CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the Study
Adaralegbe
(2005) sees Social Studies as a study of man in his environment and the effects
of science and technology among others. Esu and Inyang (2014) describe Social
Studies as an integrated study of and the outcome of his interaction with the
environment. The researcher on his own viewpoint sees Social Studies as the
study of man and his environment. Social Studies can be seen as a study of how
man influences and is in-turn influenced by his physical, social, scientific
and technological environment.
Social Study is the bedrock of science and technology
because many of the tools on which the scientific and technological advancement
depends are the direct products of Social Study. Social Study is therefore a core subject in science and
technology since it studies the essence of natural phenomena and helps people
understand the rapidly technological changing society (Zhaoyao, 2002).
It is also explains the
fundamental that constituents
of the universe, the forces that exert on one another. Man’s daily activities
and his interaction with the universe are explained in
Social Studies.
Social studies is a
subject which is taught at various levels of education in Nigeria, It is taught
at the junior high school, senior high schools, teacher training colleges and
Universities as core subjects. Even at the lower basic level of education, that
is, the primary school, social studies is taught under environmental studies,
now known as citizenship education. All these point to the importance attached
to the study of social studies in our schools and society.
The National Council for
Social Studies divides social studies objectives into four categories:
knowledge, skills, values, and participation (Barr, 1977).
Social Study is widely used variously in scientific and technological advancement such
as in information technology. The knowledge of Social Studies has led to the production of manpower in
science and technological oriented career needed in the area of industrialisation
for improvement of materials useful for the well being of human race.
Furthermore, the knowledge of Social Studies equips the learners with problem-solving and
decision-making skills that pave way for critical thinking and inquiry, which could
help them to respond to widespread and radical changes in all facets of life.
The
development of any nation is hinged on solid educational foundation for its
citizenry. This suggests that education is a means of effecting changes in the
society physically, mentally, socially, emotionally and intellectually.
Education is the key to creating a society, which is dynamic and productive,
offering opportunity and fairness to all. Therefore, it is axiomatic that
efforts should be geared towards maintaining high standards in schools. The
standards will be reflected in students’ academic achievement. Like in all
other facets of national planning and development, education has its own share
of poignant challenges. Academic problems are frequent indicators of larger
problems, often having to do with personality and lifestyle, societal and
economic factors and the family. Problems of non-achievers are numerous but the
truth is that they lack the knowledge of their abilities and strengths,
moreover, they have not developed the necessary study skills and techniques and
they also lack the interest and motivation that are requisite for performance.
Literature review on this area reveals that there are two main contributing
factors to students’ academic achievement that are psychological and
sociological factors. Psychological factors refer to the internal elements of
individual including emotional and cognitive domains, whereas sociological
factors refer to external factors such as socio-environment and friendship. However,
both factors are inter-related and dependable.
Interest could be defined as the focusing of
the sense organs on or giving attention to some person, activity, situation or
object. It is an outcome of experience rather than gift. It could either result
or cause motivation. It could also be regarded as a pre-determinant of one’s
perceptions that is, what aspect of the world one is mostly likely to see
always (McClnermey, Dowson, Young and Nelson, 2005). It could also be viewed as
a condition in which an individual associates the essence of certain things or
situation with his needs or wants. Schiefele (1998) maintained that one’s
interest is enkindled or killed through participation, experience, familiarity,
study and work. It is what one perceives in these engagements that shape
interest.
Recently, Social Student
has received particular attention. Educators and policymakers in some country
and particularly at high school and university have been asked to consider
student interest in recruiting students. This is important to consider because
the interest is also considered as one factor for student Performance in
academic that follow, because when the students have interest to the course
that they chosen, perhaps they have potential to get success in that course.
This assumption supported by Dewey (1913) as cited on Tin (2006) and Ainley (2002)
who stated that interest plays an essential and necessary role in learning
activities. When student was interested to the learning activities, student
will be engage and pay them attention to the classroom activities (Ainley, Hillman,
& Hidi, 2002; Tin, 2006).
In recent years, research
have been investigate that interest has a powerful positive effect in learning
activity. Hidi (2002) described that interest could be effect cognitive
performance and affective experience in academic learning. Hidi (2002) also
mentioned that interest could be influence knowledge acquisition of students
(Hidi, Berndorff, & Ainley, 2002). This argument supported by Alexander
& Wade (2000) and McWhaw & Abrami (2001) who explained that the
interest will greatly affect students' in learning process and learning
activity. The student who is not interested to learning process and learning
activity, perhaps would have a tendency to not learn as well as possible, and
eventually will influence quality of learning, because when students have
interest students will prepare themselves as well in learning (Alexander &
Wade, 2000; McWhaw & Abrami, 2001).
