Primary and secondary school teachers’ perceptions of their social science training needs

Abstract

Competency-based education is one of the challenges currently faced by social science teachers. At present, there is an abundance of research on competencies relating to the social sciences which favour the development of historical thinking among learners. The ongoing training of teachers is of vital importance when it comes to shifting the method of teaching towards approaches which focus more on the learner, which favour the teaching of historical contents and competences aimed at forming a critical citizenship. For this reason, the two objectives of this study are to discover which disciplinary contents are considered by teachers to be most relevant for the teaching of history and what training is required by teachers who give social science classes in primary and secondary education in Spain. The research is a non-experimental mixed-methods study. In order to achieve the first objective, a quantitative analysis has been carried out of the data obtained from a questionnaire with a Likert-type scale administered to 332 primary and secondary teachers in Spain. To achieve the second objective, the information obtained from 12 interviews with primary and secondary school teachers in Spain has been analysed in a qualitative way. The results obtained indicate that teachers update their disciplinary knowledge via scientific journals and that they are interested in receiving training in historical thinking skills, active learning methods and ICT resources. Based on these training needs, it is concluded that teachers currently envisage a teaching model in the social sciences which is more competency-based and focused on the active participation of the learner.

Validation of an Instrument on Perceptions of Heritage Education through Structural Equation Modeling

“…In Spain, there has also been a quite extensive line of research into teaching approaches at different educational stages [28][29][30][31][32][33]. As mentioned above, in general two or three teaching models are identified, depending on whether an intermediate model is added that brings together characteristics of the other two.…”

Necesidades formativas en evaluación de materiales didácticos: percepciones de los maestros

“…Sin embargo, la reflexión sobre los materiales escolares no constituye en España actualmente un tema de discusión pública, no existen programas dirigidos a la evaluación de los libros de texto ni a conocer el uso que de ellos se hace en los centros escolares. Sánchez-Ibáñez et al (2021) consideran que es de vital importancia conocer las percepciones de profesores de educación primaria y secundaria sobre sus necesidades formativas en ciencias sociales. Los conocimientos que los maestros posean están en relación con el dominio exitoso de su docencia (Berliner, 2001).…”

“…Faltan estudios de tipo cuantitativo. La formación continua de los docentes es uno de los temas más candentes asociados a la demanda de actualización de conocimientos (Barnes et al, 2017;Cochran & Zeichner, 2005;Miralles et al, 2019;Sánchez-Ibáñez et al, 2021) La presente investigación se enmarca en el contexto educativo de la Región de Murcia, en concreto en las asignaturas de Ciencias Sociales (Geografía e Historia) del último tramo de la etapa de Educación Primaria. Con este trabajo se trata de detectar las necesidades formativas que el profesorado de Educación Primaria tiene en relación con la evaluación y el análisis de los materiales didácticos, en concreto con la elección del libro de texto tratando de responder a las siguientes cuestiones: ¿Cuenta el profesorado con herramientas precisas para abordar la evaluación de los manuales?…”

The effect of pictorial story media on critical thinking of grade 4 SDN 1 Pendem

“…In the learning process, students have a variety of different critical thinking abilities. The ability to be a bit critical is a creative ability that can explain an event, think about the implications of the findings, and apply new knowledge to individual and social problems (Sánchez-Ibáñez et al, 2021).…”

“…However, making a learning media must be in line with the content and purpose of the teaching that has been formulated. So that the function of learning media becomes right on target (Sánchez-Ibáñez et al, 2021).…”