DEVELOPMENT AND ASSESSMENT OF HANDBOOK
OF CONCEPTS BASED ON SOCIAL SCIENCE SUBJECT FOR SECONDARY LEVEL STUDNETS
Sunita Joshi
INTRODUCTION
The quality of education
depends, in a large measure, upon the quality of teacher, selection of
appropriate teaching method for specific content. In social science subject,
the pupil is required to learn a number of concepts, phenomenon, generalization
procedures, functions and reasons for certain occurrences. He/she is to learn
about their attribute, constituent elements, relationships and applications.
Social science is collection of the above information. It is divided into four
major areas namely History, Geography, Economics and Civics. All these subjects
are comprehensive, broad and detailed.
Change in attitude towards educational psychology has unfolded the
importance of the concepts. Learning of concept enables the student to get the
knowledge of differentiation and similarity in stimulus. This in turn helps in
understanding the environment. Concept helps in understanding the worldly
things easily by categorizing. e.g. Mango can be remembered well by
categorizing it as a fruit. Concept reduces the cramming habit in permanent
learning. A child when learns the qualities of a domestic animal,does not need
to be taught again. Examples are used to clarify the concept. As a brick is
required in making a house, different levels of concepts are needed for
construction of knowledge. The investigator felt that same strategy has to be
included in social science teaching. She
developed one handbook to understand analyzing concepts, definition of
concept, attribute of concept, related to social science on the basis of
Concept Attainment Model (Bruner). The handbook was expected to strengthen the
quality, norms of social science. In
future, the handbook will make the student aware of the correct and meaningful
concepts and elaborate the depth of subject conveniently. The social science subject is collection of
different important informations about
society and community. There are many difficult concepts to understand
for knowing their basic knowledge and they are interrelated concepts. Hence,
for a social science teacher, it is very difficult to understand all the
concepts related to History, Geography, Economics and Civics. Thus, handbook
provides the fundamental for analyzing concepts, definition of concepts and
attributes of concepts related to social science on the basis of Concept
Attainment Model (Bruner). Therefore, the investigator felt that the present
study might help to strengthen the quality norms of social science. The
developed handbook of concepts will be very useful to social science teachers.
In future, this handbook may help to
become aware of the correct and meaningful concepts and to elaborate the depth
of subject conveniently.
OBJECTIVES
1. To develop a handbook of
concepts based on social science subject for secondary level students.
2. To know the reactions
towards handbook of concepts based on social science subject.
LIMITATIONS
All the concepts are based
on the text book recommended by NCERT. The examples of the concepts were based
on the understanding level of students. The handbook was be developed in Hindi
language.
METHOD
Sample
The investigator used
different phases for developing handbook of concepts as well as for
assessing the hand book of concepts.
There were 15 subject experts selected for testing and analyzing handbook for
improvement. These teachers had minimum two years teaching experiences. There
were 5 teacher educators selected for evaluating and analyzing the handbook for
improvement. These educators had technical knowledge of Concept Attainment
Model (Bruner) because, these concepts were prepared on the line of
Tools
Concept Attainment
Achievement Test (CAAT) was developed by the investigator. This test comprised
of two parts. One part had multiple-choice questions and the other part had true and false questions. This test
evaluated the achievement of students according to their understanding of
concepts in the handbook. Reaction scale
was developed by the investigator. In this scale, different aspects of hand
book like simple language, standard of selection of concepts and
different examples used to understand selected concepts, way of
presentation of examples, and writing
the definition of concepts.
Data Collection
The main objective of the
present study was to develop a handbook of concepts based on social science
concepts. Hence the main emphasis of the investigator was developing carefully
the handbook. Investigator opted for different phases for developing the
handbook. First phase was analyzed and assessed by the subject teacher. The
second phase was analyzed and assessed by teacher educator. The third phase was
assessed by teacher-trainees. The Fourth phase was administered to the students
of secondary level. After collecting the data, the investigator analyzed the
data according to percentile and chi-square.
FINDINGS
The handbook provided
facilities for easy understanding of the attributes and identification of
concepts with the help of given examples. Thus the students will take interest
in the social science subject. Students showed interest in knowing the
different attributes, definitions and name of the concepts. The teacher
trainees and students tend to concentrate on and analyze one concept with the
another concepts. The handbook is the best guide for developing interest among
the social science teachers. The handbook provided freedom to take their own
time to understand the concepts. While reading the handbook, students were very
active. With the help of the handbook, the students analyzed concepts according
to essential and non-essential attributes, because all the samples agreed that
the handbook might develop critical thinking among the students. While using
the handbook, the mental activities of the students increased. According to the
subject teacher and the teacher educator
the handbook will develop confidence in the students. While using the handbook,
the students will be able to express their own thought in words. They will
understand clear-cut difference among the concepts with the help of criterion
attributes. The way of presentation of examples of concepts was appropriate to
learn concepts and the students will retain the concepts for long time.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of results
derived from the reaction scale, the handbook for the middle level students,
for the concepts of social science was designed in a simple and a systematic
form. Examples were chosen from the regional language and vocabulary, which
helped the students in identifying the concepts. The availability of the
content in a systematic form helped the students in describing the definition
logically. With the help of pictures and other equipments the students could
frame their own examples and concepts. After analyzing the achievement score
statistically, it was found that handbook reading improvised the social science
knowledge in students.