RESEARCH IN SOCIAL SCIENCE EDUCATION A TREND REPORT : E.G. VEDANAYAGAM
INTRODUCTION Social Science is a generic term that envelops a body of knowledge and thought relating to human affairs, human activities, human interactions and relationships and human responses to environments. It utilizes the scientific method for investigation and research. The purpose of the social sciences is to discover truths concerning the various relationships of human being within a societal set-up that would contribute to the promotion of social unity and social utility and deepen and extend knowledge about the subject matter of the com- ponent disciplines. The generally accepted group of disciplines that is classified as social science includes history, geography, social studies, economics, political science, anthropology and sociology. These disciplines represent man's historical records, his habitat and the interrelationship of his activities with the environment, his understanding of the world in which he lives, the political structure, the society, man's subsistence and social organisation.
At university and collegiate levels, the disciplines that come under 'social sciences' are offered as separate fields of specialization and there are very few universities that offer courses in the discipline of social science as such, at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The disciplines that are grouped under 'social sciences', specially history, geography and civics, have been included as school subjects for several years, perhaps over a century or so now. A more recent addition has been the subject social studies which has divergent approaches in its presentation. In one approach in several school systems in India, the subject, social studies, is a combination of history, geography and civics with a tinge of economics, but these are taught as separate subjects under the umbrella of 'social studies'. Another approach stresses the integration of all the subjects, as they should be, and where the individual entity of each of the subjects is submerged and what emerges is a composite instructional process which develops in students a wholesome attitude to social living. From the researches that have been carried out in the area of social studies it is evident that both these approaches are followed in schools, based on the type of approach indicated in the curriculum of the schools in the different states.
RESEARCH IN SOCIAL SCIENCE EDUCATION The research studies at the doctoral and institutional levels in the area of Social Sciences Education that are reviewed in this Fourth Survey of Research in Education relate to the different dimensions of education in social science disciplines such as history, geography, social studies, population, commerce, civics, home science, music and social science per se, the emphasis being on teaching, curriculum and evaluation aspects of social science subjects rather than on the content of the disciplines. In the three earlier Surveys of Research in Education (Buch 1974, 1979, 1986) studies pertaining to social science disciplines were classified under different heads such as curriculum, methods, textbooks, educational evaluation and examination, etc. In this Fourth Survey, a separate chapter on Social Science Education has been added, thus stressing the need to consider studies relating to the education aspect of social sciences as a
RESEARCH IN SOCIAL SCIENCE EDUCATION-A TREND REPORT 675
separate subject in itself. The 23 Ph.D. theses and institutional projects covered by this Fourth Survey have been clubbed with the 46 studies and projects covered in the three earlier survey reports for presenting this trend report on social science education.
DISCIPLINE-WISE AND SURVEY-WISE DISTRIBUTION OF STUDIES An analysis of the total number of studies in social science education (Vide Table 13. 1) reveals that the discipline that contributes to the highest number of studies is geography education (29 per cent); history education (17 per cent) and population education (13 per cent) are next in order. The other five disciplines, namely, commerce education, civics education, home science education, music education and social science education, contribute about 18 per cent of the studies. It is disappointing to note that only one study has been conducted in social science education itself.
Considering the 23 studies presented in this Fourth Survey of Research in Education, population education tops the list with 30 per cent of the studies, the second being geography (25 per cent). Commerce education, history and social studies education contribute 12.5 per cent each with only a single study in music education. It is interesting to note that the comparatively recent addition to the list of social science education subjects, population education, has contributed the highest number of studies during the past six years.
Table 13.1
DISCIPLINE-WISE AND SURVEY-WISE DISTRIBUTION OF STUDIES
Prior to 1972 to 1979 1984
1972 1978 to to Total
1983 1988
Social Sciences S1 S2 S3 S4
1 Geography Education 4 6 3 6 19
2 Social Studies Education 7 2 4 3 16
3 History Education4 4 1 4 3 12
4 Population Education - 1 1 7 9
5 Commerce Education - 1 2 3 6
6 Home Science Education - 1 1 - 2
7 Civics Education 1 - 1 - 2
8 Music Education - - 1 1 2
9 Social Science Education - - 1 - 1
16 12 18 23 69
S1, S2, S3, S4, indicate the four Surveys of Research in Education.