Further, researchers distinguish between
situational and individual interest. Krapp (2002), Hidi (2002), Hidi (2006)
Hidi & Renniger (2006) mentioned the situational interest as an interest
that focusing on creating appropriate environmental factors. Situational
interest is generated by certain conditions, situation or stimuli in the
environment and it represents a relatively immediate affective reaction that
focuses attention and that may not be long term. That is, once situational
interest is triggered, it may or may not be maintained. Meanwhile, the
individual interest stressed on predisposition of individual characteristic to
re-engage with certain objects and events, and it will increase knowledge and
value, as well as positive affect (Hidi, 2006; Hidi, 2002; Hidi &
Renninger, 2006; Krapp, 2002). Moreover, Krapp (2002) Hidi (2002), Hidi (2006)
and Hidi & Renninger (2006) also described that actually individual
interest is relatively stable and develop slowly over time, because affected by
repeated experiences of situational interest (Hidi, 2006; Hidi, 2002; Hidi
& Renninger, 2006; Krapp, 2002). It means, School as an educational
institution has to consider the environment that influence and affect to
trigger situational interest of students. However, in the fact school sometime
not provided the appropriate environment for triggering the situational
interest. In other hand, sometime occurred miss placement when school accepts
the students, so that when the students come and sitting in their course, the
students’ uncomfortable feeling and tries to avoid the academic activity.
Attitude denotes a
positive or negative predisposition towards schooling and every activity in the
school environment, which could be cognitive, emotional, or behavioral
(Bernstein, Penner, Clarke-Stewar & Roy, 2006). Fazio and Roskes (2004) said
Attitudes are important to education because they strongly influence social thoughts;
the way an individual thinks about and social information. It is evident that,
when so defined, attitudes cannot be directly observed but must be inferred
from overt behavior, both verbal and nonverbal. Most children come to school
ready and willing to learn; how school can best foster and strengthen their
predisposition and ensure that they leave school with the motivation and
capacity to continue learning throughout life has remained a matter of great
concern. Without development of the right attitudes, students may not be well
prepared to acquire the new knowledge and skills necessary for successful
adaptation to changing circumstances and the necessary situation for Students’
performance (Kuusinen & Leskinen, 2008). In school, teachers manage much of
students‘ learning. However, learning might be enhanced if students can manage
it themselves; moreover, once they leave school, individuals have to manage
most of their own learning. To do this, they need to be able to establish
goals, to persevere, to monitor their learning progress, to adjust their
learning strategies as necessary and to overcome difficulties in learning.
Students who leave school with the autonomy to set their own learning goals and
with a sense that they can reach those goals tend to be better equipped to
learn throughout their lives (Candeias, Rebelo, Olivera & Mendes, 2012).
Attitude as a major
factor affecting learning processes, may be implicit hence has not attracted
enough attention from all stakeholders in education and therefore, it is
important to consider the fact that learners can mainly contribute to their
learning outcomes as a result of their belief and perceptions about the subject
matter e.g. whether they like it or not and whether they see any value in it.
Attitudes are seen as more or less positive and encompass emotions, beliefs,
values and behavior and 4 hence affect individual way of thinking, acting and
behaving which has a lot of implications to teaching and learning (Mensah, 2013).
They have a strong effect on behavior which helps in understanding and
predicting peoples’ behavior in a wide range of contexts. Attitudes though not
directly observable are inferred from observable responses and behaviours which
reflect a pattern of beliefs and emotions. They are elicited by certain stimuli
and gradually get established into a consistency or a tendency. A person’s
behaviour and choices when confronted with tasks are determined more by his
beliefs and personal experiences rather than by his knowledge of specific tasks
(Pilippou & Christou, 1998).
Beyond student’s perception
of how well school will prepare them for life, their overall attitude to all
the school-related activities could be important. For some students, school is
central to their daily life. They view schooling as essential to their long
term well-being, and this attitude is reflected in their participation in
academic and non-academic pursuits. The students tend to have good relations
with school staff and with other students when their attitude to school is
positive this will enhance the students’ performance in the school. However, some
students express negative attitude towards school as they do not tend to believe
that the school and student performance will have a strong bearing on their
future. Such negative feelings and attitudes may result in their becoming
disaffected with school (Williams, 2000). They may withdraw from school
activities, and in some cases, participate in disruptive behavior and display
negative attitudes towards teachers and other students. Students’ attitude to
school can be seen as a disposition towards learning, working with others and
functioning in a social institution. It is partly for this reason that the
Pearson Foundation (2014) with the Quaglia Institute for Student Aspiration
identified eight conditions for students to realize academic, social, and
personal performance; and emphasized that attitude towards school, also
referred to as the interest or sense of belonging is the first and most crucial.
