Ghanaian teacher trainees’ perception of the official Social Studies curriculum and the resources available for its implementation

Abstract

This paper examines teacher trainees' perception of the nature, usefulness and adequacy of the official Social Studies curriculum prescribed by the syllabus issued by the Teacher Education Division of the Ghana Education Service. Using simple random sampling and stratified sampling methods, a sample of 233 students was selected from six Teacher Training Colleges in the Ashanti Region. A questionnaire consisting of mostly Likert-type items was used; and trainees were made to indicate the extent to which they agreed with the statements about the official Social Studies curriculum and the resources available for its implementation. The results show that over 90% of the trainees agreed the objectives of he social studies curriculum are valid and very necessary for the programme; they were very much aware that the purpose of Social Studies education is to train them to teach at the basic level; and agreed that the subject equips them with skills to teach at the basic level. On the content of Social Studies, the trainees agreed tremendously about its relevance. They were however undecided about the limitless scope of the subject which makes it uncomfortable to learn. The trainees also showed a high level of agreement with the need for a Social Studies room with materials like globes, charts, bulletin boards; and demonstrated grave disagreement with the adequacy of Social Studies textbooks and other reference materials.