EXPLORING FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO POOR PUPILS’ PERFORMANCE

IN SOCIAL STUDIES AT GRADE 9 IN SELECTED SCHOOLS IN LUSAKA

DISTRICT ZAMBIA

BY

MUTALE PRISCA

(2019099306)

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA IN PARTIAL

FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF
MASTERS OF EDUCATION IN SOCIAL STUDIES

THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

LUSAKA

2024
 COPYRIGHT

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means including electronic, recording, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise
without prior permission in writing from the author or the University of Zambia.

© Prisca Mutale 2024

i
 DECLARATION

I, Prisca Mutale, do hereby declare that this piece of work is my own, and that all the work of
other persons has been duly acknowledged and that this work has not been previously presented
at this University or any other Universities for similar purposes.

Signature of author………………………...... Date……………………

ii
iii
 DEDICATION

This dissertation is a special dedication to my husband, my parents, my brothers and sisters

including my beloved children Luumuno and Lwiito, who patiently coped with my
preoccupation and long hours of silence during this academic journey. May the good Lord
continue guiding me and add more wisdom in my life, to be able to overcome with confidence
all that comes my way in my career.

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 ABSTRACT

Social Studies is a beneficial subject to learners who take it, as it builds cultural awareness,
develop critical thinking skills, gain citizenship skills and main more. However, learner
performance in national examinations in Zambia has remained poor country-wide in general,
and Lusaka District in particular as evidenced by successive Examination Council of Zambia
(ECZ) reports of 2015 to 2019. The 2015 and 2016 Grade 9 Examination Results (Highlights),
which inspired this study, reported a nation-wide failure percentage of 39.65 % while the 2017
reports by ECZ showed 30.03%. Thus, this study was conducted to establish the factors
contributing to the poor performance of Grade 9 pupils in national social studies examinations
in selected secondary schools in Lusaka district. To do this, the study sought to establish: the
preparedness of teachers to teach the subject; the strategies teachers employ in teaching the
subject; the attitudes of teachers and learners towards the subject and the factors leading to poor
performance of learners. A qualitative approach, employing a case study strategy of inquiry,
was adopted. The following data collection techniques were used: classroom observations,
interviews and focus group discussions. The purposive sampling technique was used to select
teachers and Grade 9 pupils a total of 55 respondents were selected distributed as; 40 Grade 9
pupils 10 from each school, 8 teachers of social studies and 4 Heads of social sciences. Data
were analyzed qualitatively and identification of emerging themes. The study is based on the
theory of constructivism which was espoused by Jean Piaget. The constructivism theory has
relevance to this study, because the theory is particularly on Performance being an outcome of
learning, and the manner in which leaners learn determines outcome or performance.
Therefore, the academic performance in social studies observed from 2015- 2019 was the
outcome of how the subject was being handled by teachers. The study established that teachers
of social studies were mostly inadequately prepared to teach the subject, teachers using wrong
teaching methods, teachers not being involved in curriculum development, negative attitude by
both the teachers and the learners, teachers not understand the aims, purpose and goals of social
studies, less time allocation on the timetable and learners not having access to educational tours.
Majority of teachers lacked relevant subject background knowledge and were limited in terms
of pedagogical practices. Additionally, the serious shortage of texts books in some schools,
poor reading culture among learners, negative attitudes by some teachers and learners towards
the subject were found to be some of the major factors affecting performance. The study
recommends holding of periodic capacity building program, training of teachers of social
studies, and use of interactive teaching strategies as possible remedial measures. Teachers need
to be sensitized, motivated and supported on the importance of Social Studies for this will assist
to develop positive attitudes in leaners towards the subject.
Key words: Factor, Poor, Performance, Pupils, social studies, Lusaka district, Zambia.

v
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to acknowledge the special blessing and favors the Almighty God has bestowed upon
my life, career and education without which I would not have managed to achieve anything
significant in life. I also wish to recognize and appreciate the services and mentorship of my
supervisor, Dr. Mambwe for supervising my research project; it is such a privilege and blessing
to find myself under his tutelage. I need not overemphasize the professional and scholarly
manner with which he mentored me. I also acknowledge the following lecturers for their unique
contributions to my studies: Dr. Manchishsi, Dr. Chiputa, Dr. Mulenga, Prof. Muleya, Dr.
Mubita, Dr. Milupi, Prof. Masaiti, and [Link] and the late Dr Banda (MHSRP). From
all these lecturers, I gained a word of knowledge, insight and new focus in both coursework
and research project.

I also want to thank my fellow students in the three programs; Master of Education in Civic
Education, Masters of Education in History and Master of Education in Geography, for being
quite lively and supportive, and for all the good times we shared. Special thanks also go to the
following: the head teacher at my place of work, Mrs. Mutale, and deputy head Mr. Kankungu,
for allowing me to go on a two-year study leave. I do not wish to forget to appreciate my two
children (Luumuno and Lwiito), sisters, brothers and neighbors for the companionship and
assistance given to me during my studies.

I as well thank my husband for all he did to make my work and studies possible, my father for
the support rendered to me, especially when I was stranded financially in year one. May the
good Lord continue blessing you all.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT .............................................................................................................................. i
DECLARATION .......................................................................................................................ii
APPROVAL ............................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
DEDICATION .......................................................................................................................... iv
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................... v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... vi
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... viii
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... ix
LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................................ x
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ................................................................................. xi

CHAPTER ONE ...................................................................................................................... 1

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Overview .............................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Background of the Study ..................................................................................................... 1
1.3 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................... 3
1.4 Aim of the Study .................................................................................................................. 3
1.5 Objectives of the Study ........................................................................................................ 4
1.6 Research Questions .............................................................................................................. 4
1.7 Rationale of the Study .......................................................................................................... 4
1.8 Delimitation of the Study ..................................................................................................... 4
1.9 Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................................ 5
1.10 Definition of Terms............................................................................................................ 6
1.11 Chapter Summary .............................................................................................................. 6

