals a positive or negative attitude. Examining this concept further Smith, Saroson & Sarason (2002) identify three constituents of attitude: cognitive (beliefs), emotional (feeling) and behavioral (action). The cognitive component by itself is not an attitude. It transcends into feeling and then metamorphoses into action; the final stage is attitude formation.

In other words, action may be part of the attitude one has towards a thing person or phenomenon. In his studies, Sterm (2003) concludes that, “the basic assumption underlying all these is that teachers’ attitudes are significant for students’ learning”. Social Studies have been noted to be integrated both in content and methodology. The introduction of new approaches to learning the subject needed a change in the education of teachers. Many of them appear to exhibit a negative understanding of the subject (Uyoata, 2002). However, despite the general misunderstanding, Uyoata observes that 65 percent of the primary school teachers in his study expressed a positive attitude to social studies. In the said study, most of the teachers preferred social studies as separate subject such as history, civics, moral instruction and geography. The teachers’ positive attitude, therefore, might have been built on the preference for multidisciplinary approach, which has now been discarded for the integrated approach.

Osho (2006) undertook a study where he observes, among others, that teachers with positive attitude (who were exposed to the problem-solving strategy) had higher gains from the post- treatment scores on their performance in social studies than their colleagues who used other methods.

Cruickshank, Jenkins & Metcalf (2003) write that effective teachers are generally positive minded individuals who believe in the success of their students as well as their own ability to help students to achieve. Borich (2000) contends that effective teachers are those who use “meaningful verbal praise to get and keep students actively participating in the learning process”.

Therefore, in Niger State where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Attitude towards Teaching and Learning of Social Studies in Junior Secondary School.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that the teacher’s attitude of is a mindset that affects how a student’s thinks and acts. Attitude can influence a person’s performance positively or negatively. There certain things that will trigger teacher’s attitude towards teaching and learning of social studies; which may likely to be unavailability of teaching materials, lack of interest of learning on the side of the students, lack of incentives to the teachers and inability to pay salaries on time might contribute to the attitude of teaching and learning of social studies.

Finally, several researches has been carried out on teacher’s attitude on academic performance of students but there has been no single research on teacher’s attitude towards teaching and learning of social studies in upper basic schools.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Attitude towards Teaching and Learning of Social Studies in Junior Secondary School using Kontaragora Local Government Areas of Niger State as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To determine the factors affecting teacher’s attitude towards teaching and learning of social studies;
2. To determine the factors affecting students attitude to learning of social studies;
3. To determine the effects of teacher’s attitude on the teaching and learning of social studies; and
4. To determine the extent to which teacher’s attitude affects teaching and learning of social studies.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What is the effects of teacher’s attitude on the teaching and learning of social studies?
• What are the factors affecting teacher’s attitude towards teaching and learning of social studies?
• What are the factors affecting students attitude to learning of social studies?
• What is the extent to which teacher’s attitude affects teaching and learning of social studies?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: Teacher’s attitude has no significant effect on the teaching and learning of social studies.
• H1: Teacher’s attitude has a significant effect on the teaching and learning of social studies.

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1.7 Significance of Study

The study on teacher’s attitude towards teaching and learning of social studies will be of immense benefit to the entire schools in Nigeria in the sense that it will help the school management and the government as well to look into the factor that leads to inappropriate attitude of social studies teachers and to find lasting solutions to them.

An example may be delay in salary payment, lack of materials for teaching and so on; when all these are being put in place it may possibly change the attitudes of social studies teacher. Finally, the study will contribute to the body of existing literature and knowledge to this field of study and basis for further research.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of this research is focused on the Attitude towards Teaching and Learning of Social Studies in Junior Secondary School using Kontaragora Local Government Areas of Niger State as a case study.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Academic Performance: can be defined as the outcome of education, the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goal. Academic achievement is commonly measured by examination or continuous assessment.

Social Studies: is the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence. Social studies is most commonly recognized as the name of a course or set of courses taught in primary and secondary schools or elementary, middle, and secondary schools, but may also refer to the study of aspects of human society at certain post-secondary and tertiary schools around the globe.

Attitude: The way one behaves, thinks or feels towards somebody or something.