DISCIPLINE-WISE AND DIMENSION-WISE DISTRIBUTION OF STUDIES Each one of the 69 studies dwells on more than one aspect of the concerned discipline. Taking into consideration the different aspects/dimensions stressed by the research studies, the following classification has been arrived at to group the studies under eight dimensions-teaching and models of teaching, educational technology, curriculum, textbooks, tests and measurements, examination and evaluation, interests and attitude, and aptitude (see Table 13.2). The dimension, teaching, has attracted many researchers and a total of 21 studies (31 per cent) have been carried out, representing all the disciplines except civics. Social studies education which has con- tributed the most research on curriculum, educational technology and examination is fairly spread out among the disciplines. Aptitude studies are not popular among researchers of social science education. Geography education and history education have studies distributed in seven dimensions and commerce education has at least one study in each of the
Table 13.2
DISCIPLINE-WISE AND DIMENSION-WISE DISTRIBUTION OF STUDIES
Social
Science
Education
Disciplines
Geography Ed. 6 5 1 3 3 - - - 1* 19
Social
Studies Ed. 9 - 2 1 2 2 - - - 16
History Ed. 2 1 1 3 2 2 - 1 - 12
Population Ed. 1 2 3 - - 1 - 2 - 9
Commerce Ed. 1 1 2 - - 1 - 1 - 6
Home
Science Ed. - 1 1 - - - - - - -
Civics
Education - - - - 2 - - - - 2
Music
Education 1 - 1 - - - - - - 2
Social Science
Education 1 - - - - - - - - 1
TOTAL 21 10 11 7 9 6 - 4 1* 69
*Represents the single study of social science education.
676 E.G. VEDANAYAGAM
six dimensions represented by it. There is great need for more studies in the disciplines of social science education, music education, civics education and home science education.
DISCIPLINE-WISE AND UNIVERSITY-WISE DISTRIBUTION OF STUDIES More research studies in social studies education were undertaken by university departments than by other institutions, the universities being credited with 75 per cent of the total studies (see Table 13.3). The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda leads with 11 studies, followed by Banaras Hindu University with six studies. The M.S. University studies cover six out of the eight dimensions of social sciences education. Banaras Hindu University has also covered six disciplines, with one study in each of them. Sardar Patel University has five studies and Calcutta and South Gujarat contributed three studies each. The remaining 17 universities have contributed only one or two studies each. A total of 17 studies were the output of 14 institutions such as State Institutes of Education, Colleges of Education, SCERTs, NCERT, etc. There is a conspicuous lack of interest and initiative on the part of university departments for research in teaching of subject like commerce, population, music and social science. From Table 13.3, it is evident that geography education and social studies education draw the attention of the maximum number of researchers and research scholars are fairly interested in history education too. Interest and attention have to be focused on other disciplines as well.
TEACHING METHODOLOGY AND MODELS OF TEACHING The studies under this head are as many as 21 (33 per cent) out of the 69 studies reviewed in the four surveys so far. Among these, social studies education tops the list with nine studies, followed by geography education with six studies. In other disciplines there were only one study in each subject (except history with two). Civics and home science had none.
Studies on the present position of teaching geography in secondary schools carried out by Jani (1987) in Gujarat, Patil (1985) in Solapur and Khan (1985) in Bangladesh indicate that most of teachers of geography were not fully qualified to handle the subject in terms of a degree in geography and/or professional training in methodology and, therefore, mostly, the lecture method in teaching was adopted by them. Audio-visual teaching and learning aids, including maps, were not considered necessary and were not used in class. The situation was similar in respect of library and museum facilities. Field trips and excursions found limited usage in both urban and rural schools. The problems the teachers faced related to lack of needed facilities and the required knowledge to teach the subject. An important suggestion advocated by the researchers to solve the problems of the teachers appears to be the organization of in-service programmes in both content and methodology. However, Patel (1985) reports in his study that, in spite of the problem faced, 74 per cent of the students passed in the annual examination in geography.