CHAPTER TWO ..................................................................................................................... 7

LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................... 7
2.1 OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................................ 7
2.2 Nature of Social Studies as a Field Of Study ....................................................................... 7
2.3 Relevance of Social Studies ................................................................................................. 8

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2.4 Importance of integrating civic education, geography and history to form social studies
at junior secondary school. ........................................................................................................ 8
2.5 Teacher preparedness in teachinng social studies ................................................................ 9
2.5.1 teacher preparedness in terms of qualification.................................................................. 9
2.5.2 Importance of Teacher Preparedness in Teaching Social Studies .................................... 9
2.6 General factors that affect learner performance................................................................. 11
2.8 Chapter Summary .............................................................................................................. 13

CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................................... 14

METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................ 14
3.1 OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 14
3.2 Research Design................................................................................................................. 14
3.3 Study Population ................................................................................................................ 14
3.4 Sample Size........................................................................................................................ 14
3.5 Sampling Techniques ......................................................................................................... 15
3.6 Research Instruments ......................................................................................................... 15
3.6.2 Interview Schedules ........................................................................................................ 15
3.6.3 Focus Group Discussions................................................................................................ 15
3.6.4 Observation Checklist ..................................................................................................... 16
3.6.5 Document Analysis ......................................................................................................... 16
3.7 Data Collection Procedure ................................................................................................. 16
3.8 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 17
3.9 Ethical Consideration ......................................................................................................... 17
3.10 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................ 18

CHAPTER FOUR.................................................................................................................. 19
PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS ....................................................................................... 19
4.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 19
4.2 To Review Performance of Leaners at Grade 9 in Social Studies from 2015-2019. ......... 19
4.2.1 Interview Data on Performance Review of Grade 9 Social Studies From 2015-2019. .. 23
4.3 Stakeholders views on the factors contributing to poor performance of learners at grade 9

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in social studies. ....................................................................................................................... 25
4.7.1 Teacher Qualifications and Experience .......................................................................... 26
4.7.2 Lack of preparedness of teachers and bad attitude towards social studies ..................... 28
4.7.3 Lack of preparedness of pupils and bad leaner attitude towards social studies .............. 31
4.7.4 Specialist views with regards to lack of preparedness of teachers and pupils in Social
Studies ...................................................................................................................................... 32
4.7.4 Poor Teaching Methods .................................................................................................. 33
4.7.4.1Pupils views on the methods teachers employ to teach social studies .......................... 33
[Link] Teachers’ views on the methods they employ to teach social studies ......................... 34
4.7.5 Inadequate teacher training/ preparation ......................................................................... 45
4.7.6 Work experience of teachers of Social Studies............................................................... 48
4.7.7 Use of poor teaching strategies ....................................................................................... 48
4.7.8 Failure to cover/ complete the syllabus in good time ..................................................... 50
4.7.9 Teacher-relationship with pupils..................................................................................... 51
4.7.11 Low literacy / proficiency levels of learners................................................................. 52
4.7.12Failure to adequately prepare leaners on how to tackle social studies questions on
time…………………………………………………………………………………………...53
4.8 Measures put in place to address the problem of poor performance at grade 9 in social
studies ...................................................................................................................................... 53
4.8.1 Leaners ............................................................................................................................ 54
4.8.2 Teachers .......................................................................................................................... 54
4.8.3 Specialists ....................................................................................................................... 55
4.9 Chapter Summary .............................................................................................................. 55

CHAPTER FIVE ................................................................................................................... 57

DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS..................................................................................... 57
5.1 OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 57
5.2 Performance of Leaners at Grade 9 In Social Studies From 2015-2019 In Selected
Schools of Lusaka District…………………………………………………………………...57
5.3 Factors Contributing to Poor Performance of Leaners at Grade 9 In Social Studies. ....... 58
5.3.1 Inadequate teacher preparation ....................................................................................... 58

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5.3.2Attitudes of teachers/learners towards the subject ........................................................... 60
5.3.3 Use of inappropriate teaching strategies ......................................................................... 61
5.3.5 Lack of subject background knowledge among most teachers ....................................... 61
5.3.4 Lack of motivation .......................................................................................................... 61
5.3.7 Absenteeism and late-coming among learners ............................................................... 63
5.3.8 Failure to complete the syllabus in time ......................................................................... 63
5.3.9 Failure to expose learners’ examination type of questions in good time ........................ 64
5.5 Solutions to address the problem of poor performance at grade 9 in social studies 64
5.5.1 On Negative Attitudes of Teachers and Learners Towards the Subject ......................... 64
5.5.2 On Failure to complete the syllabus in time ................................................................... 64
5.5.3 On failure to expose learners to examination type of questions in good time ................ 65
5.5.4 On absenteeism and late-coming among learners ......................................................... 65
5.5.6 On Low levels of proficiency of leaners in English ....................................................... 66
5.5.7 On Lack of subject background knowledge and experience among most teachers ........ 66
5.4 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 66

CHAPTER SIX ...................................................................................................................... 68

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................... 68
6.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 68
6.2 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 68
6.6 Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 70
6.7 Proposals for future research ............................................................................................. 71
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................... 72
APPEDIX A: INTRODUCTORY LETTER FROM UNZA ................................................... 77
APPEDIX B: PERMISSION LETTER TO DEBS OFFICE LUSAKA FROM UNZA ......... 78
APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR SPECIALIST (C.D.C, MOE & E.C.Z) ............. 79
APPENDIX D: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR HEADS OF DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES AND TEACHERS OF SOCIAL STUDIES ........................................................ 81
APPENDIX E: FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR GRADE NINE LEARNERS
.................................................................................................................................................. 83
APPENDIX F: LESSON OBSERVATION CHECKLIST ..................................................... 85

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xi
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.2: Summarised illustrations on principles that guide constructivism theory……30