It emphasizes self worth, engaged learning and sense of purpose. Attitude is an
important condition for a student's performance in academic, well-being, social
engagement, and competence. Highly positive attitude towards school increases
intrinsic motivation, for it fosters self-confidence and investment in the
community. It is only with positive attitude towards learning that a student
can develop good sense of belonging and engagement in learning process. The
condition of belonging means that a student is a valued member of the school
community while still maintaining his or her uniqueness. It is a relationship
between two or more persons characterized by a sense of connection and support
for individual achievement of self-actualization and advancement in Students’
performance. Attitude towards learning can be, for some students, indicative of
Students’ performance.
Some related studies have been carried out in this
area reveals that there are two main contributing factors to students’ academic
achievement that are psychological and sociological factors. Psychological
factors refer to the internal elements of individual including emotional and
cognitive domains, whereas sociological factors refer to external factors such
as socio-environment and friendship. However, both factors are inter-related
and dependable. Most past studies tended to discuss the subject in a specific
context. For instance, a study of academic achievement carried out by Ariffin
(2007) focused on individual’s learning style and how it affects his/her
students’ performance. Although learning style has a close link with a person’s
personality and intellectual capabilities, the selection of learning styles is
also influenced by environmental factors such as educational support provided
by peers and teachers.
Although previous studies found that there is a
positive relationship between student’s interest in academic subject and its
performance (Arham, Mesir&Mohammad, 2006; Zainudinet. 2007), classroom
environment and their existing knowledge on the particular subjects also play
major roles (Rhoda, 2011). According to Popham (2005), students’ attitudes or
interests should be enormously important to educators, because affective
dispositions are powerful predictors of students’ subsequent behaviour. In a
related study, Erdogan, Bayram, Deniz (2008) found that there is a positive
relationship between students’ attitudes towards modern learning technologies
and their academic achievement. Academic achievement increases with the use of
modern technologies positively. There is a strong association between
individuals’ attitudes towards education and their academic performance and
commitment. Students who have negative attitudes towards education activities
are found to exhibit challenging behaviour including anti-social and off-task
behaviour (Awang, Jindal-Snape & Barber, 2013). Ming, Ling and Jaafar
(2011) found that streaming in education has a close relationship with
students’ academic performance. They also found that students from science classes
are more positive about academic performance compared to other students. It
should be noted that the current study was carried out in Nigeria where most
students are streamed according to their academic achievement. Previous
research revealed that there is a link between academic achievement and
socio-economic status (Ghazali, 2008). Living in poor and slum areas are found
to contribute to the low academic achievement among students. Most low
achievers also are from poor families (Farooq, Chaundhry & Berhanu, 2011).
In the light of the aforementioned relating to
performance of student, this study investigates and analyzes students’ interest
and attitude as predictors of students’ performance among Social studies
secondary school students in Lagos State
1.2 Statement of the problem
The
advancement of “freedom and justice for all” as envisioned by our country’s
founders requires that, citizens have to acquire knowledge, attitudes and
values to guard and endorse the principles of constitutional democracy. The
success of Nigeria’s growth and stability relies strongly on its educational
system. Social studies is a major part of the school’s curriculum because it
explores morals, values and provides students with the ability to understand
the values associated with being a good citizen. The marginalization of social
studies education in schools has been documented repeatedly. For instance, in
the United States, Lawson, (2003) surveyed hundred tenth grade students and
hundred twelfth grade students in order to determine their attitudes towards
the various subject areas. In the study, English, mathematics and reading were
ranked ahead of social studies. Participants described social studies as boring
and far from anything they could relate to in their life. This situation may
result in the poor performance of students in social studies. Adepoju (2002)
and Tella (2008) observed that Social studies have been neglected by the
learners and its content delivery by teachers has been too easy.
The
negative attitude and interest in the subject has created a lot of laxity and
anxiety among students who continue to perform dismally as they lack the
interest, curiosity and patience needed for learning and performing related
tasks concerning to the subject. Studies on students’ performance in Social
Studies have mostly pointed to the fact that student’s Interest and attitude is
a major contributor yet has received very little attention if any. There is
therefore a need to study the effect of student attitudes and interest as is
the integral part of socio-cognitive learning which affects the learning
outcomes (Burstein, 2002). This study would concern itself with a variety of
interest that students harbor and which have potential effects on their
learning processes as would determine their ability and willingness to learn.
