THE IMPACT OF TEACHERS ATTITUDE TOWARDS TEACHING AND LEARNING  OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Social Studies have been noted to be integrated both in content and methodology. The introduction of new approaches to learning the subject needed a change in the education of teachers. Literature review on the background of teachers teaching the new social studies at any school level shows that majority of them had their education with humanities or social science background. Social studies teachers seem to lack the consensus about the nature and importance of the subject hence the reason for the poor attitude towards the subject. Teaching basic skills and values, which are central to social studies education, is dependent on teachers' views about social studies. Effective teachers, according to Cruickshank, Jenkins, and Metcalf (2003), are often optimistic persons who believe in the success of their pupils as well as their own abilities to assist students in achieving their educational objectives. Efficacious instructors, according to Borich (2000), are those that utilize "meaningful verbal praise to engage and maintain students' active participation in the learning process.The teacher's excitement, according to research, is closely associated with the achievement of students. a jolt of inspiration (2008). In their study, Cruickshank, Jenkins, and Metcalf (2003) found that excellent instructors are excited about their jobs.

When it comes to attitudes, MacDonald (2005) defines them as "a predisposition to act in either a positive or negative way toward people or objects or ideas or events." Several investigations have been conducted on teachers' attitudes, with the most recent being Kratz (2009) and Sweeney (2002) finding that teachers' attitudes are important factors in the learning process as well as in academic performance. Kratz discovered that there was a statistically significant relationship between teachers' attitudes and pupils' academic achievement. Teachers who study social studies have a better understanding of the subject's contents, goals and teaching techniques as well as the classroom environment and students. This attitude toward the items listed above reflects if he has a good or negative mindset. Smith, Saroson, and Sarason (2002) distinguish three types of attitude constituents: cognitive (beliefs), emotional (feelings), and behavioral (behavioral actions) (action). The cognitive component does not constitute an attitude in and of itself. It progresses from thought to sensation and finally to action, with the last stage being the establishment of an attitude toward something.In other words, actions might be a reflection of one's attitude toward a certain object, person, or occurrence. Sterm (2003) draws the following conclusion from his research: "the fundamental premise underpinning all of these is that instructors' attitudes are crucial for students' learning." It appears that a large number of them have an unfavorable attitude about the issue (Uyoata, 2002).

In the Nigerian classroom, it has been found that many instructors consider social studies to be a low-status topic that may be taught in any way (Okon 2007), resulting in a fuzzy and skewed picture of social studies. Okon goes on to say that prospective social studies students frequently express skepticism about the subject's high standing. During their research, Hobbs and Moroz (2001) discovered that students felt social studies was beneficial, but they did not feel that social studies would help them acquire a job after graduation. People appear to consider social studies to be a low-status discipline within the social sciences (Hobbs & Moroz 2001).

A recent survey found that most instructors favoured social studies as a separate curriculum that included topics such as history, civics and moral teaching as well as geography. As a result, it is possible that the instructors' favorable attitude was based on their preference for a multidisciplinary method, which has now been replaced by an integrated strategy. According to Uyoata, despite the widespread misunderstanding of social studies, 65 percent of the primary school teachers who participated in his survey reported a good attitude toward the subject. According to Osho (2006), who conducted a research, instructors with a positive attitude (who were exposed to the problem-solving technique) had greater improvements from the post-treatment scores on their social studies performance than their colleagues who utilized alternative methods, among other findings.hence the need to investigate the impact of teacher’s attitude towards the teaching and learning of social studies in junior secondary school.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

 The increase in student poor performance has been linked to teaher’s attitude by some scholars. An attitude is a mindset that affects how a person thinks and acts. Attitude can influence a person’s performance positively or negatively.  For example those of McKeachie (1983), Roe & McDonald (1983), Marsh (1987), and Marsh & Dunkin (1991) have found positive attitudes to students evaluation of teacher, Teachers' attitudes can help or hurt student motivation, achievement and well-being. Recent studies found that negative teacher attitudes can impair academic achievement and increase students' psychological disorders and physical symptoms of stress. The findings from these studies attest to the usefulness and accuracy of student evaluations and their positive relation to teaching effectiveness in comparison with other measures. There certain things that will trigger teacher’s attitude towards teaching and learning of social studies; which may likely to be unavailability of teaching materials, lack of interest of learning on the side of the students, lack of incentives to the teachers and inability to pay salaries on time might contribute to the attitude of teaching and learning of social studies in upper schools. Finally, several researches has been carried out on teacher’s attitude on academic performance of students but there has been no single research on teacher’s attitude towards teaching and learning of social studies in junior secondary schools. Thus upon this premise that study seeks to examine the impact of teachers attitude towards teaching and learning  of social studies in junior secondary schools.

1.3   AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

The main aim of the study is to examine the impact of  teachers’ attitude towards teaching and learning of social studies. Other specific objectives of the study include:

i.          To determine whether teacher’s attitude affects  the teaching and learning of social studies.

ii.        To determine the factors affecting teacher’s attitude towards teaching and learning of social studies.

iii.      To determine the factors affecting students attitude to learning of social studies.

iv.      to determine the extent to which teacher’s attitude affects  assessment and learning outcome of social studies.

1.4  RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The research is guide by the following hypothesis:

Ho1: The extent at which teacher’s attitude affects  assessment and learning outcome of social studies is low.

Ho2:Teacher’s attitude has no significant effect on the teaching and learning of social studies.

1.5   SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

The study on teacher’s attitude towards teaching and learning of social studies will be of immense benefit to the entire schools in Nigeria in the sense that it will help the school management and the government as well to look into the factor that leads to inappropriate attitude of social studies teachers and to find lasting solutions to them. An example may be delay in salary payment, lack of materials for teaching and so on; when all these are being put in place it may possibly change the attitudes of social studies teacher. Finally, the study will contribute to the body of existing literature and knowledge to this field of study and basis for further research.

1.6  SCOPE OF STUDY

        The study on teacher’s attitude towards teaching and learning of social studies is limited to junior secondary schools.The study is however delimited to selected secondary school in  Suleja  Local government  in Niger State Nigeria

1.7LIMITATION OF STUDY

Like in every human endeavour, the researchers encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. The significant constraint was the scanty literature on the subject owing that it is a new discourse thus the researcher incurred more financial expenses and much time was required in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection, which is why the researcher resorted to a limited choice of sample size covering only junior secondary school in  Suleja  Local government  in Niger State Abuja. Thus findings of this study cannot be used for generalization for other  primary schools in other  states within Nigeria. Additionally, the researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work will impede maximum devotion to the research. Howbeit, despite the constraint encountered during the  research, all factors were downplayed in other to give the best and make the research successful.

1.8  DEFINITION OF TERMS

Attitude:-The way one behaves, thinks or feels towards somebody or something.

Influence: - The power to change or control something or somebody. The power to control or change academic performance of pre-school children.

Ministry of Education: - A government department concerned with giving people useful knowledge

Teacher: - also called a school teacher is a person who provides education for students

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