Figure 4.1: ECZ report highlight 2015 grade 9 national results…………………………..30

Figure 4.2: ECZ report highlight 2016 grade 9 national results…………………………...31

Figure 4.3: ECZ report highlight 2017 grade 9 national results…………………………….31

Figure 4.4: ECZ report highlight 2018 grade 9 national results……………………………32

Figure 4.5: Methods teachers use in teaching of social studies…………………………….32

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1performance of grade 9 in social studies in national grade 9 examination 2015-

2019

Table 4.1 school number 1 grade 9 2017.2018 & 2019 ECZ results by subject

Table 4.2 school number 1 grade 9 2017.2018 & 2019 ECZ results by subject

Table 4.3 school number 1 grade 2017.2018 & 2019 ECZ results by subject

Table 4.4 school number 1 grade 9 2017.2018 & 2019 ECZ results by subject

Table 4.5 the qualifications of teachers of social studies

Table 4.6 the qualifications of specialists of social studies

Table 4.6 teaching experiences of teachers in teaching social studies

Table 4.7 experience of specialist of social studies in high offices

Table 5.1 shows performance of leaners in social studies in national grade 9 examination
from 2015-2091

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 LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: Introductory letter from UNZA

APPENDIX B: Permission to conduct research

APPENDIX C: Interview guide for specialist in higher offices (C.D.C, & ECZ)

APPENDIX D: Interview guide for HODs of social sciences and teachers of social studies

APPENDIX E: Focus group discussion guide for grade nine leaners

APPENDIX F: Lesson observation checklist

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 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

CDC Curriculum Development Canter

CPD Continuous Professional Development

DEBS District Education Board Secretary

ECZ Examination Council of Zambia

GRACE Grade Teachers at Resource Centre.

ICT Information Communication Technology

MOGE Ministry of General Education

S.S Social Studies

TGM Teacher Group Meeting

UNZA University of Zambia

xi
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview

This chapter presents a background to the study. The chapter also presents the statement of
the problem, purpose of the study, objectives of the study, research questions, significance
of the study, delimitations of the study, conceptual and theoretical framework and
operational of terms used in this study.

1.2 Background of the Study

The 2015 grade 9 candidates were the first cohort to write the social studies examination
under the revised curriculum of 2013 which was implemented in 2014. Before then, Civics,
Geography and History were taught as independent subjects from junior secondary to
senior secondary school. According to the Zambian Education Curriculum Framework
(2013), “the changes in the curriculum came as a result of having similar content in the
subjects as well as similar competences. “If the change was not done learning could have
been boring, due to repetition of same topics in the three subjects.

The Zambia Education Curriculum Framework (2013) further states that, “the three
subjects (History, Geography and Civics) were intergraded to reduce the number of subjects
to be offered at junior secondary”. Unlike making several of the subjects optional, the
Ministry attaches a lot of importance to these subjects and, therefore, it cannot afford to
make them optional at this level (grades 8 and 9). The Curriculum Framework (2013) also
recognises that, “lately History is becoming an unpopular subject among leaners at grades
8 and 9, and making it optional means majority of leaners will not take it.” The three stated
reasons therefore, led to the birth of Social Studies at grades 8 and 9 countrywide.

The study of Social Studies, can go a long way in helping nurture individuals to possess
skills and competences that will enable them become useful citizens in the modern society
and contribute not only to the development at various levels of human life but also to the
resolution oconflicts in society (Mambwe, 2019). Taylor & Francis (1933) opines that, the
knowledge of Social Studies can be used to reduce conflict among people and the entire
nation.” This is so especially in Zambia where social and political disputes are seen
everywhere among people. With no doubt, possession of interpersonal and other social
skills which come through learning of Social Studies (Taylor & Francis 1933) can help
facilitate peaceful co-existence in society, which is what the nation needs most currently.
1
The achievement of such values is important for the developmental aspiration of any nation,
more especially developing ones like Zambia. The country is equally in need of citizens
who can contribute positively to its developmental agenda. the ‘Vision 2030’ document
(p.2), states that:

Zambians, by 2030, aspire to live in a strong and dynamic middle-

income industrial nation that provides opportunities for improving the
well-being of all, embodying values of socio-economic justice,
underpinned by the principles of; (1) gender responsive sustainable
development; (2) democracy; (3) respect for human rights;(4) good
traditional and family values; (5) positive attitude towards work; (6)
peaceful coexistence, and (7) private public partnerships.

Social Studies is, therefore, one subject where most of the above stated qualities in a person
can be fulfilled. As outlined in the 2013 Social Studies syllabus, the aim and objective of social
studies include (1) to develop understanding of the functions of social institutions and roles of
individuals and groups in different cultural settings in both the past and present situations, ( 2)
understanding for the influence of values, traditions, technological, educational, and cultural
developments on individual and group behavior, (3) creation for awareness of man’s interaction
with the environment, (4) create an understanding of democratic beliefs such as civil and
human rights, (5) develop a positive attitude to the motto one Zambia one nation and many
more.

Despites its benefits outlined above and many more, Social Studies learner performance in
national examinations is below the expected standard in Zambia. The country has been
recording poor performance at grade 9 in Social Studies examinations since [Link]
to the Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) performance report, the failure percentage in
Social Studies for the year 2015-2019 in national grade 9 examinations has been below the
40% pass mark (see Table 1). Such poor performance does not inspire the realization of the
benefits of Social Studies as outlined above. This, therefore, provided the motivation to
undertake this study.

The study focuses on years 2015-2019 in this research, reason being in the year 2015, that’s
when Social Studies was examined for the first time at junior secondary. And since then,
performance records at national level has been poor. Four to five years of investigating the root
cause of poor performance is quite enough to get the needed data. Looking at the nature of a

2
research (qualitative), tools used and sampling techniques like purposive sampling where you
target people with rich information.

