The Need for New Information Technologies in the Society and Environment Learning AreaDr Wally Moroz, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia Over 3 000 city students and 700 country students from middle and upper primary school provide an insight into what they learn and how they learn in social studies / society and environment classes. Teaching styles do not impress the students, they consider many topics to be boring/irrelevant and would prefer to do more small group work, excursions and use computers. While students value the learning area and think that it is important they do not look forward to their next lesson and consequently have expressed a preference for the other learning areas which make greater use of new information technologies. Their teachers, however, have opposite points of view. Throughout this paper the terms social studies , society and environment, and studies of society and environment are used interchangeably. A major and long-standing concern for social studies educators, recognised in the literature, is the limited range of instructional practices utilised (Moroz & Baker, 1997; Moroz, 1996; Cuban, 1991; Hornstein, 1990; Armento, 1986; Goodlad, 1984; Fancett & Hawke, 1982; Shaver et al, 1979). The findings repeatedly suggest that most teachers "do" social studies in a similar way: that is, they use teacher-centred strategies rather than child-centred strategies and it seems that this, more than the content, is what annoys the students about the subject. Cuban (1991:204) describe these findings along with the low status accorded to the subject as one of two "enduring patterns" in social studies classrooms. Teachers tend to repeatedly use whole-group instructional practices, recitation, textbooks, note-taking, worksheets, pictures and diagrams and, occasionally, audiovisual materials. Computer use, small group work, interactive activities, and excursions, which are so much more time consuming, are used infrequently. "Computers are not widely used in social studies classrooms today. Apparently, many social studies teachers do not integrate computers into their classrooms because it necessitates additional work and planning" Vockell (1992:368). Within society and environment, the potential for computers to serve both as a method of instruction and as a topic of instruction seems enormous. "Computer based learning (CBL) has the potential to facilitate the development of students' decision making, problem solving skills, data processing skills and communication capabilities" Berson (1996:486). Vockell and Brown (1992) stated that computers can enhance academic learning and improve the effectiveness of instruction by: a) providing immediate feedback to the learner, b) allowing for individualised instruction to promote mastery learning, c) incorporating interactive exercises, d) facilitating cooperative learning to enhance higher order thinking skills, and e) allowing for drill and practice to promote automaticity (cited in Berson 1996:487). Despite this potential, social studies educators have been reluctant to integrate computers into their programme because of insufficient training, limited awareness of appropriate software, limited availability of computers, lack of adequate software and competition for computers from other curriculum areas such as mathematics and science (Moroz, 1996; Clark, 1992; Ehman and Glenn, 1991). Interestingly, Sivin and Bialo (1988) cited in Northup and Rooze (1990:212), reported that the number of recommended software titles was greater in social studies than in language arts, mathematics, reading or science. The majority of social studies educators appear apprehensive regarding the inclusion of CBL. Northup and Rooze (1990) conducted a nation wide study in the United States and found that of 84 per cent of the respondents who had access to computers, only 55 per cent used computers in their social studies classes. Similar studies in Australia are rare and are not identified by electronic searches. Students develop ideas, feelings, predispositions, preferences and attitudes about school subjects over a period of time and from a variety of sources. The way a subject is presented during their years of schooling is likely to affect the way students perceive and relate to it (Baker & Moroz, 1997; Moroz, 1996; Anderson, Stevens, Prawat & Nickerson, 1988; Marshall & Weinstein, 1984). In addition to the structure of the classroom experiences, according to Stodolsky, Salk and Glaessner (1991), the actual content and the types of competencies sought within each subject may also contribute to differing student perceptions. The Western Australian StudyA large survey, in Western Australia, of city (Moroz 1996) and country students' (Moroz 1998) and teachers' attitudes toward social studies and other school subjects shed some light on the need for computer use in social studies classrooms and clearly indicated that there exists a significant difference of opinion between students and teachers about computers. The Moroz studies reported here sought information from both key stakeholders in the classroom, teachers and their students. Questionnaires, completed by 3 132 city students and their 112 teachers from 21 government primary schools and 696 country students and their 31 teachers from 9 government primary schools, provided the data presented in this paper. All students from the middle and upper classes at the selected schools were included in the survey. Just over half of the city cohort of students were from upper primary school (Years 6 & 7), while 53 per cent of the country students were from the middle primary years (Years 4 & 5). There was a reasonably even distribution of students across year levels and gender. The schools ranged in size from fewer than 100 to more than 700 students. Students' views on instructional practices in social studiesStudents were asked to respond to a series of 24 items structured to elicit their views on instructional practices in social studies. A five-point scale, ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree" was used and in Table 1 & 2 items are rank-ordered from highest to lowest overall mean scores. The response rate for each of the items in this section was 98% or higher. These results show that both city and country students were very much in agreement that in social studies "There should be