Teachers Perception of the Use of Drama for Teaching Social Studies in Primary Schools in Owerri Municipal Council Area of Imo State

Teachers Perception of the Use of Drama for Teaching Social Studies in Primary Schools in Owerri Municipal Council Area of Imo State.

ABSTRACT  

The study examined teachers’ perception of the use of drama for teaching of Social Studies in primary schools in Owerri Municipal Council Area of Imo State. To achieve the purpose of the study, seven research questions were posed and two null hypotheses were formulated. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The population for the study comprised two hundred and eight four (465) primary school teachers in twenty-five primary schools in Owerri municipal area council of Imo State.

Stratified random sampling technique was used to sample 327 primary school teachers. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire titled “Teachers’ Perception Questionnaire” (TPQ). The instrument was trial tested to determine the reliability using primary school teachers in Nsukka education zone of Enugu State, and reliability coefficient of 0.93was obtained. The data collected for the study were analyzed using means and standard deviations to answer the research questions while t-test and analysis of variance were used to test the formulated hypotheses 0.05 level of significance.

The findings have some implication for students, teachers, parents, ministry of education. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that drama method should be frequently used in teaching pupils at primary school level and physical conditions in classrooms should be improved in order to accommodate drama activities. However, implications of the study, limitations as well as suggestion for further studies were also highlighted. 

INTRODUCTION  

The importance of education to human beings cannot be overemphasized. Globally, education is considered as a human right that should be accorded to all human beings and that accounts for why a lot of international human right bodies consider education as a fundamental human right. Education is regarded, globally, as a potent instrument for introducing and sustaining social change in human societies, as well as shaping its destiny (Ifenkwe, 2013).

Apart from serving as a vehicle for enhancing upward social and economic mobility, education is regarded as a key to social reconstruction and an instrument for conserving, transmitting and renewing culture. These are requisites for social integration, performance of productive tasks, and for effecting national development (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004). In realization of the important role which education plays as an agent of national development and globalization, there has been agitation for more functional and qualitative education all over the world (Alaba, 2010).

This agitation and concern for quality education is reflected in the inauguration of Education for All (EFA) in Jomtien (Thailand) in 1990 and Dakar in 2000. This was followed by a meeting convened by the 56th General Assembly of the United Nations to discuss the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Operationally, education is a gradual and systematic way of acquiring knowledge to actualize one’s desired goal.

Though there are divergent systems of education in developed and developing countries of the world, education delivery come in stages which include pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary stages. For example, education in Nigeria is based on a system which involves three levels of institutional learning processes, the primary school, the secondary school level and the tertiary levels. Primary education is very important in the Nigerian education system as the first stage of compulsory education. 

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StudentsandScholarship Team.