Table 1 Performance of Grade 9 In Social Studies in National Grade 9 Examinations, 2015-

2019.
YEAR PERFOMANCE PASS
RATE IN % MARK
IN %
2015 36.72 40
2016 39.72 40
2017 40.95 40
2018 33.83 40
2019 38.53 40

1.3 Problem Statement

The Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) 2015 grade nine performance review report
shows that the performance of candidates in social studies was below the 40% pass mark
at 36.72%. In 2015 and 2016, the performance in Social Studies was 39.65%. The poor
performance was repeated in 2017 and 2018 in which Social Studies recorded pass rates of
30.03% and 33. 73%, respectively. In the year 2019, Social Studies still recorded the lowest
performance among other subjects at 48.53%.
Such poor performance in social studies presents a problem because if not addressed, the
aim of the social studies curriculum such as helping to nurture individuals to possess skills
and competences that will enable them become useful citizens in society and contribute not
only to the development at various levels of human life but also to the resolution of conflicts
in society will not be achieved (Taylor & Francis, 1933). Furthermore, with such poor
performance, the possession of interpersonal and other social skills which come through
learning of Social Studies to help facilitate peaceful co-existence in society, would not be
realized. The study therefore investigated the factors contributing to the poor performance
of leaners in Social Studies since its introduction in 2014 under the revised 2013 curriculum
framework.

1.4 Aim of the Study

The study sought to establish the factors contributing to poor pupil performance in Social
Studies at grade 9 in selected schools in Lusaka district of Zambia.

3
1.5 Objectives of the Study

This research was guided by the following objectives;

i) To review performance of leaners at grade 9 in Social Studies from 2015-2019 in

selected schools of Lusaka district.
ii) To describe stakeholders’ views on the factors contributing to poor performance
among leaners at grade 9 in Social Studies in the selected secondary schools.
iii) To establish measures put in place to address the problem of poor performance at grade
9 in Social Studies in the selected secondary schools.

1.6 Research Questions

i) How has been performance of leaners in Social Studies in national grade 9

examinations from 2015-2019 in the selected secondary schools in Lusaka district?
ii) What are the stakeholder’s views on the factors contributing to poor performance of
leaners at grade 9 in Social Studies in the selected secondary schools?
iii) What measures have been put in place by stakeholders to address the problem of
poor performance at grade 9 in Social Studies in the selected secondary schools?

1.7 Rationale of the Study

Undertaking this study may help teachers of Social Studies to improve their teaching. This,
in turn, will contribute to the improvement of learner performance in Social Studies.
Additionally, the research findings may be used by the Ministry of Education (MoE)
standards officers to ensure best practices in the teaching and learning of the subject.
Furthermore, other key stakeholders, such as the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC),
and the Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) might use the findings in curriculum
development as well as in the selection of texts.
The study will also contribute to the available body of knowledge relating to the teaching
and learning of Social Studies in Zambia and the whole world.

1.8 Delimitation of the Study

This study confined itself to interviewing and observing three specialists, at least three; one
from each of the three departments (Ministry of Education, Examination Council of Zambia,

4
and Curriculum Development Centre). The study was also limited to the four poorly
performing schools in Lusaka district, namely school 1, school 2, school 3 and school 4
within Lusaka district.

1.9 Theoretical Framework

The study was based on the theory of constructivism which was espoused by Jean Piaget.
The theory states that, “people construct their own understanding and knowledge of
different things, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences”
(Lauritzen, & Jaeger 1997:76). It explains that when a person or leaner encounters
something new, they first have to reconcile it with their previous ideas and experiences,
maybe to change what they believed in or taking the new information as irrelevant.

The theory recommends methodology used in learning by the teachers, to involve at least
one or more senses like seeing, touching, smell and many more so that the leaners do not
forget easily. Constructivism theory also supports the involvement of outdoor activity in
learning, which includes field trips, so that the learners interact with the environment and
experience learning in real life. This theory also puts emphasis on the relationship that
teachers create with the leaners to be key on how pupils perform in their subject, for
example good relationship with the pupils results to great performance while bad
relationship with the teacher result to poor performance among leaners.

The main ideas of the theory are summarised in figure 1.

1. Learning being an active process where

senses are applied
2. Learning being a social activity where Key
learners interact with other people and components
CONSTRUCTIVISM the environment in learning
APPROACH 3. Learning uses language hence the
of social
language used influences learning
4. Learning being contextual wherepeople
studies
learn in line with what is believed,
known or observed.
5. Learning being gradual and not
[Link] needs knowledgets

5
1.10 Definition of Terms

1. Factor: One of several things that cause or influence something

2. Poor performance: Not good; of a quality that is low or lower than expected

3. Performance: How well or badly you do something.

4. Social Studies: A course of study that deals with human relationships and the way
society works.

1.11 Chapter Summary

The section has covered, the background of the study, statement of the problem, purpose of
the study, research objectives and questions, significance of the study, delimitations of the
study, theoretical frame work and conceptual frame work and definition of terms used in the
study.

6
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 OVERVIEW

This chapter presents and discusses literature related to the teaching and learning of Social
Studies. Literature from around the globe concerning social studies was guided by the three
objectives. The nature of study of Social Studies is discussed first, followed by the relevance
of Social Studies. In this chapter the importance of integrating Civic, Geography and History
to form Social Studies at junior secondary school is also addressed and also the importance of
teacher preparedness to teaching social studies and the general factors that affect learner
performance.

2.2 Nature of Social Studies as a Field of Study

Social Studies is a field of study that deals with man and his relationship with other men and
his environment. its content is drawn from several social sciences, the major ones being
History, Civics and Geography. Michaelis (1989) and Kochhar (1985) separately explain that
Social Studies is concerned with man and his interaction with his social and physical
environment, for instance, the manner in which man benefits from his environment as well as
sustains it. The central function of Social Studies is similar to the purpose of education, which
is the development of a responsible and democratic citizenship (Mambwe and Lufungulo,
2022). Schneider (1994) defined Social Studies as, “the integrated study of Social Studies and
humanities to promote civic competence.” Social studies are regarded as a collective study,
because it is a subject which concerns with the problems of man’s living in the society with the
view of finding solutions to those problems. It is also a subject which concentrates on three
areas of knowledge, namely the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. In the United
States of America, only few people think of the subject in a single form.

This is because many authorities see Social Studies as a plural form. Ololobou (1989)
conceptualises Social Studies as, “an organised integrated study of man and his environment,
both physical and social, emphasizing on cognitive functional skills and desirable attitudes and
actions for the purpose of producing an effective citizenry.” Social studies is not static, it keeps
on changing due to the factors of time and human development. It centers on the development
of man, how man influences his environment and how the environment influences him in
return. Ololobou (1989), notes in his study that, “Social Studies exposes the child to the societal
7
problems and how to solve the problems.” Some of the societal problems include; tribalism,
laziness, food shortage, bribery and corruption, child trafficking and many more.

2.3 Relevance of Social Studies

Social Studies is an interdisciplinary subject which relies heavily on the content of the Social
Sciences and Humanities to achieve the goals of preparing people to be good citizens. Wisely
(1987) notes that, Social Studies links factors outside the individual, in particular, the
development and use of reflective thinking, problem solving, and rational decision-making
skills for the development of creating involvement in socialization. The subject has been used
in different parts of the world to solve problems as well as for rational development. Kissock
(1981) states that, “In Britain, Social Studies is used as a citizenship education.” This implies
that people regard it as a subject where they tend to know all the beliefs, commitments,
capabilities and actions as members of the community. In United States of America, the subject
is used to inculcate democratic values, while in Tanzania, Social Studies is used for inculcation
of the spirit of African socialism (Kissock, 1981). Adeyoyin, (1977) states that, “in Nigeria
Social Studies was used to heal the wounds of the Nigerian civil war and inculcate the spirit of
national consciousness, unity and patriotism.” With the knowledge of Social Studies, people
tend to avoid the practice of bad vices like child trafficking, drug trafficking, prostitution,
bribery, corruption and many more which hinders national development. They tend to think
positively and contribute to the development of the society.

2.4 Importance of integrating civic education, geography and history to form social
studies at junior secondary school.

The world in which our students live is integrated and cross disciplinary (Tony, 2006: 97).
Creating adaptability, critical reasoning and collaboration are highly valued skills. When it
comes to fostering these skills in the classroom, integrated study is an extremely effective
approach in helping leaners develop multifaceted expertise and grasp the important role
interrelationship can play in the real world. Diamond and Hopson (2003), as cited in Cuthrell
and Yates, (2007), point out that, the child’s brain searches for patterns and connections in
order to build meaning and an integrated kind of learning subject promotes this type of brain
growth and development through the rich environment. Cuthrell and Yate further state that, the
balanced integration of subjects is based on best knowledge of how children develop and learn.
All the outlined factors call for an interdisciplinary approach to education like integrating
Civics, Geography and History which form Social Studies.

8
2.5 Teacher preparedness in teachinng social studies

2.5.1 teacher preparedness in terms of qualification

For some years now, researchers have shown the impact that qualified teachers have on student
growth and learning (Clotfoiter, Ladd, &Vendor, 2010), which include teachers being
considered as the most important factor in students’ educational settings, whereas even parents
can’t refute the importance of a qualified and prepared teacher. Teaching is all about content
knowledge and knowing exactly what to teach and how to teach it (methods to use). In the
same line of thought, scholars like, Clotfoiter and Kochhar separately point out that, there are
ample division on what constitutes a qualified teacher. To them content knowledge and
pedagogical skills is what makes a qualified teacher. Other scholars, like Shulman (1986),
criticize value pedagogy skills thinking that it is based on the job to the actual work. An
example is that of college professors who obtain degrees in subject areas yet receive little
pedagogical training before starting their given work. For teachers to be considered ready in
their work, they need to prepare in the following areas: teaching methods or strategies, practice
teaching, know how to select and adapt instructional materials, course work in leaner
psychology, have opportunities to observe other teachers` ways of teaching, and have formal
feedback on their own teaching. From this perspective a teacher then can be considered ready
to teach, because thorough knowledge of a subject is less critical to

comprehensive teaching skills. To some extent other scholars have pointed out that a good
teacher can teach anything. In support of this, the National commission on Teaching and
American’s Future (1996) states that, the way to improve the teaching profession is to upgrade
the pedagogical preparation required for a new teacher. Nevertheless, there should be a balance
between content and pedagogy, Shulman (1986) labels pedagogical content as knowledge. To
this kind of thought, teacher preparedness is to do with content exposure and pedagogical
preparation.

2.5.2 Importance of Teacher Preparedness in Teaching Social Studies

Social Studies, like any other subject, requires teacher preparedness before teaching.
Outstanding teachers all over the world in different fields of speciality have proven today the
relevance of getting prepared before lesson delivery. This section explains some of the reasons
why teacher preparedness in teaching social studies is important.

9
Early preparation may include setting up schedules, lesson plans and selecting learning
materials and resources that help achieve curriculum objectives. Chapin and Messick (1989),
explain that, “Early planning, like lesson planning, material selection and many more, assist
teachers to prepare for the task ahead.” By preparing for the task ahead it implies that, a teacher
who has the already made lesson plan before teaching is clear about what he or she is going to
teach. This also gives room to research on the topic thoroughly so that additional information
is collected for the sake of the learner. A well-organized teacher, with a lesson plan along in
his teaching, is always prepared for questions from the pupils and confidently answers back
without any embarrassment.

In line with preparedness, teachers of Social Studies need to be involved in meetings, staff
training, conferences and other on-going learning programs. Callison and Preddy (2006) put it
clear that, “staff trainings, conferences or workshops helps teachers to stay abreast with the
current data and not following the old one”. This also carries together new techniques or
mechanisms to use in teaching of the subject, which go hand in hand with confidence building
and being aware of new teaching styles that are currently in vogue, as well as adhering to the
best teaching practices that deliver effective teaching. And, therefore, by so doing, a teacher
comes to be known as confident teacher who is well informed and highly knowledgeable.
Callison and Preddy (2006) pointed out that, “Teacher preparedness before teaching assists in
with time management.” A lesson which has been planned already consumes less time to
deliver, it also helps you a teacher to teach the important sections of a topic within the
prescribed time period, leaving you with a lot of free time to evaluate your work as an educator.
A well-prepared teacher has no time to waste or go around and round on the same thing. Early
preparation also helps to control or direct the teacher in the right path and not astray or teaching
outside the topic. In the end, it leaves ample time to reflect and carry out evaluations on leaners
who need extra-help.

Early preparations assist in coming up with good questions that maybe helpful to the learners
and teacher in meeting intended objectives and gather correct data for the lesson. “Early
preparation gives a clear-route and map to effective work” (Kilpatrick et al., 2003). In case of
class exchange, the teacher taking over will know on what has been already covered by the
other teacher. Knowing what has been covered helps to avoid repetition of the same work
which may result into making the work boring to the learners. Having a clear route in line with

10
early preparations can also mean that, the teacher tends to discover new methods of handling
his/her work, that leads him or her to present his/her work in a unique manner, making his or
her work more outstanding to the rest of the teachers. Such a teacher puts in mind questions
like what to teach and how to teach. Questions of this nature assist the teacher on topics to
teach to leaners those that have not yet been taught before to them in line with what is in their
syllabus and how they should be taught, that is methods to use, matching the teaching pattern
with the learning abilities of your students for effectiveness in teaching.

2.6 General factors that affect learner performance

According to Jarvin (2011), there are variant of factors that affect learning in a particular
situation and many cause learners to become more or less active.” They include individual
leaners and situational differences, goals and purposes for learning.

General factors that may hinder leaner performance include: over enrolment, distance to the
school, teacher related issues and inadequate funding.

2.6.1 Over enrolment: According to Molopo (2010), most Zambian schools are characterized
by over enrolments. This has always had a negative impact on the quality of educational
achievement by learners. This is so because of the higher teacher to pupil ratio, pupil to
classroom ratio, pupil to book ratio and pupil to desk ratio. To this, Molopo adds that, these
factors make learning unpleasant. Teachers are also unable to give individual attention to
learners, which disadvantages the slow learners who, in one way or the other, could benefit
from remedial work (Ndoye, 2007).

2.6.2 Teacher related issues: Teacher interaction with pupils is very important in achieving
excellent performance. Mbozi (2008) states that, teacher pupil relations are among factors that
affect academic performance of learners. Poor performance on social studies maybe as a result
of the manner in which it is taught. This demands that care must be taken in handling the
subject. No doubt teachers need to create striking classroom displays and involve pupils in
making models, to get them decide on definitions and then to let them explore the logical
consequences.

An example of poor teacher-pupil relationship can be that of a teacher using abusive language
to pupils or shouting at them for unknown reasons. This result in learners feeling uncomfortable
and full of fear towards the teacher. And most of the learners in such kind of situations tend to
abscond from school and in the end perform poorly. According to Molopo (2010), the

11
proponents of the humanistic paradigm state that an individual has freedom and ability to attain
self-development or self-learning and is capable of directing his or her own learning as long as
the environment is enabling. In this line of thought teachers are the key in creating this
environment; they can either make it conducive or harsh for leaners depending on the manner
in which they relate with each other.

2.6.3 Distance to school: Geographical location of pupils` homes relative to school may also
be another factor that may affect pupil performance in class. This is more to do with how far

their settlement is to school. Kelly and Kanyika (2000) indicated that the time learners take to
reach school lowers their academic performance, because such learners are likely to arrive late
at school and have less study time compared to their classmates who live near the school. In
addition, Mbozi (2008) states that learners who cover many kilometers

as they walk to school on a daily basis, arrive tired such that they fail to concentrate in class,
which in turn affects their performance.

2.6.4 Inadequate funding: It is of no doubt that, in any particular government school, the
government has a huge role to play. Among the role include seeing to it that subjects that pupils
learn in class are well taken care of by providing enough materials to use by both teachers and
learners, employing more qualified staff to teach the subject in schools and not using
community teachers, improving infrastructure which can go hand in hand with buying new
desks. However, Wikipedia (2010) states that, funding for education in Africa is inconsistent
and inadequate and that many of the difficulties experienced could be solved by allocation of
resources to meet the needs. Due to inadequate funding to educational institutions results in
failure by the school to purchase enough text books, learning aids or develop infrastructure that
motivate learners hence, poor performance by learners.

Despite studies pointing out the factors that points out to poor performance by pupils in school
and the measures taken to address the problem of poor performance in other study areas, a
proper investigation of the factors that may contribute to poor performance of pupils in Social
Studies and solutions to poor performance recorded in Social Studies in Zambia have not been
thoroughly investigated , there was, therefore a need for a study of this nature, to document
specifically the factors contributing to poor performance of grade 9 pupils in national Social
Studies examinations in the selected secondary schools in Lusaka district.

12
2.8 Chapter Summary

This second chapter has reviewed literature in line with the three objectives of this study. In
presenting the information, literature on the nature of the study of Social Studies as a subject
was reviewed first, followed by literature on the relevance of Social Studies to then the
importance of integrating history, civics and geography to form social studies at junior
secondary school. Review of literature on the second object was guided by two sub-headings;
that is, importance of teacher preparedness to teach Social Studies and the factors that generally
affect learner performance at school. Lastly, literature on the solutions put in place to address
the problem of poor performance has been reviewed.

13
 CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.1 OVERVIEW

This section drives us into understanding the methodology used in the study. In this section,
we are going to talk about the following subdivisions of the methodology: research design,
target population, sample size, sampling procedure, research instrument, data collection, data
analysis and ethical issues.

3.2 Research Design

The research was conducted using the descriptive survey design, due to its suitability for
describing the state of something in a natural way or as it exists. A descriptive survey design
was used through collecting data by interviewing a sample of people selected to accurately
represent the population under study (Oilk, 2003). Survey questions concern people’s behavior,
their attitudes, and what they think. To increase participant’s participation and achieving
accuracy and efficiency in data collection qualitative technique was used.

