ASSESSMENT OF SOCIAL ATTITUDES AND VALUES AS TOOLS FOR CITIZENSHIP TRANSMISSION AMONG JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background to the Study

A major „„functionality principle‟‟ which is expected to influence greatly classroom pedagogy in social studies education is on the view that this subject area represents an interdisciplinary approach to the study of human beings in groups of interrelationship within both their social and physical environments. This functionality principle emphasis and underscores the vital role of Social Studies as an instrument for preparing and mobilizing young learners in school for the purpose of enabling them cultivate an awareness and understanding that would transform them into citizens with skills, competences, moral values and reasoned judgments to effectively live, interact and interrelate and contribute positively to economic, social, political and cultural development of their societies (Okam 2011). In this circumstance, a main goal of Social Studies Education is positive social attitudes and values is designed to generate and develop intelligent responsible and self-directing citizens who are expected to positively explore opportunities to develop their own potentialities and to contribute their maximum efforts to the improvement of group living within the societal framework of a nation (Okam, 2011).

Okam (2011) endorses that it was perhaps a recognition of the functionality principle of Social Studies Education for inculcating the right types of skill and virtues through unified and integrated interdisciplinary studies of man, that the

planners of the Nigeria National Policy of Education gave it a prominent place within the core subjects of the school curriculum in the 6, 3, 3, 4 System of Education established in 1977, as against the study of separate systematic disciplines of the social sciences. An important fundamental asset associated with the „„functionality principle‟‟ of social studies emanates from the curriculum development practices and processes built within the framework of the subject to inculcate social attitude and values.

ASSESSMENT OF SOCIAL ATTITUDES AND VALUES AS TOOLS FOR CITIZENSHIP TRANSMISSION AMONG JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA