Education

Social studies has become an important subject in the curricula of our primary and junior secondary school systems. At these levels of our educational system, it is now a core subject which every pupil is compelled to offer. At the senior secondary level it is an elective subject.

What many teachers , especially those not specifically trained for the subject failed to realize, however, is that social studies is different from the more familiar traditional subjects like geography, history, religious studies, etc. It differs in scope and structure, as well as in certain of the specialized strategies required to teach it effectively. For a social studies teacher to handle the subject effectively, a certain degree of competence ought to be developed. The fundamental aim of this course, therefore, is to train teachers to develop this competence.

This course is to expose would-be-teachers to teaching and classroom management skills

In the real classroom situation, students come in with diverse backgrounds and educational needs, they possess varied learning styles, applying just one method of teaching usually excludes many of the students in effectively learning, However, with the use of resources and instructional media, the varieties in the classroom situation can be catered for. Therefore, there is the need for the teacher to be acquainted with which resources are applicable for which subjects, learning style, special educational needs and so on. This course therefore exposes students to the variety of instructional resources available to cater for different learning styles, student background and subject matter. Students would be able to appreciate the media types through a study of the characteristics of the various media.