Penulis at the whole, the primary motive of social studies is to help younger people expand the capability to take knowledgeable and reasoned choices for the advantage of the general public as appropriate residents of a culturally numerous and democratic society in an interdependent global. As a course of study, social studies goal at generating college students who are creative, patriotic, accountable and beneficial contributors of the society. positioned differently, social research goals at generating those who are capable of deal with some social troubles relating to guy’s relationship with his bodily and social environments (Onuoha, 2009: 158). The query that involves mind is, has this objective been finished?
SOCIAL research AND THE NIGERIA countrywide policy ON education
The Philosophy which introduced social studies training as a functional and qualitative curriculum layout in all number one, secondary faculties and trainer education faculties in Nigeria burdened that an acquisition of its ideals, virtues and values with the aid of the younger faculty learner should no longer be a hazard affair. these virtues of human improvement, consistent with the FRN (2004), ought to be learnt and cultivated via way of classroom instructions and interactions which derive from the social studies curriculum. The coverage on education endorses the want for social research training to be geared closer to equipping the person with the vital wherewithal not handiest for cultivating civil responsibility however also for growing avenues and possibilities germane and like minded with human and social improvement. for this reason, according to Okobiah (1985), the success of the philosophy behind the coaching and gaining knowledge of of the social research curriculum in colleges and faculties must be measured in terms of its high-quality contributions at mobilizing and permitting freshmen domesticate an attention and know-how of norms and values that are applicable to the fundamental concepts of democracy. It changed into taken into consideration that this development could usher within the curriculum paradigm important for engendering meaningful human co-existence inside the framework of Nigeria as a younger democracy.
even though the countrywide policy on schooling time-honored social studies education as a curriculum layout for inculcating norms and values of energetic citizenship among young inexperienced persons in our faculties, most of the empirical studies (Lat, 1999; Akims, 2003; Shingumi, 2003 and Kazi 2004) and statistics to be had in this route have proven that we are but to reap the virtues and assets intrinsic in the concern place. The results and records installed in these empirical studies are taken into consideration in three dimensions in terms of the volume classroom dispensation of the social research curriculum has been efficiently used in grooming young learners in the acquisition of proper norms and values of citizenship schooling. these consequences and facts are labeled in respect of social studies training as follows, (a) the content material areas; (b) teaching techniques and (c) assessment procedures. The curricular issues and troubles related to those classifications are respectively discussed underneath:
at the question of the content material areas of social studies, Salia Bao (1981) and Okam (1992) criticized the defective study room emphases within the challenge which aren't associated with the societal needs of Nigeria as a younger democracy. those critics revealed that the triumphing traditional technique to pedagogy in social studies in many college settings in Nigeria largely knowledgeable the young learner out of context in dating to the surroundings wherein he's to feature as a citizen. Mezieobi (1993) demonstrated that commands inside the social research in colleges and colleges have suffered not most effective due to the insufficiency and inadequate supply of teaching aids inclusive of textbooks however also because of the overall unsatisfactory schooling of instructors as demanded within the epistemology and ontology of the curriculum package deal intrinsic inside the issue. Funtua (1980) criticized and frowned at the existing practice of assigning the teaching of social research in our faculties and colleges to records, economics and geography teachers. those critics maintained that this development creates the inaccurate impression that these instructors are always effective teachers of social research. They lamented that those unqualified teachers generally confirmed a single problem technique in coaching the content regions of social research.
inside the vicinity of evaluation, Uche (1980), Okobiah (1985) and Okam (1998) revealed that despite the fact that the national policy on education has given a pleasure of region in our faculties and colleges to the curriculum potentialities of social research in its situation for inculcating the right sort of virtues in the leaner through unified and interdisciplinary studies of man, these researches lamented that evaluation in the problem region in large part targeted on a determination or size of the volume to which students retained actual materials or memorized some-one else’s ideas. these research discovered a widespread loss of any systematic efforts at the part of social studies instructors to accumulate evidence of a pupil’s development in each the affective and psychomotor objectives instead of the traditional efforts at comparing achievements in the cognitive location.
Repositioning Social studies education: some demanding situations of the teacher
a major improvement hooked up through Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) in the national policy on training is the satisfaction of location it has given to the social studies curriculum. The policy regards social research as a compulsory middle challenge region which all college students in the secondary colleges can't dispense with in their getting to know sports. Very importantly, the coverage stipulates that the coaching of social research curriculum in our secondary colleges need to be seen as one of those avenues of establishing robust bases for the production of effective citizens and forming a cohesive society so one can help a notion of country-building.
at the complete, the number one cause of social studies is to assist younger humans increase the ability to take informed and reasoned choices for the gain of the public as appropriate citizens of a culturally numerous and democratic society in an interdependent world. As a course of have a look at, social research purpose at producing students who are innovative, patriotic, responsible and useful members of the society. positioned otherwise, social research aims at generating individuals who are capable of deal with a few social troubles relating to man’s relationship along with his physical and social environments (Onuoha, 2009: 158). If a a hit classroom dispensation of social studies training within the minds of pupils, college students and individuals alike, is to be performed as Engle (1977) entertained, then the instructor should be changed with the obligation of manipulating the environment of these learners in such manner that their probability of acquiring certain unique behaviours is elevated. This development could create the idea germane for allowing those beginners gather and show a variety of human resources and ability-building competencies and belongings intrinsic in the social studies curriculum in a bid at reaching the targets of Nigeria’s vision 20-20-20. The afore-noted social research scholars suggested and underscored the relevance and power of five elements of an educational environment to which the social studies educator’s attention must be centered inside the effort at imparting an most efficient instructional setting if inexperienced persons are to gain dreams hooked up in norms of citizenship
