Browsing by Author "Endalamaw, Getachew"

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    An Evaluation of the Implementation of the Lower Primary School Social Studies Syllabus: The Case of North Shewa Administrative Zone
    (Addis Ababa University, 1994-06) Endalamaw, Getachew; Bekele, Abebe (PhD)
    The test of a curriculum plan is ascertained through a thorough inquiry into its practicality and ultimate worth. In view of this, the purpose of this study is to evaluate tbe implementation of the lower primary school social studies syllabus and to identify the outcome as well as problems encountered in translating it into practice. To this effect, fifteen primary schools were se lected as sources of information from tbe five Provinces of North Shewa Administrative Zone. Within tbese schools all social studies teachers of the lower primary grades which are forty-two in number, the school directors, the SPC Coordinators, and a tOlal of 1445 students were taken as actual sources of info rmation. In addition, the school inspectors and the APC Coordinators of the fi,'e Provinces were also included as informants of the study. Questionnaire, interview, classroom observation, and achievement tests were the data collection instrume nts used to obtain information from the sources. The results of the study in (licate that there are a considerable proportion of teachers who are assigned to teach social studies in the lower primary grades without their interest. The specifications of the syllabus are not also implemented in full. Most of the lessons are conducted wi thou t making any reference to the particular geohistorical conditions of the District, Province, or Administrative Zone in which the children are brought up. Though the dominantly used teaching strategy in the classrooms is the inquiry-oriented approach, there is a failure on the part of teachers to give appropriate guidance to the students as to how to proceed through this approach. Even though the School Pedagogical Centres have attempted to prepare and collect teaching aids relevant for the subject under study and the teachers are not overloaded with teaching duties, it is hard to say that there is a complete conducive teaching-learning atmosphere in the schools for the implementation of the syllabus. Ill-equipped classrooms with some of the necessary furniture, inavailability of Teacher's Guide in some of the schools, the existence of some less concerned school directors about the instructional problems of teachers are the prominent problems identified in the schools. Consequently, the implementation process of the Syllabus is not as effective as it should be in enabling learne rs to have mastery of the subject matter. Particularly, in grades two :1nd three the majority of the students have not attained the instructional objectives indicating the ineffectiveness of the implementation process. Moreover, disparity in the attainment of some of the instructional objectives is noted among the provinces pointing out the existence of differences in the relative emphasis given to the implementation of the specifications of the syllabus.