3.3 Study Population

The population of the study comprised of specialists in Social Studies from; Ministry of
Education, Curriculum Development Center, and the Examinations Council of Zambia. The
second group included specialist teachers of Social Studies and Heads of Social Sciences. The
third group were the grade nine pupils. These respondents were drawn from the already selected
four schools within Lusaka district. To select the schools, data was obtained from the DEBS
office in Lusaka on school performance in Social Studies and the least performing schools were
picked.

3.4 Sample Size

The sample consisted of four schools within Lusaka district. From these schools, four Heads
of Social Sciences Departments (HoDs) (one from each school), eight teachers of Social
Studies (two from each school), and forty grade nine pupils (ten from each school) were

14
selected. In total fifty-two respondents were selected. Together with the three specialists (one
from M.O.E, one from C.D.C and one from E.C.Z) the total number of participants was fifty-
five.

3.5 Sampling Techniques

Non-probability sampling was used to select the participants for the study. Purposive sampling
was used to pick the four Heads of Social Sciences Departments and eight teachers of Social
Studies. Purposive sampling was used to select these people because they were deemed to
possess rich information related to the issue being studied. To select 10 pupils from each
school, school authorities were asked to identify these pupils who could be part of the study.
in this way pupils were also purposively selected.

Purposive sampling helped in this research because even if a small sample was picked the
purpose of the study was fulfilled. Kasonde Ng’andu (2013) indicates that,” the power of
purposive sampling lies in selecting people with rich information for the in-depth analysis
related to the issue being studied”.

3.6 Research Instruments

To collect data for this research, the following instruments was used: questionnaires, interview
schedules, focus group discussion guide observation checklist and document analysis
3.6.1 Questionnaire
An unstructured questionnaire with open-ended questions was used, to obtain primary data
from HODs and teachers. The questionnaire was used to get data for the study, for it helped to
gather factors from stakeholders contributing to poor performance among learners at grade 9
in Social Studies and solutions.
3.6.2 Interview Schedules

An interview schedule with list of questions that were covered through interviews was used to
elicit information from officials from MOE, CDC and ECZ.

3.6.3 Focus Group Discussions

This tool was used to elicit information from pupils. Groups of ten grade 9 from each school
were used. The pupils were given topics to be discussed earlier before the actual day to enable
them to participate fully during the discussion. In this way pupils were able to provide an
opinion on what they felt were the factors that led to poor performance and to suggest solutions.

15
3.6.4 Observation Checklist

The researcher observed an on-going lesson of Social Studies in the four selected schools. An
observation checklist gave the researcher information about actual attitude of leaners towards
Social Studies. Direct observation was used in which the researcher focused on the behavior of
both the pupils and teacher towards Social Studies.

3.6.5 Document Analysis

This was another method used to collect data. For instance, documents containing examination
results at both national (ECZ) and school levels, were obtained and helped the researcher
compare how performance had been from time Social Studies was examined in 2015 to date.
Not only that, since the documents obtained included all the subjects taken by pupils at grade
nine, the researcher was able to also compare performance in Social Studies to other subjects.

3.7 Data Collection Procedure

To enable the researcher, collect the needed data from all the participants in this study, the
researcher obtained an introductory letter from the Assistant Dean Postgraduate at the
University of Zambia in the School Education. The letter gave permission to collect data from
all stakeholders involved in the study.

The researcher then visited the Ministry of Education, Curriculum Development Centre and
Examinations Council of Zambia. The purpose of the visit was the factors contributing to poor
performance of leaners in Social Studies in the grade 9 national examinations in the country
since the introduction of the subject in 2014. The visit was also to find out from these
institutions the measures being put in place to address the problem of poor performance at
grade 9 in Social Studies. Interviews were conducted with these officials face-to-face.

Next, the researcher sought the DEBS permission to visited the four schools. Within the school
permission was further sought from school managers to interact with HODS and teachers and
to study school documents. The questionnaire was administered to HoDs and teachers while
FGDs were held with pupils. This was done in the second term, being the appropriate time so
as to give chance to the grade 9 pupils to settle in their new grade and to learn for a term, for
them to be in a right position to respond to the questions.

Before embarking on this task, all respondents were informed on the nature of the research and
its importance. The type of instrument used was described before getting started, in order to
remove apprehension of victimization, and to promote honest responses from participants.

16
For confidentiality, the respondents were informed of the right to remain anonymous by leaving
out their names on the questionnaire, and to fill in the questionnaire independently. In order
not to expose the participants to COVID 19 (which was prevalent at the time), the researcher
made sure to follow the golden rules;

1. Made sure that hands were washed or sanitized before, within and after the
meeting,
2. All the participants were masked up
3. Physical distances were maintained during the meetings.
4. The meeting to be conducted outside the classes for example within the school
environment under any shed.

3.8 Data Analysis

The study employed qualitative data analyzing techniques, to analyze data. The data collected
through interviews, observation checklists, questionnaire, and focus group discussion was
analyzed by coding and grouping it emerging themes, in line with the study objectives. The
researcher thoroughly read through the data and demarcated segments within it. Each segment
was labeled with a word or short phrase that suggested how the associated data segments
informed the research objectives. After coding was completed, the researcher prepared reports
through summarizing the prevalence of codes, discussing similarities and differences in related
codes across distinct original sources/contexts, or comparing the relationship between one or
more codes.

3.9 Ethical Consideration

Ethical issues are key in creating a pleasant atmosphere, for participants to answer questions
with open minds. To create this atmosphere, the aim of the study was clearly explained to
participants before commencing the administration of the questionnaires and interviews and
conducting focus groups.

