Understanding the Goal of Social Studies: A Step to the Effective Teaching of the Subject

Abstract

The attainment of curriculum goals and general aims of Social Studies, which are inextricably linked to the national goals and aspirations of education, rely on the quality of teaching that goes on in the classroom. Effective learning is thus dependent on the quality of teaching that is carried out by various teachers during instructions. This work examines senior high Social Studies teachers’ understanding of the goal of the social studies and how it informs their teaching of the subject. The targeted population for the study encompassed teachers teaching Social Studies in the senior high schools in Cape Coast Metropolis. This was a qualitative study that adopted the use of interviews in gathering the data necessary for the work. Purposive and convenience sampling techniques were used to select the sample for the study. The study showed that most of the Social Studies teachers teach the subject without knowing the general aims of the subject as stipulated in the Social Studies syllabus which serve as teachers’ guide to the teaching of the subject. Besides, some of them could not also tell holistically the goal of Social Studies.

Keywords: Social Studies, goals, in-field, out-of-field