Action Research Project for B.Ed Students in Social Science

Action Research Project for B.Ed Students in Social Science

Are you looking for an action research project for B.ed students in social science? In this article, we will provide an action research project for b.ed students in social science.

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Action Research Project for B.Ed Students in Social Science

Social science can be regarded as one of the important areas of the educational field. The main aspects of social science are to study the human relationship. Social science is the subject of a unique combination of various subjects like History, Political science, Geography, Economics, Civics, and  Sociology. It covers all the human activities in various fields.

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The beginning of the tradition of social science has been one of the major development of the story of their own could get recognition as a social service only in the 19th century. Thinkers and writers such as Herodotus, Aristotle, Manu,  Kautilya’s Arthasastra, and many others had written treaties on different areas of social science more than 2000 years ago.

Social science is a common core subject for all primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary educational programs. Learning in the subject, therefore, made as relevant as possible for pupils by adapting the subject to the different educational programs.

INTRODUCTION TO ACTION RESEARCH

Action research is a philosophy and methodology of research generally applied in social science. It seeks transformative change through the simultaneous process of taking action and doing research, which is linked together by critical reflection.

Kurt Lewin, a professor at MIT, first coined the term, “action research” in 1944.In his 1946 paper “Action Research and Minority Problems” he described action research as “a comparative research on the conditions  and effects of various forms of social action” that uses “a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action”

Dennis Agyei (2019) Takoradi  Technical University, defines Action Research as a type of research for practitioners to acquire and help in the field of work in order to solve a problem. Action research practitioners reflect upon the consequences of their own questions, beliefs,  assumptions, and practices with the goals of understanding, developing, and improving social practices.

Action research enlists others and works to create a democratic sharing of voice to achieve a deeper understanding of collective actions. It is a process of sharing findings with the community of researchers. This can be done in many ways, in journals, on websites, in books, in videos or at conferences.

Action research involves actively participating in a change situation, often via an existing organization, whilst simultaneously conducting research. It can also be undertaken by a larger organization or institution, assisted or guided by professional researchers, with the aim of improving their strategies, practices and knowledge of the environments within which they practice.

As designers and stakeholders, researchers work with others to propose a new course of action to help their community improve its work practices. Depending upon the nature of the people involved in the action research as well as person(s) organizing it, there are different ways of describing action research.

  • Collaborative Action Research
  • Participatory Action Research
  • Community-Based Action Research
  • Youth Action Research
  • Action Research and Action learning
  • Participatory Action Learning and Action Research
  • Collective Action Research
  • Action Science
  • Living theory Action Research

1.2 CONCEPTUAL OR THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Social science is a very important and academic discipline concerned with the study of the social life of human groups including Economics, History, Geography, Civics, Psychology, and Sociology, etc.

The beginning of the tradition of social science has been one of the major development of  the story of their own could get the recognition as social science only in the 19th century.

Social science is a major category of academic discipline with society and relationship among individuals within a society in terms has many branches each of which is considered social science in a wider sense social science also includes some field of humanities.

Social science traces for the children the fascinating story of how man has developed through age; how his/her life has been influenced by the environment, how our institutions have grown out of the past, how man has struggled with this environment in the past how he/she struggling today, man used or misused his/her power and resources and above all the essential unity of civilization.

Social science aims at breaking the habit of putting knowledge into water-tight compartments, leveled history, Geography, Civics, Economics and Political science, etc.

Social science includes that material which is conductive to the development of a well informed, intelligent person who is capable of comprehending property the current problems is keen to except responsibilities as a citizen for the welfare of all and has developed insights skills and moral qualities which are so essential and desirable in a democratic society.

As society becomes more complex and advances in technology man constructed social science. A lot of innovation emanated different perspectives some of such innovation includes, change in shelter, transportation ,use of products, culture, social institutions socialization and change in education.

In other sense to cope up with the changes/innovation in social science, the subject was introduced to secondary school  curriculum.  Hence, secondary schools are the level where rudiments of social science are taught.

This study is therefore aimed at looking into problems of low achievements in social sciences with a view to providing solutions to them. It is the purpose of the research that recommendation that would be made based on the findings would help to overcome the situation.

Chiodo and Byford (2004) wrote that an attitude persists among many students that social science classes are dull, boring, and irrelevant to their lives. Many educators are pressured into teaching curriculum that has narrowed to meet the demand of high-stakes testing.

