Abstract
The current Senior High School Social Studies syllabus has a section on the problem for each topic to be studied presents for the teacher. Knowledge of this problem section of the syllabus has a positive impact on teachers' effectiveness in their lesson delivery; thus, the call on teachers to take this section seriously in their classroom practices. But there is little sign that teachers in the North-East Region of Ghana have taken this call. This study investigated the knowledge of Social Studies teachers of the North-East Region of Ghana of this section of the syllabus and how they used it as a guide for the teaching of the subject. A sample of fifty-four (54) teachers was selected for the study using the simple random, cluster and convenient sampling techniques to select the respondents for the study. As a qualitative study, an open-ended interview guide and observational guide were designed to elicit information from the respondents. Data from the interview was transcribed, grouped, analyzed and discussed on themes that emerged. The study focused on the teachers’ knowledge of the problem section of the Senior High School Social Studies syllabus and how this informed their selection of objectives, content, instructional techniques, materials, and evaluation of the subject. The study revealed among other things that: teachers’ knowledge of the problem section in the syllabus and their reciprocal relationship with other components of the syllabus fall short of the expectation of effective Social Studies teachers, especially trained to teach the subject. Observation of teaching sessions revealed that lessons were taught without teachers explaining the problems of the units to leaners. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that Ministry of Education (MoE) through Ghana Education Service (GES) should organize regular in-service training such as seminars, workshops for Social Studies teachers to update their pedagogical skills in the subject; on-campus and off-campus teaching practices in the Universities should be intensified by allowing in-field lecturers to supervise and train the teacher-trainees to ensure effective teaching of Social Studies.
Highlights
The introduction of Social Studies globally was triggered by the quest to use the subject to solve current threatening challenges in society
Teaching-Learning Process (Adopted from Ayaaba and Odumah, 2013). This was a qualitative study where inductive logic and qualitative methods are generally employed to understand a particular phenomenon within its social context [12]. The choice of this approach was to enable the researcher to make an in-depth study of teachers' knowledge of the problem section in the Social Studies syllabus and how it informed their choice of objectives, content, instructional techniques, materials, and evaluation in teaching the subject
It was realized from the findings that ten (10) of the in-field teachers’ knowledge of the problem section of the syllabus and how it informed them on the selection of other components of the syllabus fell short of the expectation of trained to teach the subject
Summary
The introduction of Social Studies globally was triggered by the quest to use the subject to solve current threatening challenges in society. Social Studies has no single universal agreed definition as well as universal objectives [2] This is because the needs of societies vary from time to time and from place to place. Social Studies is equated to Citizenship education and stated: "Social Studies is citizenship education." Social Studies assists learners to comprehend their societies better [5]. This implies that Social Studies helps to equip learners with relevant knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be able to function well and transform
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