ATTITUDE OF SECONDARY STUDENTS TOWARDS THE STUDY OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN EGOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the Attitude of Secondary School Students Towards the Study of Social Studies in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. Four (4) research questions were raised to guide the study. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised 5800 SS1-SS3 school students in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 200 students as sample for the study. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled Questionnaire on Attitude of Secondary School Students Towards the Study of Social Studies (ASSSTSSS). It was validated by the researchers’ supervisor and two experts in Department of Curriculum and Instructional Technology, Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Benin City. Its reliability was established at 0.87 using Cronbach Alpha method. The data collected for the study was analyzed using frequency tables, simple percentages and mean. The findings revealed that the attitides of students towards social studies are ; students are inactive during lessons (mean=3.17), students find social studies classes very boring (mean=3.10), students find it difficult in learning social studies (mean=2.95), students are committed to learning social studies, (mean=2.95) and students show interest in social studies (mean=2.80) respectively. Students poor attitude towards the learning of social studies in EGOR Local Government Area of Edo State. is high. The factors influencing attitude of students towards the study of social studies are lack of well trained teachers, teachers do not use teaching and learning materials, inadequate classroom furnitures, lack of teachers ability to explain in concepts in social studies to students, Government/Educational ministries don't send social studies teachers to attend seminars respectively. Provision of competent teachers for the subject, provision of adequate teaching and learning materials, establishment of school environment and classroom furnitures, use of different teaching methods by teachers and teachers ability to explain concepts in social studies very well to the comprehension of students all would improve students attitude towards the study of social studies in secondary schools. It was recommended among others that the Nigerian Education Ministry should recruit professional teachers to teach Social Studies in Senior secondary schools. This will help in giving them knowledge to become excellent students’ in Social Studies, Teachers of Social Studies should make the class lively to solve the problem of period boredomness on the part of the learners in the teaching and learning process, There is the need for a tripartite collaboration among the Ministry of Education, Nigerian Government and other Non-governmental educational organizations to provide the needed teaching and learning materials for the teaching and learning of Social Studies, Teachers of Social Studies should employ different methodologies in teaching the subject.