Factors Militating Against the Teaching and Learning of Social Studies in Secondary Schools
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
The following are the objectives of the study:
- determine the impact of teacher’s competence in teaching and learning social studies in secondary schools in Taraba State.
- determine the impact of adequate history books in teaching and learning social studies in secondary schools in Taraba State.
- ascertain the impact of small class population in teaching and learning social studies in secondary schools in Taraba Stata.
- ascertain the impact of the use of instructional materials in teaching and learning social studies in secondary schools in Taraba State.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework for this study is based on the theory of Stimulus -Response as propounded by Ivan Pavlov (1849 – 1936) and John
Watson (1878-1958). Papalia, Feldman and Olds (2007) asserted that StimulusResponse is a type of learning which is based on the association of stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit a particular response with another stimulus that does not elicit a response. While studying the functioning of the digestive system, Ivan Pavlov encountered an unforeseen problem. The dogs in his experiment salivated not only upon actually eating but also when they saw the food, noticed the man who usually brought it or even heard his footsteps. Pavlov began to study this phenomenon, which he called „conditioning. ‟‟ Since the type of conditioning emphasized was a classical one quite different from the conditioning emphasized by other psychologists at the later stage, it has been renamed classical conditioning.
In one of his experiments, Pavlov kept a dog hungry for a few days and then tied it to the experimental table which was fitted with certain mechanically controlled devices. The dog was made comfortable and distractions were excluded as far as it was possible to do so. The observer himself remained hidden from the dog but was able to view the experiment by means of a set of mirrors.
Arrangement was made to give food to the dog through an automatic mechanism.
He also arranged for a bell to ring every time food was presented to the dog. When the food was put before the dog and the bell was rung, there was automatic secretion of saliva from the mouth of the dog. The activity of presenting the food accompanied with the ringing of the bell was repeated several times and the amount of saliva secured was measured.
After the several trials the dog was given no food but the bell rung. In this case also, the amount of saliva secreted was recorded and measured, it was found that even in the absence of food (the natural stimulus), the ringing of the bell (an artificial stimulus) caused the dog to secret the saliva (natural response).
The above experiment thus, brings to light four essential elements of conditioning process. The first element is a natural stimulus, technically known as unconditioned stimulus (US) that is food. It results in a natural response called the unconditioned response (UR).This response constitutes the second element. The third element is artificial stimulus that is the ringing of the bell which is technically known as a conditioned stimulus (CS). It is substituted for the natural stimulus (food). To begin with, the conditioned stimulus does not evoke the desired response, (CR). The fourth element is the chain of the conditioning process. However, as a result of conditioning, one learns to produce behaviours in the form of a conditioned response to the conditioned stimulus.
The theory of conditioning as advocated by Pavlov, thus, considers learning as habit formation and is based on the principle of association and substitution. It is simply a stimulus-response type of learning where in place of a natural stimulus like food, water etc., and an artificial stimulus like the sound of a bell, sight of light of a definite colour, etc, can evoke a natural response. When both the artificial or natural stimulus (ringing of bell) and the natural stimulus (food) are brought together several times, the dog becomes schooled or conditioned to this situation. A perfect association occurs between the types of stimuli presented together. As a result, after some times, the natural stimulus can be substituted or replaced by an artificial stimulus and this artificial stimulus is able to evoke the natural response.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
A quasi-experimental research design, involving a pre-test, post-test and non-equivalent research design groups was used for the study. This type of research design is appropriate for studying how the peculiarities of a learning environment would affect the performance of different students groups at the secondary school level. In other words, the research design is appropriate to the type of research conducted which is largely an evaluation. The purpose of using this design agreed with Kolo (2003) who says that “experimental is to investigate possible cause and effect as well as relationship between two or more variables by the application of treatment which cannot be resolved by observation or description”.
Population
The target population for this study comprised students of public junior secondary schools in Taraba State. There are total of two hundred (200) public Junior Secondary Schools in Taraba State with twenty-five thousand three hundred (25,300) students.
