Students’ Perception of the Teaching of Social Studies in the Colleges of Education

Introduction

The studies of life, heritage, culture, and even history, the social studies are an important part of the education. The students’ can draw different concepts of behaviors from the studies of the social sciences. Most of the students find it easy to understand the different ideas that incorporated in the studies of the society and their behaviors. This is because, the approach in teaching is easy and the students might find it interesting. On the other hand, the students might find it hard to learn different keys of knowledge because of the critical reviews that the teachers assigned them to do.

Background and Problem Statement

The social studies are educational program is designed inside the schools to prepare the students in the challenging roles of different social areas such as un anthropology, economics, ethnic studies, geography, history, political science, psychology, and different types of sociological studies (Johnson, 2005). It is natural in the College of Education to adopt the kid of curriculum which works well with the effective teaching practice and service of the teachers. However, in delivering the type of educational program, there are different perceptions among the diversified students regarding the teaching of the social studies.

Research Objective

The study centers in the practice of teaching of social studies in the colleges particularly in the College of Education. The focus on the teaching will result on the various importance perceptions or idea of the students in the approach of social studies.

Research Questions

Due to the different emerging concern regarding the principles lies in teaching the social studies, the study prepared several questions that might create an impact in the pursuance of the study to achieve its objective.

1. What are the approaches used by the teachers in teaching the social studies?

2. What are the common benefits that a student might gain in finishing the respective area of study?

3. What are the recognized challenges that the educators and the administrators should avoid or minimized that can affect the teaching outcome?

Literature Review

Social studies are part of the African educational program wherein they renamed it as the African Social and Environmental Studies. The content of the program is based on encouraging the students to learn the different social studies in African continent. Since then, social studies became popular subject in schools and taught as a core course to increase the level of student’s understanding and in their transfer of skills and knowledge in real-life situations. The development of the teaching and concept depends on the approach of the teachers in teaching the social studies. All they aimed is to inform and empower the citizens wherein the people can meet the challenges in the current generation. Due to the evolving and modernization, the social studies now includes the environmental education, population and family life education, HIV/AIDS awareness, gender sensitivity, and the other relates issues wherein certain outcomes are expected to reflect in the students (Adeyemi, 1998). Learning the social studies is possible if the learner is proficient in reading and writing, depending on their required language. In fact, social studies is closely bound to the literacy skills, and literacy includes reading, writing, speaking, researching, and organizing the gathered information. Within the classroom, the only hindrance that the educators obviously noticed is the diversification in which makes the foreign student hardly catch the learning of the other students. But this struggle in learn will soon be minimize if there are other languages that the school is offering that is suitable for the students’ needs. The main purpose of the social studies is to contribute in the intellectual and social growth of the student and this purpose stays until the end of the program (Szpara and Ahmad, 2006).

Methodology

The applied method in the study is the use of questionnaires wherein the perceptions of the college students is emphasized. The demographics will on a particular College of Education and where there are numbers of students that are currently enrolled in the subject. The participants’ qualified information such as age, gender, major course, number of years in school, and the number of semester enrolled in the same subject are important data to raise a quality interpretation.

Conclusion

Teaching the social studies is another traditional concept of educators in teaching the students on how to appreciate and value the environment, society, and development of the interrelationship of people and the nature. In addition, the social studies is made to play an important part in determining the cultural or societal problems or changes in their country. And these are just the few benefits in learning the social studies.

References:

Adeyemi, M., 1998. The Problems of Junior Secondary Teachers of Social Studies in Botswana, Social Studies, Vol. 89, No. 5.

Johnson, C., 2005. Social Studies, Minnesota State University [Online] Available at: http://www.mnsu.edu/supersite/academics/bulletins/undergraduate/2004-2005/socialstudies.pdf [Accessed 02 March 2010].

Szpara, M., & Ahmad, I., 2006. Making Social Studies Meaningful for ELL Students: Content and Pedagogy in Mainstream Secondary School Classrooms [Online] Available at: http://www.usca.edu/essays/vol162006/ahmad.pdf [Accessed 02 March 2010].