Teaching and learning strategies used in social studies in Kipipiri Sub-County primary schools, Kenya an analysis from a constructivist perspective

Abstract

Social studies is one of the disciplines in the primary school curriculum in Kenya. It aims at equipping learners with unique knowledge and skills that would enable them to lead successful lives and be in harmony with their environment. Primary school learners in Kenya have been performing poorly in social studies at the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) national examinations. The factors that have been attributed to the learners’ dismal performance in the discipline include; inadequate facilities in the schools like textbooks and lack of adequate qualified teachers, learners’ and teachers’ negative attitudes towards the discipline, lack of role models and use of poor instructional methods. However, many studies fail to take into account one very important variable; what characterizes effective teaching and learning of social studies. This calls for continuous search for effective teaching strategies such as the use of active teaching and learning strategies. This study analyzed the teaching and learning strategies used in the teaching of social studies at the primary school level from a constructivist perspective. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The target population of the study was all social studies teachers in public primary schools in Kipipiri sub-county in Nandarua county. The accessible population was all social studies teachers teaching in upper primary classes in Kipipiri sub-county. Proportional random sampling technique was used to obtain a sample of 125 upper primary social studies teachers who were drawn from 42 primary schools out of 60 public primary schools in the three divisions of Kipipiri sub-county. Data was collected with the help of Social Studies Teachers’ Questionnaire (SSTQ) and Social Studies Lesson Observation Schedule (SSLOS). Five experts in educational research drawn from the Faculty of Education and Community Studies, Egerton University validated the instruments. Piloting was carried out in three primary schools in Kipipiri sub-county. The pilot schools did not participate in the main study. Reliability of SSTQ and SSLOS were estimated using Cronbach alpha coefficient. The SSTQ and SSLOS yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.77 and 0.84 respectively which were above the recommended threshold of 0.7. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics (frequencies percentages and mean) with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The Findings of this study indicate that social studies teachers rarely use active teaching and learning strategies. The study also found that teacher training, teachers’ guides, teachers’ workload, learners’ needs and interests and teacher’s preference, are among the factors that determine a teacher’s selection of teaching and learning strategies. The findings further reveal that class size, content of the textbooks, nature of the topic, age and level of the learner, time availability, and ability of the learners are among the factors that determine a teacher’s application of teaching and learning strategies. These findings would be useful to learners and teachers in identifying strategies which enhances the learning of social studies. Policy makers, curriculum developers, educational officers and teacher training institutions would benefit in one way or another from this study especially while deciding on the appropriate teaching and learning strategies to employ in order to improve the quality of education. The Ministry of Education should organise regular in-service training and workshops for teachers on selection and application of active teaching and learning strategies.