INVENTORIES

 INVENTORIES

                Inventories as an instrument of inquiry and data collection device that are most commonly and successfully used in the area of personality assessment. A number of attributes associated with personality characteristics and psychological state of the individual such as interest, temperament, attitude ,adjustment etc can be properly assessed through the use of inventories. In simple terms, an inventory is nothing but a self-reporting question

  CHARACTERISTICS

• It is a user- friendly device for obtaining information about the subjects.

• It helps the researcher to collect data about the subject's overt behavior the persons feelings about himself, other persons and his environment, resulting from introspection.

• This measuring device can be successfully used by the researchers in behavioral sciences.

• The administration of the inventories are quiet simple.

• It helps to overcome the subjectivity and time- consuming nature of individual interview.

• It provides an inquiry that is uniform in presentation and procedure for evaluation.

• An inventory contains standard set of questions presented in a standard way and scored with a standard scoring key.

  PURPOSES/ USES

• It helps the researcher to understand the subjects in a better way

• It helps to assess the overt as well as covert, conscious as well as unconscious, introvert as well as extrovert, adjusted as well as maladjusted and normal as well as abnormal behavior of the subjects 

• It helps to assess the interest, temperament, attitude, adjustment, life history, feelings, preferences etc.

• It gives direction and magnitude to one's way of behaving and living.

• It helps to provide educational as well as vocational guidance

• It provide data that are useful in suggesting the need for further analysis .

• It can be used as a research device to identify and describe the nature of the problems facing individuals and group in a school.

TYPES

1   PERSONALITY INVENTORY

    'Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of these

psycho social systems that determines his unique adjustment with the environment'

                                                                                                                    Allport

“Personality inventory is essentially a questionnaire in which a person report his / etc.” her feelings in a situation. It is assigned to measure single dimension of personality or general personality traits. eg -introversion, extroversion, dominance, submission

EXAMPLES

1. Allport Ascendence - Submission Inventory

2. Eysenck Personality Inventory

3. California Personality Inventory

4.Cornell Index

5. Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory (MMPI)

2 ADJUSTMENT INVENTORY

A self -reporting questionnaire asking the subjects of the study to respond to the items of the instrument for providing the information helpful in drawing conclusion about the adjustment level of the subjects.

EXAMPLES

Bell Adjustment Inventory 

Heston Adjustment Inventory 

            Mooney adjustment invent     

           Asthana's adjustment inventory

           Mangal's adjustment inventory

          3 INTEREST INVENTORIES

              Interest blanks or inventories are examples of self - reporting instruments in to which individuals note their own likes and dislikes. These self- report instruments are really standardized in which the subjects, through introspection, indicates feelings that may be interpreted in terms of what is known about interest pattern. Interest inventories attempt yield a measure of the types of activities that an individual has a tendency to like and to choose.

EXAMPLES

• Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB)

• Kuder Preference Record

• Strong Cambell Interest Inventory.

• Minnesota Vocational Interest Inventory

         ADVANTAGES 

• Interest inventories if administered to pupils will help them become aware of themself , about their own likes and dislikes.

• It can be used in the guidance and counselling programmes.

• It is effective in prediction of occupational arca

• It provides valuable information about general and specific interests of individual pupils

       LIMITATIONS

• If the subjects do not have sufficient self - understanding they may not be able to give true responses.

• Pupils who are in the process of development are changing and their interest are also liable to change.

• It is often not possible to base any judgements on transient or changing factors.

• Providing vocational and educational guidance on the basis of interest data alone may prove to be undesirable and hazardous

Strengths and Weaknesses of Self-Report Inventories in research

Self-report inventories are often a good solution when researchers need to administer a large number of tests in relatively short space of time. Many self-report inventories can be completed very quickly, often in as little as 15 minutes. This type of questionnaire is an affordable option for researchers faced with tight budgets.

Another strength is that the results of self-report inventories are generally much more reliable and valid than projective tests. Scoring of the tests a standardized and based on norms that have been previously established.

However, self-report inventories do have their weaknesses. For example, while many tests implement strategies to prevent "faking good" or "faking bad" (essentially pretending to be better or worse that one really is), research has shown that people are able to exercise deception while taking self-report tests.

Another weakness is that some tests are very long and tedious. For example, the MMPI takes approximately 3 hours to complete. In some cases, test respondents may simply lose interest and not answer questions accurately. Additionally, people are sometimes not the best judges of their own behaviour. Some individuals may try to hide their own feelings, thoughts, and attitudes.

