Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to determine the Challenges of effective teaching of social studies in junior secondary schools. Specifically, the study was guided by eight purposes, eight research questions and eight null hypotheses. The design of the study wasa descriptive survey research design. The study was carried out in Kogi State, Nigeria. The population of the study wascomprised of 11,657 JSSII students in Kogi. The sample for the study was 370 respondents. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire developed by the researcher titled; “Teacher Effectiveness Scale (TES)”. The TES was made up of two parts – A and B. Part A was concerned with demographic data of the respondents which comprised of location (Urban or Rural), Gender (male or female) and Experience. Part B consisted of five (5) clusters. In order to ascertain the validity of instrument (TES), it was validated by three experts: two from Department of Arts Education and one in Measurement and Evaluation, science education department, all from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The experts were requested to ascertain the adequacy and appropriateness of the instrument in eliciting responses from the respondents in answering the research questions and in testing the hypotheses. Their comments and suggestions were used to modify and restructure the instrument. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained through trial- testing to determine the internal consistency of the items and anoverall reliability coefficient of 0.85 was obtained using Cronbach’s Alpha. This shows that the instrument was reliable and was used for the study. The researcher adopted the direct approach in administering the questionnaire to the respondents. This face-to-face and on the spot administration and collection of the instrument was adopted inorder to avoid wastage or loss of the instrument as much as possible. Data collected from the respondents was analyzed using Mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while the null hypotheses were tested using t-test statistic. All the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The finding of the study among others showed that to a high extent, social studies teachers’ master social studies content. It was also found that to a high extent, use of appropriate learning resources by social studies teachers contribute to their effectiveness in the teaching of social studies. Result also showed that to a high extent, teachers’ instructional method influenced their effectiveness in the teaching of social studies at junior secondary schools. The implications of the above findings were examined and it was recommended among other things that teachers should try to understand better the factors that influenced their effectiveness as this will make them better teachers of the subject and will inturn influence students’ performance in the subject. The assumption is that greater effectiveness will have concomitant positive influence on students’ achievement in social studies.The limitations of this study were highlighted and suggestions were made for further studies.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The future growth of any nation, even the most advanced nations of the world depends quite considerably on the quality of education it provides for its citizens. The quality of education depends upon inspired, satisfied and truly dedicated teachers. This in turn can only be achieved through an effective teacher. Education is the gateway to national development in Nigeria. If it is to be developed to meet her social, political, economic and technological needs, there must exist effective social studies teachers to teach their respective subjects. Therefore, the quest for an effective teacher in teaching social studies is borne out of the desired need to attain the laudable goals of high educational standards coupled with the much needed moral rectitude in our society today (Korve, 2008).
The attainment of the Education Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All Goals (EFA) which is geared towards ensuring that by the year 2015 all children particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality depend to a large extent on teachers’ effectiveness and other students or learners related factors. Education is an instrument for national development but if it is to achieve that objective, emphasis must be placed on the quality of educational programmes undertaken as well as the quality of teachers who implement them. This is because a quality or effective social studies teacher produces qualitative education which in turn leads to rapid national development (Barth, 2013).
