An Investigation of History Teaching in Ethiopian Senior Secondary Schools: Historical Perspective and Current StatuB
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Date
1992-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study was conducted to investigate the teaching of
history with respect to four associated problema, viz., the
basic reasoning for the placement of history in the senior
secondary school curriculum, the practices and processes o£
syllabus development, the teaching strategies, methods and
techniques, and the teaching materials used both in t he past
and the present. To this end both historical and descriptive survey
research techniques were employed. The historical
research attempted to investigate what happened and why it
happened in a definite chronological period. It indicated
trends, de~elo-pments, phases_lor p.arspec_LLves o£_ past--h..ist-ory_
teaching in Ethiopian senior secondary schools. Main findings
of the historical study were: (i) The inclusion of history in
the senior secondary school curriculum was a concomitant
development with the beginning of secondary education in the
country; <ii) At the earlier stage the history syllabi were
solely constructed by subject specialists; (iii) Before 1963
the teaching of history was not aimed at enabling students to
know something about their own country; (iv) except the 1967
syllabus, all other syllabi reflected the traditional view of
history teaching; the objectives of the syllabi were the
acquisition of knowledge; the view of history reckoned that
studente shou ld learn history to know about the past and
history teach1nq emphasized on the transmission of
information.
The descriptive-survey research attempted to descr1be the
present status of history teaching, ~ith particular reference
to the senior secondary schoole of Addis Ababa. The findings
of thie descriptive study are mostly reflective of the
situation in these schools . The descriptive-survey derived
data from a questionnaire, interviews and a classroom
observation. The data obtained from the questionnaire were
tabulated and presented in tables expressed in numbers and
percentages. The views of the interviewees were used to
substantiate the interpretation, analysis and the discussion
wherever deemed necessary. The frequencies of the categories
embodied in the observation schedule were expressed as average
lesson percentages. To determine variation among the observed
teachers in using the categories, a two-way analysis of
variance (teacher by visit) was carried out. Main findings of
the descriptive-survey research were : i) Schoo l administrators
and principals seem to hold an assumption that anyone who
could read and understand what is presented in the textbook
could teach history; i i) There is a high level of
dissatisfaction among history teachers with the quality of the
current educational proviBions; iii) history teaching is
highly te~tbook oriented; iv) the size of the hi story
classroom i8 found to be big. A large-group instruction with
e~poeitory teach1ng strategy predominates the history
classroom. There ls no significant difference among teachers
Description
Keywords
An Inveatigation o£ Hiatory Teaching In Ethiopian