References

Best .J.W.,&Kahn,J.V.(2010).Research in Education. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of  India Pvt Ltd

Koul,L.(2002).Methodology of Educational Research. New Delhi: Vikas  Publishing House.

Mangal, S.K.(2013).Research Methodology in Behavioural Sciences. New Delhi:PHI Learning Pvt Ltd

Methods of Teaching Social Science

 Methods of Teaching Social Science 

INTRODUCTION

.A teacher has to make use of various kinds of methods, devices and techniques of teaching. A teacher has to make use of a suitable method for making his teaching meaningful, purposeful, interesting and effective. The success or failure of teaching depends on its methods. The methods of teaching should be according to the needs and interests of learners. The purpose of this paper is differentiate teaching method, technique and strategy of social sciences.

Different Methods of Teaching Social Science 

LECTUREMETHOD: Teacher explains the matter  in simple and understandable manner.The method is particularly used in the secondary classes and above.It can be used to motivate students,to clarify, to review and to expand contents.

    PROBLEM SOLVING METHOD: In this method the learner is required to solve a problem, making use of his previous knowledge.

PROJECT METHOD:Children should be given education to satisfy their needs of life and the school should function like a mini society in which and through the students would acquire education by engaging themselves in a variety of group projects nothing is forced upon children .The teacher acts only as a guide.

Steps in project method

1.          Providing a situation

2.          Choosing the project

3.          Planning the project

4.          Executing the project

5.          Evaluation of the project        

 SOURCE METHOD: Source method is that method of teaching in which original sources of information are used to explain a point or variety a fact or establish a principle or describe an event.This method involves activity on the parts of the teachers as well as pupils.

 SUPERVISED STUDY METHOD: By supervised study we mean the supervision by the teacher of a group or class of pupils as they work at their desk or around their tables

 DRAMATIZATION METHOD:Dramatization has been described as a ‘synthetic art’,involving the purposive co-ordination and control of the delicate organs of speech and muscles of the body combined with a sense of rhythm, with a view to free and intelligent expression of emotions and ideas.  Drama has its great social value.  It is a co -operative enterprise and develops the qualities of co-operation and social understanding

      DEBATE METHOD:A debate is a programme in which two or more students holding contradictory opinions on a particular problem present arguments

 CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING METHOD:Is an approach to organize classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences. It differs from group work, and it has been described as "structuring positive interdependence.  Cooperative Learning involves structuring classes around small groups that work together in such a way that each group member's success is dependent on the group's success.

MULTIMEDIA APPROACHES:Multimedia  refers to  content  that uses a combination of differentcontent forms. This contrasts with media that use only rudimentary computer displays such as text-only or traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material

 

TEACHING TECHNIQUES

 

  Traditional teaching techniques, based mainly on a teacher explaining a topic and students taking notes, may still be useful on occasion, but education today revolves more around encouraging the student to awaken their curiosity and desire to learn.A number of   different teaching techniques have emerged due to this change in education.   The use of technology in the classroom has simply given education a new lease of life allowing us to approach old ideas in new ways.Outlined below are some popular teaching techniques that have arisen from the integration of technology in education.

1.Flipped Classroom :

The Flipped Classroom Model basically involves encouraging students to prepare for the lesson before class 

2. Design Thinking (Case Method):

This technique is based on resolving real-life cases through group analysis, brainstorming, innovation and creative ideas. Although “Design Thinking” is a structured method, in practice it can be quite messy as some cases may have no possible solution.

 

3. Self-learning:

Curiosity is the main driver of learning .A common technique for exploring self-learning is the use of Mind Maps. Teachers can create a central node on a Mind Map and allow students the freedom to expand and develop ideas

 

TEACHING STRATEGY

There are may useful teaching strategies to support effective teaching in social sciences. This section contains a variety of graphic organisers; cooperative learning ideas; tools and resources for writing and presenting information; and ideas for oral and visual activities.

∙ Graphic organisers

This section has a wide variety of graphic organisers such as charts, webs, diagrams, maps, templates, grids, and wheels to help students organise and display information and their findings.

∙ Cooperative learning

Explore these group and team activities in which students have opportunities to work together to achieve shared learning goals.

∙ Writing and presenting information

This section includes links to suggestions for written activities, such as essay and paragraph writing, questionnaires, surveys, graphic organisers, and descriptions.

