Teachers’ Perception of the Effectiveness of Methods of Teaching Social Studies in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study sampled the perception of secondary school teachers on the effectiveness of various methods used toteach Social Studies in secondary schools. It also examined the methods that facilitate learning more, the methodcommonly used by male and female teachers and also by qualified and non-qualified teachers.The populationconsisted of all secondary school teachers in Ekiti State and the sample comprises of 320 teachers who responded toa questionnaire designed by the researcher to express their opinion on the subject matter. Simple random samplingwas used to select ten teachers from each school sampled. The validity of the instrument was ensured by experts inSocial Studies and Educational Management.The reliability of the instrument was ascertained through test-re-testmethod and the reliability coefficient of 0.81 was obtained.One research question was raised and three hypothesesformulated were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The data collected were analysed using Kendall’ Rank OrderCorrelation and t-test statistical tools. The study revealed that teachers perceived problem-solving as the best methodand note-dictation as the least effective method of teaching Social Studies. It was discovered that teachers aresignificantly related in their perception of the effectiveness of methods of teaching Social Studies. It also showedthatmale and female teachers are related in the methods used but the methods used by qualified teachers are differentfrom those used by non-qualified teachers. It was therefore recommended that more qualified teachers should beemployed to improve the quality of teaching in schools.