Factors Affecting Students’ Attitude towards the Learning of Social Studies in the Accra Metropolis of Ghana: A Mixed Method Analysis

Abstract

This study sought to examine students’ attitude towards learning of Social Studies in the Accra Metropolis of Ghana. It investigated the factors that affect students’ attitude towards Social Studies and assessed how students’ attitude towards Social Studies could be improved. A sample of 72 teachers was used. Methodologically, the study adopted the simple random sampling technique and purposive sampling technique. Questionnaire was used as the main data collection instrument. The quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. whereas the qualitative data was transcribed appropriately. It was found out that factors found to affect students’ attitude towards Social Studies include; teachers not showing interest in teaching controversial issues, teachers’ inability to give needed assistance to students, teachers’ inability to use different teaching methods in teaching Social Studies classes, inadequate teaching and learning materials and inability of Social Studies teachers to employ resource persons in times of difficulty. It is therefore recommended that Ghana Education Service should recruit professional teachers to teach Social Studies in Senior High schools. This will help the students to improve more with the right knowledge in Social Studies.