∙ Using oral and visual activities

These links to information about oral or visual forms of literacy are useful for teaching and learning in social studies. This includes the use of pictures, photos, drawings, audio conferences, booklets, biographies, and interviews

CONCLUSION

Social Studies as a distinct area of knowledge and of what the knowledge embodies.Teaching the scientific method is a staple of standard introductory social science courses such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, and political science.instructional objectives that must be carefully and systematically sorted out and the strategies,techniques and skills that must be employed to be a result-oriented learner and teacher. There is, in addition, package on the type of instructional material that would aid the learner/teacher to be a success.

 

Reference

            Pathak, R.P.2003.Teaching Of Social Studies.NewDelhi:Dorling Kindersley(India)Pvt.Ltd.,

            SudheeshKumar,P.K and Noushad,P.P.2008. Social Studies in the Classroom Trends&Methods.Calicut:ScorpioPublishers&Distributers.,

            Kochhar ,S.K.2000. Teaching Of Social Studies.NewDelhi:Sterling  Publishers Pvt.Ltd.,

            Sidhu ,H.S.1998.The Teaching Of Social Studies.Ludhiyana:Tondon Publication.,

NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAME WORK

 NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAME WORK 

History 

Until 1976, Indian constitution allowed the state governments to take decisions on all matters pertaining to school education including curriculum. The centre could only provide guidance to the states on policy issues. It was under such circumstances that the initial attempts of National Education Policy of 1968 and the Curriculum Framework designed by NCERT in 1975 were formulated. NCERT developed NCF in 1975 following the recommendations of Education Policy on 1968. In 1976, the constitution was amended to include education in the concurrent list, and for the first time in 1986 the country as a whole had a National Policy on Education (NPE-1986) which envisions National Curriculum Framework as a means of modernising education.

Development of NCF 2005

The National Curriculum Framework begins with a quotation from one of Tagore’s essays – ‘Civilization and Progress’ – where the poet reminds us that ‘generous joy’ and ‘creative spirit’ are essential in childhood. However, an unthinking adult world can distort both the elements.

*Under the Chairmanship of Professor Yashpal, the National Steering Committee was established

*After much discussion, it was passed in the Central Advisory Board of Education on September 2005

*The national education policy emphasized on employing educational technology to enhance the quality of education

*The policy led to two centrally sponsored schemes – computer literacy and educational technology

*NCF addresses four issues – educational experience, educational purpose, assessing the learner, and an organization of experience

*While the previous NCFs are based on Behaviourist Psychology, the 2005 curriculum has its basis on Constructivist theory

*The latest NCF owes its present form and shape to the swirl of ideas generated through a string of intensive deliberations by renowned scholars from various disciples – parents, teachers, principals, and the NCERT faculty

    In India, NCERT develops National Curriculum Framework which provides guidelines for developing syllabi and textbooks and school curriculum. NCF-2005 prepared by NCERT discusses a wide range of issues concerning school education.National Curriculum Framework 2005 is one of the four National Curriculum Frameworks published in 1975, 1988, 2000 and 2005 by the National Council of Educational Research and Training NCERT in India.

       The Framework provides the framework for making syllabi, textbooks and teaching practices within the school education programmes in India. The NCF 2005 ]document draws its policy basis from earlier government reports on education as Learning Without Burden and National Policy of Education 1986-1992] and focus group discussion. After wide ranging deliberations 21 National Focus Group Position Papers have been developed under the aegis of NCF-2005. The state of art position papers provided inputs for formulation of NCF-2005. The document and its offshoot textbooks have come under different forms of reviews in the press.

           NCF draft document came under the criticism from the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE).  The approach and recommendations of NCF-2005 are for the entire educational system. A number of its recommendations, for example, focus on rural schools. The syllabus and textbooks based on it are being used by all the CBSE schools, but NCF-based material is also being used in many State schools.

             NCF 2005 has been translated into 22 languages and has influenced the syllabi in 17 States. The NCERT gave a grant of Rs.10 lakh to each State to promote NCF in the language of the State and to compare its current syllabus with the syllabus proposed, so that a plan for future reforms could be made. Several States have taken up this challenge. This exercise is being carried out with the involvement of State Councils for Educational Research and Training [SCERT] and District Institutes of Education and Training [DIET].