more computer activities" (Item 82); "I have learned how to use maps" (Item 84); and "I like small groups" (Item 71). By contrast, strongest disagreement was registered for items which proposed that in social studies "There are too many tests" (Item 70); "We do too much colouring-in" (Item 92); and "We have too many excursions" (Item 76). Table 1: City students' views of instructional practices in social studies Table 2: Country students' views of instructional practices in social studies Frequency of instructional practices in social studies lessonsStudents were asked to indicate the frequency of a range of instructional practices, by responding to a list of 28 different activities in terms of their frequency according to the following categories: "at least once a week", "every two weeks", "once a month", "once a term" and "hardly ever". Results are provided in Table 3 and 4 in rank order, based on the combined percentages of students indicating they undertook an activity either at least once a week or every two weeks. The results are particularly revealing. They show that the most common activities undertaken in the city social studies classes were copying from the blackboard (80 per cent undertook this at least every two weeks), reading (75%), whole-class discussion (63%), colouring-in (58%) and pictures and diagrams (58%). The most common activities undertaken in country social studies classes were reading (71 per cent undertook this at least every two weeks), copying from blackboard (70%), library (67%), whole-class discussion (67%). Apart from library, these are all conventional, teacher-dominated activities, symptomatic of an inputs based education philosophy. The teacher's role is identified as one of transmission of knowledge to learners whose role is to absorb information. Reliance on these kinds of activities as the principal teaching and learning strategies raises serious questions about their effectiveness. This concern is reinforced when results for the least-common activities (interactive or action-oriented strategies) are considered: role-plays (acting), newspaper activities, projects, films, guest speakers and excursions. Two thirds of city students surveyed, indicated that computer based learning (CBL) activities in social studies were rare while 46 per cent of country respondents stated they hardly ever had CBL in their social studies classes. Almost double the number of country students (42%) compared to city students (25%) indicated frequent use of the computer in social studies (at least once a week). Overall, CBL activities were ranked ninth, in terms of frequency of occurrence by the country students and eighteenth by the city students. Table 3: Frequency of activities undertaken in city social studies classes Table 4: Frequency of activities undertaken in social studies classes in country schools Students' attitudes toward social studies and other school subjectsThe final segment of the student questionnaire sought information on views about social studies by comparison with other school subjects on a five-point scale ranging from "like a lot" (5) through "not sure" (3) to "dislike a lot" (1). Mean scores were generated for these responses and in Table 5 and 6 subject areas are rank ordered from most to least positive, based on mean scores. The response rates per item were 96 per cent or higher, except for religion and computing, which recorded 67 per cent and 90 per cent respectively. The data show that for both the city and the country cohorts sport and computing (with mean scores above 4.5), were perceived considerably more positively than other subjects. Other highly-rated subjects were creative writing, music and reading. An interesting result can be seen by considering the least-favoured subjects: social studies ranked lowest apart from religion which was the only subject to record a score lower than the neutral point of 3. Ranked higher than social studies were such subjects as health, writing and spelling. This result must be of extreme concern to those responsible for the social studies curriculum at all levels. The data show clearly that students, although slightly positive about social studies, perceive it to be one of the least-favoured subjects. Computing which is not really a "subject taught" in primary schools but rather something that students "do" and use, more of a tool perhaps, is one of the favoured "subjects". Large numbers of city and country students, report that their frequency of experience with CBL in their social studies classes is "hardly ever" but almost 80 per cent of all students want more computer activities in social studies. Table 5: City students' ranking of social studies and other school subjects Table 6: Country students' ranking of social studies and other school subjects Teacher DemographicsThe respondent group from the city comprised 112 teachers of the students from Years 4, 5, 6 and 7 who participated in the survey in government primary schools in the Perth metropolitan area. Over all, there was a relatively even distribution of schools in terms of student numbers, although just above one-third of schools had student numbers between 300 and 499. Of the 110 respondents indicating the year level(s) currently taught, just over 20 per cent taught Year 4 classes, while around 15 per cent taught Years 5, 6 or 7, in non-mixed classes. Of interest is the finding that around 10 per cent had mixed year-levels: Years 4-5, Years 5-6 or Years 6-7. Over all, 36 per cent of the respondent group taught mixed year-level classes. The respondent group from the country comprised 31 teachers of the students from Years 4, 5, 6 and 7 who participated in the survey in nine government country primary schools. Of the 31 respondents indicating the year level(s) currently taught, 19 per cent taught Year 4 classes, while 42 per cent taught Years 5, 6 or 7, in non-mixed classes. Of interest is the finding that around 39 per cent had mixed year-levels: Years 4-5, Years 5-6, Years 6-7 or Years 4-7. Over 70 per cent of the respondent teachers were aged between 30 and 49. Almost 65 per cent of respondents from the city were female, most of them aged between 40 and 49 (44%) or between 30 and 39 (43%). Most teachers from the country were also female (64%). In terms of teaching experience only 37 per cent of the city teachers had under ten years experience compared to 71 