Social Studies Teachers' Perception of the Use of Community Resources in the Teaching and Learning of Social Studies in Some Selected Junior Secondary School

Social Studies Teachers’ Perception of the Use of Community Resources in the Teaching and Learning of Social Studies in Some Selected Junior Secondary School

Chapter One

Purpose of Study

To determine if social studies teachers are aware of the value of community resources available for teaching the subject.
To determine if social studies teachers are aware in schools of the value of community resources in the teaching of social studies.
To determine if professional and non professional social studies teachers differ in their perception of community resources.
To determine if social studies teachers differ significantly in their perception of constraints to the use of community resources.

CHAPER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The review of related literature is carried out under the following headings:

Concept of Social Studies.
Concept of Community Resources.
Advantages of Using Community Resources.
Constraint or Demerit of Community Resources.
Summary.

Introduction

It is well known among educators that the educational experiences involving the learner actively participating in concrete examples are retained longer than abstract experiences. Instructional materials add elements of reality by providing concrete examples to learning.

Many authors have written on the use of instructional materials both in teaching social studies and other related subjects in order to enhance teaching for desired social and behavioural change. These authors include McLuhan (1964), Alaka (1978), Kochhar (1986), Mkpa (1989), Bozimo (2002) Nnanna-Nzemwumna (2003) and Adekeye (2008). More specifically, it was emphasized on the works of these authors that the use of community resources is a since qua non in affecting behaviour of learners in every field, especially social studies and that these materials are important catalysts for social re-engineering and change. It is obvious that social studies teaching and learning cannot be well accomplished without the use of community resources.

Concept of Social Studies

Social studies is one of the school subjects which came into being at the beginning of the 20^th century. In the recent past, social studies has been made one of the core subjects in the primary and junior secondary schools in Nigeria and has ever since gained recognition in the school system.

Iyamu (1991) observes that the focus of social studies in Nigeria is a new reaction to the inadequacies of past educational practices, particularly in its primary concern for the inculcation of desirable norms, values and attitudes that were required to sustain the new independent nation. Social studies as a problem approach discipline, focuses on the problems of man and the society as well as how to solve them. Social studies is a subject whose scope is not definite as it is interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary in nature. It is difficult to say where social studies begins or ends. This, coupled with its focus on changing social condition of man and society makes its scope assume an increasing horizon. Social studies is an interdisciplinary subject that cut across several other discipline particularly in the social sciences and humanities. Consequently, social studies is the integrated study of the social science and humanities to promote civic competence within the school programme. It provides co-ordinated systematic study drawing upon such discipline as anthropology, archeology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy, religion and sociology as well as appropriate content from the humanities, mathematics and national sciences. From the foregoing, one can asset that the primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse democratic society in an interdependent world.

Social studies is primarily culture bound as, most of it’s curriculum content is derived from different cultures which change from time to time depending on the needs and aspiration of the people. Social studies is a subject whose meaning is a fluid maintained Iyamu (1991), its scope is not definite, it focuses on changing social conditions of man and society.

The needs and aspirations of a society or state is a determining factor in fashioning out the meaning of social studies. Contributing to the diverse meanings of social studies Adaralegbe (1981) did conceptualized social studies as “the study of man in his totality – where he lives, his activities in the past and present; his culture; his frame of mind; and how he relates to others. It focuses on developing the right values, attitudes and abilities which help the child to get on well with others as he grows up to become a responsible citizen”.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

This chapter shows the research method and procedures used in carrying out this research study. The description of the procedure falls under the following subheadings:

Research Design
Population of the Study.
Sample and Sampling Procedure.
The Research Instrument.
Validity of Instrument.
Administration of Questionnaires.
Method of Data Analysis.

Research Design

This study is a descriptive survey which adopts the ex-post design in analyzing the relationship between variables which are related to social studies teachers constraint to the use of community resources.

The study is designed to assess social studies teachers perception of the constraint to the use of community resources for teaching. The dependent variable is the teachers’ use of community resources for teaching social studies and the independent variables are factors such as the school timetable, fund, parent’s attitude and teachers desire to complete the scheme of work.

Population of the Study

The population of this study consist of all junior secondary school social studies teachers in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. The total number of social studies teachers in the thirty three (33) junior secondary school in Oredo Local Government Area was eighty nine (89) consisting of professional and non professional social studies teachers.

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULT

This chapter presents the findings and the results of the study as stated as follows. It is presented in the following order:

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Introduction

This chapter dealt with the following issues:

Summary of the study
Conclusions
Recommendations

Summary of the Study

The study population was made up of some selected junior secondary schools’ social studies teachers in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State.

The instrument used for data collection was questionnaire designed to elicit the needed responses to facilitate the testing of the research questions and hypotheses and these were analyzed using the simple mean percentage and t-test of independent sample.

The results revealed that there is no significant difference between the professional teachers and non-professional teachers on their awareness and values of community resources in the teaching and learning of social studies.

Conclusion

Based on the findings of this study, is hereby concluded as follows:

That there is no significant difference between the professional and non-professional teachers on their awareness and value of community resources. This means they have the same perception, awareness and value for community resources. By this it means both the professional and non-professional teachers will not be having problem with the use of community resources in the teaching and learning of social studies in the junior secondary school.

Recommendations

The following recommendations are hereby made for the study:

There should be full-scale implementation of the use of community resources in the teaching and learning of social studies in the junior secondary school.
Social studies teachers should be encouraged to use community resources as it enhanced the teaching and learning of social studies.
However, in-service training should be given to non-professional teachers of social studies on the use of community resources.
There should be vehicles and transportation, provided by the school principal to enable students and teachers move around in the community.
There should be reputed journal and textbooks devoted to community resources to enable teachers and students learn the skills of community resources.
The social studies curriculum should be reviewed in a way that it can accommodate the use of community resources.
It should be made compulsory for both professional and non-professional teachers to make use of community resources in the teaching and learning of social studies.

Recommendations for Further Study

Similar studies should be carried out elsewhere to prove the genuineness of the study.
The attitudinal disposition of other stakeholders in education like policy makers, parents, community leaders, professional associations, should be investigated on the use of community resources.

REFERENCES

Adegbe, M.O. (1994). Social Studies Curriculum and Instructions in Amadi, H.C. and Joof, G.W. (1994) (eds). Social Studies in Schools: Teaching Methods, Techniques. Approaches and Perspective. Onitsha: Outrite Publishers.
Adeniyi, A. (1980). The Nigerian Social Studies Programme. “Retrospect and Prospect”: Teaching Issues and Problems. Benin: Ethiope Publishing Corporation.
Aina, N.F. et al (1985). Social Studies: A book on methodology. Ibadan: Evans Brothers (Nigeria Publishers) Ltd.
Brown, N. (1982). Curriculum and Instructions. Lagos: Macmillan.
Croombs, P.H. (1970). The World Educational Crisis: A System Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.
Fafunwa, A.B. (1974). History of Education in Nigeria. London: Allen and Unwin.
Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004). National Policy on Education, NERDC, Lagos.
Imogie, A.I. (1988). “Educational Technology and the Nigerian Secondary Education in Nigeria University of Ife, Ife Press.
Iyamu, E.O.S. (1991). Reading in Social Studies. Benin City: Okilo Publishers.
Jean, P. (1969). Piaget Theory of Intellectual Development. An Introduction.
Meizieobi, K.A. (1991). Textbooks, Community Resources Radio and Television: Aspects of Instructional Materials and Resources in Social Studies Education.
Meizieobi, K.A. (1992). Understanding Social Studies Education in Nigeria General Publishing Company 45 Ginuwa Road, Warri.

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