ATTITUDE OF STUDENTS TOWARDS THE STUDY OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF OREDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, EDO STATE OF NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Over the years, there have been growing concerns about the attitude of students towards the study of social studies in secondary schools. The need to adapt
our education to the needs of the Nigerian society started before and are
independence. Many educational elites began to recognize that the functional
inadequacies of the educational system inherited from the colonial education failed to develop positive values, attitudes and habits in our society because the social studies they taught was British oriented and has nothing to ore to the Nigerian child.
Fafunwa (1974) observed that the present educational system instead of developing positive values in the society which the African child lives, tends to alienate him from his cultural environment. This was the reason behind the re-evaluation of the educational system and the curriculum of the school and objectives that are relevant to the society.
The major ideas and philosophies behind the curriculum innovation in the 1969 National Curriculum Conference according to Akinlaye (2001) were:
The need to make education more relevant to the needs of the individuals and the society.
The need to use education for national integration and socio-economic development.
The need to develop the right societal value and;
The need to make an individual responsible to the society in which he lives.
This been the case, the National Policy on Education (2004) has in recognition the important role social studies will play towards the achievement of the
country’s educational aims and objectives. Thus, social studies was made a core subject. Hence, there is a greater responsibility for social studies teachers in
Nigeria today than the days before independence, this is because the Nigerian youths now live in an environment characterized by social ills and moral
decadence which have to be curbed at all cost. The youths therefore need social studies education which focuses on the problems and issues of human
beings in their changing environments and seeks to develop desirable habits, values, attitudes and skills in order to solve them.
Researchers have concentrated much on the cognitive aspect of teaching in our secondary schools because of the importance attached to success in public
examinations, however, there is an interplay between the cognitive and aective
areas of teaching. For example, Taylor (2001) and Gunsch (2005) have shown
that there is a relationship between interest and developments in dierent
school subjects, therefore, it is believed that favorable attitude towards social
studies may influence to a considerable extent the uptake of knowledge in social studies.
Studies relating to specific aspects of pupils’ attitude towards social studies and other related subjects have been undertaken by several researchers.
Jekayinfa (2007) has reported that high grade in social studies at lower forms is a factor that can pull students to history in the secondary schools in Nigeria.
In the study of factors associated with interest in science, Ormerod and Dukworth (2000) have also identified a number of factors like personality, home and
other environmental factors among American and British High School students.