Students’ opinions and interest and attitude regarding Social studies, how much
they like it, how important they think it is, what value they attach to it, how
difficult or easy they perceive it is and the future expectations can be understood
as facets of student’s interest and attitudes towards Social Studies and which
determine their success in the subject. The researchers suspect that this
apparent drift may be the result of ineffective teaching and learning of Social
Studies content. This study therefore investigates the interest and attitudes
students in senior secondary School have towards the teaching and learning of
Social Studies as it relates to their performance.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The
main purpose of this study is to assess Interest, attitude and value as
predictors of Student’ performance in Social Studies. The specific purposes are
1. To
ascertain Students’ Interest is a predictor to students’ academic performance
in Social Studies.
2. To
investigate how the students’ attitudes as a predictor that affect their
learning and performance in Social Studies.
3. To
examine the factors influencing student attitudes towards Social Studies.
1.4 Research
Questions
The
following research questions guided this study:
i. Will
interest be a predictor of Junior Secondary School student’s performance in
Social Studies?
ii. Will attitude be a predictor of Junior
Secondary School student’s learning and achievement in Social Studies?
iii. Will
value influence Junior Secondary School students’ attitudes towards Social
Studies?
1.5 Research
Hypotheses
The
following hypotheses are tentatively formulated to be tested during the cause
of this study.
Hypothesis 1
Ho: Interest will not significantly predict
Junior Secondary School students’ performance in Social Studies
H1: Interest will significantly predict Junior
Secondary School students’ performance in Social Studies
Hypothesis 2
Ho: Attitude will not significantly predict
Junior Secondary School students’ learning and achievement in Social Studies
H1: Attitude will significantly predict Junior
Secondary School students’ learning and achievement in Social Studies
1.6 Significance
of the Study
Social
Studies education has been in the middle of reform efforts towards an improved
performance yet this has never been realized. The findings of this study would
help all the interested parties in understanding the factors within the
learners themselves and how the learners ultimately can contribute to their own
learning processes and performance in the subject. The study was to help in
exposing some of the interest and attitude which learners acquire and carry
into the classroom environment and which are of paramount importance to all
stakeholders in education in attempting to improve teaching and learning of the
subject in all schools. The study therefore would provide crucial information
to curriculum planners that will guide in the designing policies and strategies
towards improving performance in the subject.
The
teacher would understand the learners better so as to capture their attention
and change their perceptions and attitude towards the subject. Motivation,
reinforcement and relevant instructional strategies by the teachers, might help
the learners get directions on what is expected. Through this study, the
learners would understand themselves and that their performance in the subject
is a consequence of their interests, attitudes and effort which they can control
for their successful learning and improvement in the subject.
The
school administration would understand what is ailing the subject and would
help in putting up policies towards an enabling learning environment and
providing necessary support and be able to put up mechanisms towards improved
teaching and learning of the subject e.g providing time, space, materials and
moral support. The study would also be useful to other researchers in
supplementing the existing literature on the same study area and would also
provide a rich ground for further research based on the gaps left out by this
study.
1.7
Scope of the Study
The study concentrates on Interest and Attitude as
predictors of students' performance in Social Studies in secondary school with
a particularly reference to Lagos State. Some of the public and private schools
will be sampled in Lagos State.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
Wide research of this nature cannot be carried out
without some constrains. The constrains that are envisaged to pose limitation
to this research work include; shortage of time, lack of finance,
uncooperative respondents, non-knowledgeable respondents, respondents’ bias in
answering questions, inaccessibility to information termed confidential,
inaccessibility of respondents and no response from some respondents.
1.9
Operational Definition of Terms
Interest: The feeling
of wanting
to give your attention
to something or of wanting
to be involved
with and to discover
more about something
Attitude: A feeling
or opinion
about something or someone, or a way of behaving
that is caused by
this.
Value: The amount of
interest that can be received
for something
Performance: How well a student does a piece of work or an activity
Achievement: Something very good and difficult
that you have succeeded
in doing
Predictor: A variable
that determines the effect or event of a happening
Social Studies: A part of Junior Secondary school curriculum
concerned with the study of social
relationships and the functioning of society and usually made up of courses in
history, government, economics, civics, sociology, geography, and anthropology.
Click “DOWNLOAD NOW” below to get the complete Projects
FOR QUICK HELP CHAT WITH US NOW!
+(234) 0814 780 1594
Login To Comment