AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND VALUES OF TEACHING SOCIAL SCIENCES

AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND VALUES OF TEACHING SOCIAL SCIENCES

             Social science is a major category of academic discipline, concerned with society and the relationship among individuals within a society. It has many branches, each of which is considered as ‘social science subject’. The main subjects of social sciences included Economics, Political Science, Geography, History and Sociology. The teaching of social sciences has many aims. It has given as follows;

General aims

·         Acquiring knowledge

·         The development of reasoning power and critical judgment

·         Training in independent study

·         Formulation of habits and skills

·         Training in desirable patterns of conduct

·         Develop the National Integration and Patriotic sense

·         International Understanding

Aims of teaching SS at secondary stage

        Secondary stage students are adolescence. It is considered ‘problem age’. So teaching of social science to them is very important. The main aims of teaching social sciences in the secondary stage are given as;

·         Inculcating social values, personal values, constitutional values…

·         Makes responsible citizenship

·         Citizenship training

·         Develop awareness of national integration and international understanding

·         Socialization

·         Develop peace of mind

·         Recognition of Social-familial-personal responsibilities

·         Cultural preservation, transmission and transformation.

Objectives of teaching History, Geography, Economics and Political Science

History:

·         To inculcate attitudes of historical-mindedness, scientific temper and such other attitudes as will aid in training for citizenship

·         To develop cultural interest

·         To accumulate certain definite knowledge of the past

·         To attain noble ideals  and high concepts of loyal to one’s self and to one’s fellow men by teaching the elements of civilization in the past

·         To develop the close relationship of humanity with nature and human development from time o time

Geography:

·         To identify the varieties in the distribution of physical and economic phenomena over the surface of the earth

·         To analyze the way of life of the people all over the world

·         To develop an appreciation of interdependence of various geographical regions

·         To develop understanding of the close relationship of human beings with the geography, where the live

Economics:

·         To know modern economic principles by observation and through understanding of current practices

·         To apply sound economic theories to everyday life

·         To develop a thorough appreciation of economic problems and a clear insight by the pupil into the social and economic environment

Political science:

·         To provide the information about social arrangement to maintain peace and order

·         To develop democratic values

·         To make ability to analyze political system and behavior

·         To develop awareness of individuals on the relationship of human existence with the political life they have

Conceptual, inquiry, skill and affective objectives of social science

              Objectives of the social science range from broad goals for the total program  to specific instructional objectives in teaching plans. The four main types are;

Conceptual:

              Conceptual outcomes are being defined in terms of concepts, themes and generalizations they may be developed in the social science.

·         To identify the roles, interaction and interdependence of individuals at home, in the community in state and nation

·         Functions of such institutions

·         Contribution of men and groups to changing cultural heritage

·         Environmental problems and concerns, causes and effects of pollution and steps to ensure environment

Inquiry:

             To develop competence in using modes, methods and processes of inquiry, including the ability to:

·         Use such inquiry processes as recalling, observing, comparing, classifying, interpreting, defining, generalizing, synthesizing, inferring, predicting, hypothesizing and evaluating.

·         Make plans for investigating topics and problems, collecting data, organizing and processing data, deriving conclusions and assessing outcomes and procedures of inquiry.

Skills:

·         Social skill

·         Study skill and work habits

·         Group work skills

·         Intellectual skills

Affective:

        To identify, describe and demonstrate in individual behavior and group activities, values and feelings of individuals who are possessing such qualities like open mind, responsible…..

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

                The word Taxonomy has derived from the Greek word Taxis which means a system of classification. Bloom and his associates set up following three domains of educational objectives.

Cognitive domain:

                    It is concerned with the intellectual aspect of internal process or cognition. The different categories of instructional objectives in this domain are;

·         Knowledge: related with the acquisition of different types of information received by the learner as part of instruction

·         Comprehension: result of mental process of the learner which enables to transform the different forms of information acquired to a more comprehensive format

·         Application: the learner applies knowledge that has been acquired and comprehended into new and similar situations.

·         Analysis: it is an intellectual process by which the learner is able to analyze the acquired comprehended and applied knowledge into its constituent parts or elements

·         Synthesis: the mental ability of the learner to integrate the acquired, comprehended, applied and analyzed knowledge information to a comprehensive whole

·         Evaluation: Judgment  about a value of a material and methods for given purposes

Affective domain:

           Objectives which emphasize feelings, emotion …… The different categories of instructional objectives in this domain are;

·         Receiving: awareness, willingness to respond and attention

·         Responding: acquaintance in responding, willingness to respond and satisfaction in response

·         Valuing: acceptance of value, performance for a value, commitment…

·         Organizations: conceptualization of value, organization of value system

·         Characterization: generalized set

Psycho-motor domain:

              Related with purposive actions. The different categories of instructional objectives in this domain are;

·         Perception: sensory simulation

·         Set: mental and physical readiness

·         Guided Reponses: overt behavioral act of an individual under the guidance of the instructor

·         Mechanism: micro analysis in which each step is properly examined

·         Complex overt response

·         Adaptation

Specification: The specified overt behavior of learner is called specification

Revised Boom’s taxonomy

                      RBT was developed by Anderson and Krathwohl. Bloom’s taxonomy is based on objective based learning while RBT is based on learning of process or content. RBT is based on knowledge dimension (factual, conceptual and Meta cognitive) and process dimension (procedural acquisition of knowledge).

In each knowledge dimension learning can be taken place through six procedures. They are:

·         Remembering

·         Understanding

·         Applying

·         Analyzing

·         Evaluating

·         Creating

Features:

·         Based process based learning

·         The procedural dimensions are titled in action verb

·         The level synthesis is avoided

·         The highest level is creating

Values of teaching SS

Social science teaching aims at developing values among students. The values to develop have common behavior, regional behavior, cultural behavior and so on.

·         Social sensibility

·         Acquires social experiences

·         Develop Problem solving ability

·         Co-operative thinking

·         Helping mentality

·         Adjustability

·         Personal values

·         Thinking and reasoning

·         Integrated thinking

·         Democratic sense

·         Secular sense

·         Patriotic sense