DEGREE SSE 106 LESSON NOTE 2021

 

MAN AS THE FOCUS OF SOCIAL STUDIES

Social Studies goes about facilitating an understanding of the complexity of man, his problems, challenges and solutions, by using anal–out learning technique and strategy known as “Integration”. It is necessary for us to know this for proper understanding of social studies. Social Studies, as a discipline, it is no longer an appendage of the Social Sciences. The discipline which has gone a long way in emerging as a distinctive area of learning, the time or those days when it was treated as “a bit of history”, “a bit of geography” has gone. It is no longer a mixture or” hotchpotch”, a confused addition of bits and pieces of the Social Sciences and Humanities. This was sometimes referred to as “inter-disciplinary” form of teaching but not now.

The new emphasis is to conceive and implement Social Studies as an integrative discipline, and to impart themes from a unified angle. It may interest us to note that the reference to “problem” is to a specific challenge that requires solution through careful study and investigation. This is a matter that investigation inquiry, and discussion that would test to a solution. The type of research carried out for the social sciences are based on observation and inquiry.

Social studies is a corrective study because it is a subject which is concerned with the problems of man’s living in the society with a view of finding solutions to those problems. It is also a subject which concentrates on the three (3) areas of knowledge, cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. It centers on the development of man, how man influences his environment and how the environment influences him in return.

 Social studies focused on man and his interactions with his environment. It also keeps on changing because of the factors of time and human development. It fights against evil vices in the society. The subject considers peculiar problems of a country and finds solutions to those problems. As such the objective of Nigerian social studies must reflect the spirit of Nigerian philosophy of education. It must help to develop the capacity to learn and to acquire certain basic skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and calculation. Social studies education focuses on the use of critical and reflective thinking to solve the problems of man’s survival in the environment.

Social studies is the study of people in relation to each other and to their world. It is an issue focused and inquiry-based interdisciplinary subject that draws upon history, geography, ecology, economics, law, philosophy, political science and other social science disciplines.  Social studies foster students’ understanding of and involvement in practical and ethical issues that face their communities and humankind.  Social studies is integral to the process of enabling students to develop an understanding of who they are, what they want to become and the society in which they want to live. (https://education.alberta.ca/media/159594/program-of-studies-k-3.pdf)

 It is a course of study that deals with human relationships and the way society works. Or the studies (as civics, history, and geography) that deal with human relationships and the way society works. It builds critical-thinking skills and deepens content-area knowledge across the four strands of social studies: history, civics, geography, and economics and man is not left out it is the man that thinks critically, acquires skills and knowledge.