High-stakes testing; especially in social science creates a curriculum that focuses on root memorization of fact and the thought that social science classes are the education of historical fact. Bigelow,1999; Pahl,2003; Van Hover,2006) Students learn best when they are interested in the content and find the material relevant to their lived experiences. According to the researcher, the focus of their dissertations in practice will analyze the impact of inquiry-based learning in the social studies classroom through an action research study.

SIGNIFICANCE OR RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

This study will help to prevent or decrease the low achievement of social science among the students. Social science is a very important subject. Having low achievement in social science would lead to a failure of adjusting to society.

This study can help the teachers to reflects upon and analysis their way of functioning they can try out innovation practice for their better performance, who work in the field of teaching social science  to avoid poor achievement and to find solution to this problem.

The suggestions and recommendations made in the later part of the study would highlight the areas that need to be given more attention in the teaching and learning of social sciences in secondary school.

The result of the research work would undoubtedly enable the social science teachers to improve the teaching methods and effective use of teaching aids. It would emphasize the need for students to show more interest in the subjects.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of the research study is to determine the probable cause which influences the problem of low achievement in the subject of social science and to find out some immediate strategies and measures to tackle the problem, particularly to the students of class IX of Guru Nanak Model High School.

The study is aimed at achieving the following objectives

  1. To study the problem of poor academic performance in social science among the students of class IX with special reference to XYZ High School.
  2. To suggest for the problem by giving some remedial measures.
  3. To study the economic condition of the student.
  4. 4 . Analyze the implementation of the activities.
  5. To find out ways to increase the achievement among the students.

1.5 ACTION HYPOTHESIS

A hypothesis is a tentative prediction of the research. It is a very important aspect of research activity. A hypothesis is considered as the principal instrument in research. The action hypothesis is assumed to improve or minimize the current research problem, with the help of different modern teaching methods, using proper TLM, organizing discussions, by giving remedial measures and proper guide teacher can solve the poor achievement problem.

1.6 METHODS OF THE STUDY

The selection of proper methods is very important for research work. Methods mean a way of doing something, especially in a systematic way.

The researcher in this project used the quasi method.

The quasi method is used for collecting data. Here data is collected by conducting pre-test and post-test using a question paper.

Advantages of quasi-experimental method-

  1. Reactions of test subjects are more likely to be genuine because it is not an artificial research environment.
  2. It can be very useful in identifying general trends from the results, especially in social science disciplines.
  3. Disadvantages of quasi-experimental method-
  4. Human errors also play a key role in the validity of any project as discussed in previous modules.
  5. Pre-existing factors and other influences are not taken into account because variables are less controlled in the quasi-experimental method.

 1.7 POPULATION AND SAMPLE

A research population is generally a large collection of individuals or objects that is the main focus of a scientific query. It is for the benefit of the population that researches are done. However due to large sizes of the population researchers often cannot test every individual in the population because it is too expensive and time consuming.

Sample

The total population of class 9 was 49 in ABC Model High School.

Out  of 49 the researcher  has been taken 8 students for research study as sample of this action research project. The sample of 8 students includes  5 boys and 3 girls.

TOOLS OF DATA COLLECTION

To obtain the data, the researcher administered a  test (pre-test) as the instrument of the research. In this written test the  49 students were given some questions to do. The answer sheets of the students were collected to facilitate the researcher in identifying correct answers done by the students. Among the 49 students, only 8 students were chosen who were quite literally poor in social science. After post-test, the intervention was done, such as-

First, the questionnaire consists of 10 questions provided to the students assessing the student’s opinions about themselves.

The second was the observation method. With the help of observation, the researcher tried to identify the problem of the students during classroom interaction.

The third, was an interview. The researcher takes interviews of the students individually which helps the researcher to know their problems in social science.

1.9 PROCEDURE OF THE DATA COLLECTION

The research was conducted after discussing the detailed plan with the subject teacher and taking permission from the concerned school. First a pre-test was conducted for the population of 49 students, out of which a sample of 8 were selected for research which was then followed by intervention and then a post-test was conducted for the sample.

CHAPTER- 2

2.1 PRE-TEST

A pre-test is very essential to carry out the action research. The pre-test is conducted for knowing the achievement of the students. In this study, the researcher tries to find out the responses of the students to find out the problems students legging behind in low achievement in social science. The pre-test on the social science of 25 marks was conducted by the researcher in class 9.

