The social studies in the secondary schools of Jamaica

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1971

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This study sought to examine the status of the social studies in the secondary schools of Jamaica. During the academic years 1969-1970 and 1970-1971, interviews and observations were conducted throughout the island, including interviews at the Ministry of Education and meetings with educators, students, and community leaders. Visits were made to 10 secondary schools and a teacher training college; and textbooks, examinations, school syllabi, government documents, and newspapers were reviewed. The following topics were examined, with respect to their relationship to the social studies curriculum of secondary schools: objectives, content and organization, instructional environment, materials and strategies, evaluation, and teacher preparation. It was found that administrators and teachers held a wide range of goals, but there was common agreement that the creation of useful citizens was of importance. The content and organization of social studies programmes in both public and private schools were similar, as were evaluation techniques, since all schools used the same external examinations. History and geography were taught as discrete subjects in all schools, while economics was only offered by a few schools. No school offered sociology, social psychology, or anthropology. A wide range of physical and psychological environments existed. Materials in all schools were limited, with the greatest reliance placed upon textbooks. Instructional strategies varied, but the lecture system and teacher-dominated classrooms were most common. Teacher preparation was one of the chief problems--junior secondary teachers largely came from teacher training colleges where standards were not high, while most secondary teachers possessed university degrees, but many of them had little training in education methods

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