INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS MASTERY OF THE SUBJECT MATTER ON STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study titled, Influence of Social Studies Teachers Subject Matter Mastery on Students’ Academic Performance in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study had one objective, one research question, and one null hypothesis. The objective was to determine the influence of social studies teachers’ subject matter mastery on students’ academic performance in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study covered only social studies teachers within the three (3) senatorial zones of Kaduna State, namely zone one (1)Northern Kaduna, zone two (2)Kaduna Central, and zone three (3)Southern Kaduna. The study reviewed related literature on constructivist theory, and some empirical studies. The study adopted descriptive survey design. Two thousand, two hundred and seventy one (2, 271) social studies teachers of public secondary schools formed the population of the study. A total of three hundred (300) social studies teachers selected from thirty (30) public secondary schools were sampled based on stratified sampling technique. The study adopted the stratified sampling technique. The instrument used to collect data was a fixed response questionnaire designed by the researcher. Frequency and percentages were used in analyzing the respondents’ opinions, while one sample t-test was used to test the hypothesis at P<0.05 level of significance for acceptance or rejection, and the hypothesis was rejected. The findings revealed that, social studies teachers’ mastery of the subject matter have positive influence on the findings. It was recommended that focus should be made on organizing workshops on subject matter knowledge/mastery so as to solve the problem of subject of matter mastery.