per cent of the country teachers. The most experienced teachers were in the city (63 per cent had over ten years of teaching experience) while in the country only 29 per cent had been teaching for over ten years. Almost 70 per cent of the city respondents and approximately 33 per cent of country respondents had commenced teaching before the introduction, in 1981, of the Social Studies K-10 Syllabus. Just over 60 per cent of the respondent group used the K-10 Syllabus as a major source for planning. This popular Syllabus did not focus on computer based learning because it was written in the late 1970s and published in 1981. The widespread use of this out-dated Syllabus has no doubt contributed to the reluctance of teachers to incorporate CBL into their social studies programs. Other commonly-used resources for planning purposes were the teachers' guides, the respondents' own ideas and current events. Data on the frequency and type of social studies professional development in which respondents had participated over the past five years show that aside from the third who indicated "some" at the school level, the results reveal a very low level of professional development. In fact, approximately 90 per cent of country and city teachers had not participated in any Education Department professional development in social studies. In addition, 67 per cent of country teachers and 55 per cent of city teachers claimed they had not engaged in any professional development at the school level in social studies. Teachers' attitudes toward social studies and other school subjectsOn a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("dislike a lot") through 3 ("not sure") to 5 ("like a lot"), teachers were asked to indicate the extent to which they liked teaching 13 subjects, including social studies. The results were rank ordered using highest to lowest mean scores. The data in Table 7 show mathematics and reading to be the preferred subjects for city teachers, while social studies was ranked third on the basis of mean scores. Least-preferred subjects were religion and music, with 30 per cent and 19 per cent respectively reporting that they "disliked a lot" teaching those subjects. Table 7: City teachers' ranking of social studies and other school subjects City teachers show a strong preference for the traditional subjects with maths, reading, social studies and creative writing ranked in the top four. Sport, computing and music which were ranked in the top three of the students' lists are in the bottom half of the teachers' lists. Computing, while still positive has a low mean of 3.39. Country teachers' preferences compared to city teachers' preferences (Table 8) for subjects show overall lower means for all subjects, a drop in rank for social studies from third to eighth and an identical bottom four of science, computing, music and religion, with the latter two scoring significantly negative means. Though country students use computers a lot more than their city counterparts their teachers are barely positive about computers. Table 8: Country teachers' ranking of social studies and other school subjects DISCUSSIONAccording to Northup and Rooze (1990: 212) great expectations of dramatic changes in the way people live, work and think were heralded by Time magazine's departure, in 1983, from its "Man of the Year Award" to the "Machine of the Year Award." Futurists no doubt rejoiced that the information revolution had arrived, but 14 years on there is evidence that education is still waiting for the promise of dramatic changes. Social studies teachers have not universally embraced the integration of computers in their classrooms. (Moroz, 1998, 1996; Northup and Rooze, 1990; Ehman and Glenn, 1987 and others). Barriers to effective implementation of computers may be associated with the dollar cost, the extensive time required for teachers to reorganise their teaching, thinking and planning, to incorporate CBL. Perhaps the shift to an outcomes based education where teachers become facilitators and consultants in a collaborative style of instruction may be better suited to the integration of computers (Goodson & Mangan, 1991). Other barriers to implementation include competition for access to computers, training for teachers and the provision for technical support. Research indicates that there is now more than ever before a demand for a shift away from rigid curricula inputs based approaches to teaching and the dreaded "sit still and listen to me" approach which pervades social studies lessons (Moroz 1996). Students and teachers and curriculum planners are advocating change and it seems that the push is to go from an inputs based approach to an outcomes model for teaching. However, the new curriculum frameworks and guidelines such as the Curriculum and Standards Framework (1995) in Victoria and the Draft Curriculum Framework (1997) in Western Australia make only limited reference to the ways in which computers can be used. The two Western Australian studies show that there is very strong student support for CBL in Years 4, 5, 6 & 7 in primary schools and the students have expressed a clear demand for more CBL in their social studies lessons. Their teachers, however, have not incorporated the use of CBL in their classrooms. Perhaps teachers are overawed by what Hopkins (1997:55) describes as the "the sheer versatility of computer software and the ever expanding range of products available gives educators as many tools to work with as there are learning styles". Options listed include:
The inclusion of computing tools and other new information technologies in mainstream subject work does not preclude other methods (discussion, practical experiments, dramatic presentations, etc); rather it provides alternatives and enhancements (Hopkins 1997:55). Software is available to allow students to do many different things besides just word processing and "info seek". Pearson (1997:49) asks "Are we about to see a revolution in the use of computers in schools? Will supporters of the 'Catalytic Rationale' who say that computers 'will help children to move away from rigid curricula, rote-learning and teacher-centred lessons, by giving more control to children of their own learning' (Hawkridge, 1990, p.3), finally see the 'Utopian future' which has often appeared to be so elusive?"
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