The main objective of NCF 2005 are 

1. Education of girl child .

2. Early childhood education.

3. Implementation of the national curriculum framework.

4. Vocational education.

5. Improvement in teacher education.

6. Improvement of thought of students.

7. Competitive value of education.

8. The importance of elementary education according to NCF is to bringing about various changes in the education system such as:

• Develops a multidisciplinary curriculum

• Provide learner autonomy

• The teacher plays the role of a facilitator

• Supports and encourages learning

• Involves the active participation of learners

• Continuous appraisal in the educational system

Salient Features of NCF 2005

The five basic principles of National Curriculum Framework 2005 are 

• Connecting knowledge to life outside school

• Ensuring that students do not just learn mechanically, without thinking

• Enriching the curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks

• Integrating exams with classroom life to make them more flexible

• Nurturing an identity of prime importance informed by caring concerns within the country’s democratic polity

NCF primarily focused on 

1. Learning without any pressure so that learning turns into a joyful experience, moved away from textbooks as a basis for examination, and reduces stress – it suggested significant changes in the pattern of the syllabus.

2. To form a sense of self-reliance and individual dignity, which would be the basis of social relations and develop a sense of unity and non-violence across society

3. To come up with a child-centered approach to learning, promote universal enrolment and retention up to age 14

4. To instill the feeling of unity, democracy, and oneness in students. P. Naik has described quality, quantity, and equality as the three pillars of the education system in India 

5. With reference to social context, the recently published curriculum ensures that all schools are provided with a standard framework irrespective of sex, religion, creed, and caste.

ATTITUDE SCALE

 ATTITUDE SCALE 

 

               Attitude scales have been designed to measure attitude of a subject of group of subjects towards issues, institutions and group of peoples. 

             The term attitude is defined in various ways, “the behavior which we define as attitudinal or attitude is a certain observable set” organism or relative tendency preparatory to and indicative of more complete adjustment.” - L. L. Bernard 

           “An attitude may be defined as a learned emotional response set for or against something.” - Barr David Johnson 

             An attitude is spoken of as a tendency of an individual to react in a certain way towards a Phenomenon.  It is what a person feels or believes in.  It is the inner feeling of an individual.  It may be positive, negative or neutral. 

              Opinion and attitude are used sometimes in a synonymous manner but there is a difference between two.   An opinion may not lead to any kind of activity in a particular direction.  But an attitude compels one to act either favourably or unfavourably according to what they perceive to be correct.  We can evaluate attitude through questionnaire.  But it is ill adapted for scaling accurately the intensity of an attitude.  Therefore, Attitude scale is essential as it attempts to minimise the difficulty of opinionnaire and questionnaire by defining the attitude in terms of a single attitude object.  All items, therefore, may be constructed with graduations of favour or disfavour.

Purpose of Attitude Scale 

          In educational research, these scales are used especially for finding the attitudes of persons on different issues like: • Co-education • Religious education • Corporal punishment • Democracy in schools • Linguistic prejudices • International co-operation etc.

Characteristics of Attitude Scale 

 Attitude scale should have the following characteristics.

      • It provides for quantitative measure on a unidimensional scale of continuum.

• It uses statements from the extreme positive to extreme negative position.

      • It generally uses a five- point scale 

. • It could be standardised and norms are worked out.

 • It disguises the attitude object rather than directly asking about the attitude on   the subject.

Examples of Some Attitude Scale 

 Two popular and useful methods of measuring attitudes indirectly, commonly used for research purposes are:

 • Thurstone Techniques of scaled values.

 • Likert’s method of summated ratings.

 Thurstone Technique  

        Thurstone Technique is used when attitude is accepted as a unidimensional linear Continuum.  The procedure is simple.  A large number of statements of various shades of favourable and unfavourable opinion on slips of paper, which a large number of judges exercising complete detachment sort out into eleven plies ranging from the most hostile statements to the most favourable ones.  The opinions are carefully worded so as to be clear and unequivocal.  The judges are asked not express their opinion but to sort them at their face value.  The items which bring out a marked disagreement between the judges unassigning are discarded.  Tabulations are made which indicate the number of judges who placed each item in each category.  The next step consists of calculating cumulated proportions for each item and ogives are constructed.  Scale values of each item are read from the ogives, the values of each item being that point along the baseline in terms of scale value units above and below which 50% of the judges placed the item.  It we’ll be the median of the frequency distribution in which the score ranges from 0 to 11. 

                    The respondent is to give his reaction to each statement by endorsing or rejecting it.  The median values of the statements that he checks establishes his score, or quantifies his opinion.  He wins a score as an average of the sum of the values of the statements he endorses. Thurstone technique is also known as the technique of equal appearing intervals.

