Awareness and Attitude of Social Studies Teachers on the Use of Social Studies Apps for Teaching

Abstract

This study aimed at assessing the awareness and attitude of social studies teachers on the use of social studies apps for enhancing students learning. It is a descriptive survey with a population of fifty social studies teachers from twenty-two public secondary schools in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State. The entire population was used as the sample for this study. A total of five objectives, five research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The Instrument used for data collection was a 52-item questionnaire titled: “Teachers’ Awareness, Attitude and Perception Toward the Use of Social Studies App (TAAPTUSSA)”. The reliability of the questionnaire was estimated using the Cronbach Alpha method of internal consistency with an overall reliability coefficient of 0.83. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while an independent sample t-test was used to analyze hypotheses one and two, and Pearson Product Moment correlation (PPMC) was used to analyze hypothesis three. Findings revealed that Social Studies teachers are not very conversant with social studies apps, but the teachers have a positive attitude towards utilizing social studies apps for teaching. A positive but weak correlation exists between social studies teachers’ awareness level and their attitude toward the use of social studies apps. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the Rivers State Government should organize seminars to raise the level of awareness of social studies teachers on the existence of apps that can be used for teaching the subject. Workshops should also be organized by the Government to assist these teachers to learn how to use these apps. Above all, social studies teachers should develop a positive attitude towards the use of social studies apps in the classroom. There seemed to be a scarcity of studies covering all the variables in the study area; this study could therefore be regarded as one of the first in the study area to demonstrate empirically that the adoption of social studies apps can be used to enhance students’ learning.