SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION ON THE USE OF COMMUNITY RESOURCES IN TEACHING OF SOCIAL STUDIES CONCEPTS IN SOME SELECTED JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study is to assess social studies teachers' perception on the use of community resources in the teaching and learning of social studies in some selected junior secondary school in Oredo LGA, Edo State, Benin City, Nigeria. This study achieve the set objective by assessing the perception of social studies teachers toward the use of community resources, determining the extent to which the teachers believe that collaboration with the local community enhance the usage of community resources, and determination of challenges that prevent teachers from successfully implementing the integration of community resources into their teaching practice and by how much these challenges vary across different socio-economic contexts of the selected junior secondary schools. The population of this study is twenty (20) social studies teachers from the selected junior secondary schools while the sample size are seventeen (17) social studies teachers carefully selected using the stratified random sampling technique. Carefully structured questionnaires were used to collect the data needed for the research. The reliability of this data and responses used in this research is established using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.76 showed that there is an acceptable internal consistency in the data used for the research. The questionnaires used in collecting data for the study is valid as it was thoroughly reviewed by experts in the field of social studies education — a group comprising the supervising the research. Findings showed that teachers generally have a positive perception on the use of community resources while also believing that collaboration with the local community has a moderate impact on improving the use of the community resources. Also, most teachers cited that lack of funding and inadequate transportation logistics are the major challenges the teachers encounter during the integration of community resources into the curriculum; these challenges vary moderately across different socio-economic contexts in the selected secondary schools.