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
Patriotic sense
