Investigating Students' Preferred Instructional Methods for Teaching Social Studies in a Selected Senior High School in Afadzato South District, Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify students' preferred instructional methods for teaching Social Studies in a selected Senior High School in Afadzato South District of Ghana. This study employed a concurrent triangulation mixed-method strategy. A multi-stage sampling strategy was used to select 78 form three students. Purposive sampling was used to select 3 Social Studies teachers. Self-developed observation and interview guides were used in collecting the data. Self-developed questionnaires were also used in collecting data from only students. However, both teachers and students participated in the study through the interview and classroom observation in order to ascertain an in depth understanding of students' responses to the questionnaires. Validity and reliability were established by piloting the research instruments in one of the senior high schools in Afadzato South District. Besides, the research instruments were given to other colleague researchers to review before the final data were collected. Also, concepts were explained to students for clarity before responding to the questions. The study's findings revealed that students prefer to learn and be taught Social Studies in a variety of ways. Students also prefer learner-centred strategies to teacher-centred methods. It was concluded that Social Studies objectives will be attained via students' preferred methods of instruction. The study recommended that teachers must alternate their teaching methods to meet students' preferences, to enable them to develop positive responses to Social Studies in order to have a vibrant Social Studies programme, with students actively involved in achieving the objectives of Social Studies.

Teaching Citizenship Education in Ghana Basic Schools: The Quest to Achieve Patriotism and Democracy

“…Ghana currently suffers from flaws in its rule of law, judicial corruption, corrupt acts that saddle government performance, illiberal practices like monetised politics, political vigilantism, electoral violence, vote-buying, political violence, and lack of punishment for culprits who are politically connected (Freedom House 2021). The alarming rate of social vices has provided awareness of the need for Ghana's education system to strengthen its citizenship education to be centred on supporting educational changes (Zengulaaru and Nyamekye 2022). This has also been emphasised in some Ghana newspapers (Boadu 2016;Daily Graphic, 16 November 2008;Ghanaian Times, 7 June 2009).…”

“…It identifies the strategies that need to be adopted to improve the teaching of citizenship education. Moreover, other essential challenges that militate against the teaching of citizenship education have been overlooked (Zengulaaru and Nyamekye 2022). The current study sought to fill these gaps.…”

An experimental study on the influence of instructional mobile applications in enhancing listening comprehension of rural students in India

“…Thus, it is important to provide students adequate time to develop their listening skills in the classroom and promote self-learning (Hamid and Idrus, 2021). Many rural colleges are still using traditional teaching methods such as chalk and talk and textbook instruction methods and they are hindering the holistic development of students (Zengulaaru and Nyamekye, 2023). Language labs and software initialization are often expensive, so the institutions do not implement these, and thus the students have less chance to access and familiarize themselves with effective sources.…”