Sample and Sampling Technique
Purposive sampling technique was used to select two well equipped and two unequipped schools. Thereafter, two large sized classes of JSS III were selected from two of the schools and another two small sized classes from two other schools, given a total of 4 intact classes. Students from these classes formed the sample size for this study which stood at 200.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Descriptive Analysis
The descriptive statistics were presented by way of answering research questions as follows:
Research Question 1: what is the impact of teacher’s competence on the performance of junior secondary students in Taraba State?
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
This study examined the Factors militating against the teaching and learning of social studies in Junior Secondary Schools in Taraba State. The study comprised background to the study that highlighted variables such as the concept of education, learning environment vis-a-vis academic performance, meaning of social studies, meaning of performance and objectives of secondary education. This was followed by statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research hypotheses, basic assumptions, significance of the study, scope and delimitation of the study.
Review of related literature was carried out to provide the practical basis for data interpretation and major findings of the study. The review was on the following sub-headings: introduction, theoretical framework, concept of learning environment, relevance of learning environment, component of learning environment, concept of academic performance, learning environment and academic performance, how to evaluate academic performance, empirical studies and summary.
A quasi-experimental research design involving pre-test, post-test and nonequivalent group design was used for the study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select two well equipped and two unequipped schools. Thereafter, two large sized classes of JSS III students were selected from two of the schools and another two small sized classes from two other schools given a total of 4 intact classes. Students from these classes formed the sample size of 200 from the population of 25,300 in 200 public secondary schools in Taraba State. Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT) that contained 20 items was used as instrument for this study which was adopted from Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination (JSSCE) conducted in Taraba state between 2018 and 2020. The analysis and the interpretation of data confirmed some aspects of the theoretical work as highlighted in the literature review.
The findings revealed that all the four hypotheses tested were rejected. However, based on the findings, the following were obtained:
- That class buildings have positive influence in teaching and learning of social studies in junior secondary schools in Taraba State.
- that class with adequate history books impacted positively in teaching and learning of social studies in junior secondary schools in Taraba State.
- that class with small class population has positive impact in teaching and learning of social studies in junior secondary schools in Taraba State.
- that use of instructional materials in teaching social studies has impacted positively on the performance of junior secondary schools in Taraba State.
Conclusion
This study has shown a positive and significant relationship between the physical characteristics of the school such as teacher’s competences, history books, instructional facilities and students‟ academic performance in junior secondary schools in Taraba State. This is an indication that these facilities in secondary schools should be a prime concern of the education stakeholders in the state and the nation in general. However, the extent to which students‟ learning could be enhanced depends on the structure of their classroom, availability of the classrooms, instructional facilities and accessories. It is believed that conducive learning environment with available school facilities will gear up expected outcomes of education that will facilitate good social, political and economic emancipation, effective teaching and learning process as well as academic achievements of students.
Hence it has been established that facilities are potent to greater academic achievement of students. Therefore, it requires prompt attention on the part of the education stakeholders in Taraba State and the nation in order to improve the poor condition of learning environment and academic situation of secondary schools from its present state. Moreover, there are some facilities that can be improvised by the teachers in order to facilitate teaching and learning, hence such facilities should be improvised by the teachers.
Recommendations
Based on the conclusion drawn, the following recommendations were made:
- Government and other education stakeholders should make concerted efforts to provide adequate teacher’s competence and renovate the existing dilapidated structures in public secondary schools. This would help to reduce the problem of school overcrowding and it would go a long way to create enabling teaching and learning environment.
- Education stakeholders should endeavour to provide adequate history books (chairs and lockers or desk) in public secondary schools and students should be oriented on how to maintain these facilities because most a time‟s students destroy these facilities by themselves.
- Small class population should be maintained in public secondary schools and the population of students admitted into public schools should depend on the available space and facilities. Because, there is need to make the number of students to be taught in the class to be moderate, so that the teacher would be able to manage the class effectively and give individual attention to students where necessary.
- Adequate instructional materials should be made available in public secondary schools and teachers should be encouraged to be using instructional materials in the course of presenting their lessons and they should be made to update their knowledge and skills in improvisation of instructional materials through seminars, workshops and conferences organized by government and professional bodies.
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