Assessing How Social Studies Teachers in Senior High Schools Use Out-of-Door Activities in Their Teaching in Ho Municipality of Ghana

Abstract

The study explored how social studies teachers in Senior High Schools in the Ho Municipality of Ghana use out-of-door activities in their teaching and learning methodology. Using a concurrent mixed-method design, coupled with convenience and purposive sampling techniques, a total of seventy social studies teachers from fourteen Senior High Schools in the Ho Municipality were selected for this study. The instruments for data collection included both interviews and questionnaires. The findings revealed that most social studies teachers consider out-of-door activities in their teaching because of their educational value, despite the challenges they admitted to encountering. It was also revealed that social studies teachers perceive out-of-door activities as difficult to organize, which affects their use of this technique in teaching. This study recommended that, in order to promote the use of out-of-door activities in the teaching and learning of social studies, the government, through the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service (G.E.S), and Curriculum Research and Development Division (CRDD), should make funds available for senior high schools to organize out-of-door activities specifically in the teaching and learning of social studies to enhance students’ understanding. Furthermore, the government, through the Ministry of Education and G.E.S, should advise heads of institutions to support and encourage teachers, particularly social studies teachers, to embark on out-of-door activities within and outside their school community to boost students' understanding of concepts that are mostly abstract in nature.