Two studies, that of D'Souza (1971) and Ponkshe (1983) deal with the geography concepts and approaches to develop skill in teaching geographic concepts effectively. These represent a welcome trend towards a
Table 13.3
UNIVERSITY-WISE AND DISCIPLINE-WISE DISTRIBUTION OF STUDIES
Universities
1 MSU 1 4 1 1 1 2 - - - 10
2 BHU 1 1 1 1 - - 1 - 1 6
3 SPU 2 1 1 - 1 - - - - 5
4 SGU - - - 3 - - - - - 3
5 CAL 2 - - - 1 - - - - 3
6 BOM 1 - - 1 - - - - - 2
7 DEL 1 - 1 - - - - - - 2
8 Jammu - - 1 - - - - 1 - 2
9 KER - - 1 - - - - 1 - 2
10 KUR 1 1 - - - - - - - 2
11 MEE 2 - - - - - - - - 2
12 RAJ - - - - 2 - - - - 2
13 SU 1 - 1 - - - - - - 2
14 Anna - - 1 - - - - - - 1
15 Avadh 1 - - - - - - - - 1
16 Bihar - - 1 - - - - - - 1
17 GOR 1 - - - - - - - - 1
18 HPU - 1 - - - - - - - 1
19 LUC - 1 - - - - - - - 1
20 Madras - 1 - - - - - - - 1
21 Poona 1 - - - - - - - - 1
22 Vikram - - - - - - 1 - - 1
14 Other
Institutions 4 6 3 3 1 - - - - 17
19 16 12 9 6 2 2 2 1 69
RESEARCH IN SOCIAL SCIENCE EDUCATION- A TREND REPORT 677
cognitive approach to the teaching of geography. There is great need first to identify the different geographical concepts and then develop suitable learning experiences in the teaching of regional and general geography. The researchers are of the opinion that some of the problems faced by the teachers (as indicated in the previous paragraph) stand in the way of concept development.
An interesting attempt has been made by Bhattacharya (1984) through his study on the effectiveness of the Concept Attainment Model and Inductive Model for teaching geography. His finding is that the models of teaching approach results in better achievement in geography even in average and low-resource-status educational institutions.
There are only two studies, that of Patel (1984) and Ingole (1985), relating to the teaching of history. The sample of teachers for Patel was from Gujarat and he found that teachers of secondary schools adopted storytelling methods, lectures with questions, and assignment approaches. More than fifty per cent of the teachers read periodicals, prepared teaching aids, visited historical places and read historical dramas and novels. Most of the schools gave 20 per cent weightage to internal assignments. Ingole's sample from Solapur district indicates that undergraduate history teachers failed to create a time-sense while teaching history. Narration was the most popular method of teaching history. Teachers mainly used graphic teaching aids, and other aids were rarely considered. The percentage of student passing history was found to be very high.
The discipline of social studies education has as many as nine studies. relating to teaching the subject. Srivatsava (1969) and Narayanaswami (1960) conducted their studies in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu respectively. Srivatsava assessed the achievement of stu- dents of social studies with regard to developing certain democratic understanding, attitudes and abilities and found that these students were superior to their counterparts who had not studied social studies in respect of the democratic aspects. Narayanaswami's study reveals that the teaching of social studies is not up to the mark in terms of techniques adopted, teaching aids used, facilities provided and examinations conducted.
Veerkar (1980) and Khushdil (1960) have investigated the integrated approach in the teaching of social studies. Khushdil compared integrated and traditional methods of approach and his findings indicate that in respect of assimilation and acquisition of knowledge, the integrated method was better. The introduction of the integrated approach depended on the teacher, his mental and professional calibre, and his attitude towards his institution. Veerkar (1980) studied the effect of the integrated approach to the teaching of social studies at primary school level. Kumar (1982) compared the questioning pattern of teachers of science and of social studies. Jangira et al (1981) dealt with the structure of classroom questions. The GCPI (1981) had an interesting study on the errors committed by examiners in valuing a map question at high school stage.
Pandey's (1986) experimental study involved two groups, one taught social studies using the Advance Organizer Model and the other the Inquiry Training Model. Their effectiveness was compared with that of a conventional approach. The findings indicated that the treatments had different effects on the pupils' achievement.
The effectiveness of a conventional, radio-vision and modular approach in improving achievement of students in social studies was researched by Dhamija (1985). The high intelligent students scored high marks in geography when taught through the radio-vision approach, civics through the modular approach and history through the conventional method. The high scores included marks for both knowledge and comprehension.
The academic causes of backwardness in social studies at the elementary level was considered by Lulla (1966) and others. These were related to defects in the curriculum, teaching material, teachers and teaching methods and administration of examinations. There is a single study by Mishra (1985) on population education in which the materials developed by the SCERT, Orissa, have been tried out on urban and rural schools. It was found that the materials were effective in increasing the total awareness of the students regarding population problems.
Dasgupta (1987) has conducted an experimental study on the teaching of school economics by two approaches-the Personalised System of instruction (PSI) and conventional lesson plan (CLP). The findings indicate that there is no significant difference in the mean achievement of the students nor in their attitude towards population education. In terms of retention, the PSI group scored significantly more than the CLP group. In the area of social sciences, Rai (1982) has made an attempt to study the objectives, courses and methods of teaching followed at the undergraduate level. Music education has a single study by Rani (1979) on the teaching of musically gifted girls at the school