Action Research Project for B.Ed Students in Social Science

2.2 REMEDIAL MEASURES

Remedial measures refer to the techniques which are adopted by the researcher to remove the difficulties of the students in the teaching-learning process. The researcher identifies those students who perform very poorly in the pre-test.

The researcher has taken some remedial measures to increase the interest level of the students in the class. The researcher distributed some questionnaires to the students to find out the various reasons for low achievement in social science. Extra care and guidance were provided to the students and extra classes were taken by the researcher to get the attention of the students.

Besides these the researcher adopts some other techniques to improve the interest level of the students:

  1. Extra classes were taken in free periods.
  2. Friendly environment in the classroom.
  3. Using appropriate teaching aids.
  4. Child-centered teaching in the classroom.
  5. Encouraged the students to go to the library to acquire more knowledge.
  6. Regular homework was assigned to the students.

 2.2 POST-TEST

After giving remedial measures, the researcher again conducted a post-test on the same topic. A post-test was conducted specially for those selected students who could not perform well in the pre-test.

Action Research Project for B.Ed Students in Social Science

CHAPTER 3

3.1 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Data analysis is the process of assigning meaning to the collected information and determining the conclusion of the findings. This data often takes the form of records of group discussion and interview but it is not limited to this.

The problem with which researcher  have selected for making the action research report is “A study on Low Achievement in Social Science of the student of class 9”.  To fulfill the objectives of the study regarding this topic researcher has collected some data with the help of a survey method.

The data collected by the researcher in pre-test and post-test were analyzed. The scores were compared to obtain the difference between the two tests. The data analysis of pre-test (table-1) and post-test(table-2)revealed that the students mostly improved.

Interpretation

Interpretation is by no means a mechanical process. It calls for critical examination of the result of one’s analysis in light of all the limitations of his or her data gathering. It is a very important step in the total procedure of research. The process of interpretation is essentially one of starting what the result (findings) show, what do they mean? What is their significance? What is the answer to the original problem?

In the present study, data collected from the teachers and students are tabulated. The percentage is applied as a statistical technique to sort out the strength of each statement. Geographical representation by a bar graph, charts etc is done for certain data.

Action Research Project for B.Ed Students in Social Science

 3.2 FINDINGS

After analysis of the results and post-test, the researcher got some findings about interest of students in learning social science. Those are given below:-

  • It has been observed that most of the time students become inattentive in class due to a lack of proper TLM used by the teacher while teaching social science.
  • It has been observed that proper use of TLM can be helpful in motivating and improving student’s achievement in learning social science.
  • It has been observed that using innovative method, strategies, and techniques of teaching by the teacher while teaching that develops students attention as well as interest in learning.
  • It has been observed that team work can be liked to two compounds almost essential to modern life. It’s the glue which keeps a team together, a bond which promotes strength, unity, reliability and support among the students and providing team work in classroom can be helpful in creating attention of students.

CHAPTER 4

4.1 SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

  • Guidance on punctuality and regularity of each student is taken care of by teachers.
  • Value education should include in the syllabus to avoid absenteeism.
  • Teaching methods should improve by the teachers so that the student feels interested to attain the class.
  • The teacher should make the subject matter interesting for the students by using different methods, techniques and strategies during the instruction period.
  • Examples help the student to understand a hard complicated and tough in an easy manner. So, the teacher should give examples during teaching.
  • The teacher should use various audio-visual aids during instruction to motivate the students to pay attention.
  • The teacher should understand the psychological and physical needs and interest of student to pay attention in the class.
  • The teacher should use some modern technology like a projector which is very much helpful to increase the interest of students in learning political science

CHAPTER 5

5.1 CONCLUSION

Social science is an important subject for the student. Social science is a way of thinking , of asking questions, of observing  and appreciating political system, history, economics, civics, geography etc. social  science also provide us the basic human rights and duties. So that the teacher can help children learn by offering them interesting techniques and methods of teaching.

This project is an attempt to study the achievement of the student in the subject of social science as well as to improve school practices. So that the learners derive maximum benefits from school by acquiring knowledge mastering skills and developing competencies and positive attitudes.

It is heartening to note that a range of activities can ensure learners in involvement in their social science subject, make the class interactive and enjoyable. At the same time, we also need to take initiative of slow learners and irregular students in social science acquisition.

APPENDIX

QUESTIONNAIRE

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So that sums up an action research project for B.ed students in social science. Hope you like it.

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