The Likert Scale 

             The Likert scale uses items worded for or against the proposition, with five- point rating response indicating the strength of the respondent’s approval or disapproval of the statement.  This method removes the necessity of submitting items to the judges for working out scaled values for each item.  It yields scores very similar to those obtained from the Thurstone scale.  The first step is the collection of a number of statements about the subject in question.  Statements may or may not be correct but they must be representative of opinion held by a substantial number of people.  They must express definite favourableness or unfavourableness to a particular point of view.  The number of favourable and unfavourable statements should be approximately equal.  A trial test may be administered to a number of subjects.  Only those items that correlate with the total test should be retained. All favourable statements are scored from maximum to minimum i. e. from a score of 5 to a score of one or 5 for strongly agree and so on 1 for strongly disagree.  The negative statement or statement opposing the proposition would be scored in the opposite order . e. from a score of 1 to a score of 5 or 1 for strongly agree and so on 5 for strongly disagree.

The total of these scores on all the items measures a respondent’s favourableness towards the subject in question.  If a scale consists of 30 items, the following score values will be of interest. 

 

 30x 5=150     Most favourable response possible 

 30x 3= 90      A neutral attitude 

 30 x1= 30       Most unfavourable attitude 

 

 It is thus known as a method of summated ratings.  The summed  score of any individual would fall between 30 and 150.  scores above 50 will indicate a favourable and scores below go an unfavourable attitude.

Limitations of Attitude Scale  

 In the attitude scale the following limitations may occur:

 • An individual may express socially acceptable opinion conceal his real attitude. • An individual may not be a good judge of himself and may not be clearly aware of his real attitude.

 • He may not have been controlled with a real situation to discover what his real attitude towards a specific phenomenon was

. • There is no basis for believing that the five positions indicated in the Likert’s scale are equally spaced.

 • It is unlikely that the statements are of equal value in ‘forness’ or “againstness”. It is doubtful whether equal scores obtained by several individuals would indicate equal favourableness towards again position.

 • It is unlikely that a respondent can validity react to a short statement on a printed form in the absence of real like qualifying Situation.

 • In spite of anonymity of response, Individuals tend to respond according to what they should feel rather than what they really feel. 

 

Construction 

 In making the initial list of statements the following criteria are listed by Edward (1957). 

• Avoid the statement that refers to the past rather than to the present

• Avoid statement interpreted in more than one way

• Avoid statements irrelevant to the psychological object under construction 

• Keep the language of the statement simple, clear and direct

• Statements should be short, rarely exceeding 20 words

• Each statement should contain only complete thought 

• Avoid the use of double negatives

• Statement should be in the form of simple sentences

Collecting and editing of statements

A large number of statements which express a feeling toward the psychological object are collected. The number of favourable and unfavourable statements should be approximately equal.

Try out

The preliminary draft of the scale is administered to a sample of 200 subjects who are selected from the population for which the scale has to be administered. Each item in the attitude scale is followed by 5 responses indicating the degree of strength of the attitude.

• Strongly Agree (SA)

• Agree (A)

• Undecided (U)

• Disagree (D)

• Strongly Disagree (SD)

Selection of items and preparation of the final draft

                     According to Edward’s the two groups provide criterion group – high criterion group and low criterion group in terms of evaluating the individual statement. In evaluating the responses high and low group, a ratio of t is found out. A’ t ‘value equal to or greater than 1.75 indicates the average response of the high and low groups to the statement. Finally 20-25 statements with the largest ’t’ value are selected for the final draft of the attitude scale.

Reliability and validity

                  The validity of these type of scales can be done by comparing them with older scales. Content validity can be established by subjecting the scale to expert criticism. Reliability can be established through split half and test - methods.

Analysis and interpretation of attitude scores

                   The interpretation of the summated attitude score of the individual is done with the help of mean of the norm group.

Reference

Best, J, W;& Kahn, J.V. (2007), Research in Education, New Delhi: Prentice Hall  of India Private Ltd

Cohen, L; &Manion, L. (1994). Research Methods in Education (Fourth  Edition).London:Routledge

Krishnaswami, O.R. (1993). Methodology of Research in Social Sciences. Bombay: Himalaya Publishing House.

Neuman, W. L. (2011). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative

        approaches (7th ed.). Toronto: Pearson.

Reddy, C.R. (1987). Research Methodology in Social Sciences. New Delhi: Daya Publishing

House