Permission was obtained from the University of Zambia and from the District Education Board
Secretary (DEBS) and from respective school administrations in the sampled schools. The
importance of getting permissions was for the researcher to use as part of evidence that the
visitation made in different areas was purely academic and to be able to meet the rightful people
and have enough time with them to get needed data for the research. In addition, permission
from relevant offices gave the respondents assurance that the interaction was well known by
their managers, therefore, there was nothing to fear, but freely express themselves.
17
The researcher assured participants maximum confidentiality in their engagement in the study
process, including respondents being informed of the right to remain anonymous by leaving
out their names from the questionnaire, and filling in questionnaires independently. Informed
consent forms were also attached to the questionnaire for participants to read first before
answering the questions. The participants were assured that their participation in the study was
purely voluntary and that they were free to withdraw at any time.

Where participants failed to make decisions to participate, then those were excluded from
participating. Lastly, participants were told the significance of the study, its risks and
challenges and the researcher made sure that the above issues were adhered to. To this effect,
all the participants in the study voluntarily consent to participate in the study.

3.10 Chapter Summary

The study used face to face interviews with the stake holders from, CDC, MOE and ECZ, and
questionnaire with teachers handling Social Studies in the four schools. Focus group
discussions were held with grade nine pupils and lessons were observed to collect the data.

This multi-method approach was employed in order to enable the researcher to triangulate the
different data sets on the other hand, the researcher observed social studies lesson sessions in
the four schools. the themes that emerged from the questionnaire, interviews, lesson
observations and document analysis are outlined under the three major objectives.

Therefore, chapter has outlined the research design used in the study by describing the research
approach, study sites, population and sample size. It has also discussed on, sampling
procedures, data collection and data collection instruments, data analysis techniques and ethical
considerations of the study. The next chapter presents findings of the study.

18
 CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS

4.1 Overview

This chapter presents the findings of the study, according to the objectives set out in chapter
one where were as follows:

i) To review performance of leaners at grade 9 in social studies from 2015-2019 in

selected schools of Lusaka district.
ii) To describe stakeholder’s views on the factors contributing to poor performance of
leaners at grade 9 in social studies.
iii) To establish measures put in place to address the problem of poor performance at grade
9 in social studies.

4.2 To Review Performance of Leaners at Grade 9 in Social Studies from 2015-2019.

The first objective of the study was to review performance of leaners at grade 9 in social studies
from 2015-2019 in selected schools of Lusaka district. To achieve this objective, data was
collected through interviews as well as in figures, both at national level (from ECZ reports) and
school level. Below are figures obtained in the table forms;

Figure 1: ECZ Reports Highlights 2015 grade 9 National Results (performance by subjects)
Figure 2 shows how learners performed country wide in all subjects, during the grade nine
examinations of the year 2015, records from the Examination Council of Zambia (ECZ).
Considering the information for 2015, when Social Studies was examined for the first time

19
at junior secondary school (grade nine), performance records show clearly that it was among
the subjects which did not reach the percentage pass mark of 40%. The record of 36.72%
already indicated poor performance.

Figure 2: ECZ Reports Highlights 2016 grade 9 National Results (performance by subjects)

In the year 2016 figure 3 shows that social studies recorded 39.65% pass rate during the grade
nine examinations. this was still an indication that is was among the subjects with were below
the pass mark of 40%.

Figure 3: ECZ Reports Highlight 2017 Grade 9 National Results (performance by

subjects)

In the year 2017, performance rate countrywide in social studies examinations was 40.53%.
Even though it was above the percentage pass mark, as seen from figure 4, it was the least in
20
terms of performance, compared to the other subjects from the graph whose records were
above 50%. This is an indication that the subject still showed poor performance.

Figure 4: ECZ Reports Highlights 2018 Grade 9 National Results (performance by subjects)

In the year, 2018 and 2019, social studies still recorded the lowest performance among other
subjects at35.73% and 48.53%, respectively. The performance which is quiet discouraging.

Table 1: School Number 1, Grade 9 2017, 2018 and 2019 ECZ Results By Subjects
S/ Subject Number Of Number Of Number Of
N Candidates Candidates Candidates Who
Who Sat For Who Passed In Failed In %
Examinations %
YEARS 2017 2018 2019 2017 2018 2019 2017 2018 2019

1 SOS 197 222 190 55 40 65 45 60 35

2 PE 145 167 135 70 65 80 30 35 20

3 HE 48 55 60 75 90 79 25 10 21
4 BS 51 59 65 67 60 100 33 40 NIL
L
5 RE 197 222 190 61 70 90 39 30 10
6 ENG 197 222 190 67 55 72 33 45 23
7 ICT 197 222 190 65 55 65 35 43 35

8 [Link] 197 222 190 79 63 87 21 37 13

E
9 MATHS 197 222 190 60 33 65 40 67 35

Key;
SOS= Social Studies

21
Table 2 shows the performance of candidate’s subject by subject at a particular school from
2015 to 2019. The table shows that candidates performed poorer in Social Studies than in other
subjects.

Table 2: School Number 2, Grade 9 2018 & 2019 ECZ Results by Subjects
S/N SUBJECT CADIDATES WHO SAT FO CADIDATES WHO CADIDATES WHO FAILED
EXAMINATIONS IN % PASSED IN % IN %
YEAR 2018 2019 2018 2019 2018 2019

1 SOS 145 120 60 55 40 45

2 ENG 138 120 72 75 28 25

3 MATHS 147 115 40 70 60 30

4 INT. SCIE 147 120 65 86 35 14

5 ICT 147 120 86 80 10 20

6 RE 145 115 86 90 14 10

7 BS 142 120 76 74 24 26

Table 3 shows results for 2015 to 2019 at school number 2 Comparing performance of
candidates who failed, Social studies has a bigger percentage as compared to other subjects.
Table 3: School Number 3, Grade 9 2015, 2017, 2018 & 2019 ECZ Results by Subjects

S/N SUBJECT CADIDATES WHO SAT FO CADIDATES WHO PASSED IN CADIDATES WHO FAILED IN %
EXAMINATIONS IN % %

YEAR 2015 2017 2018 2019 2015 2017 2019 2019 2015 2017 2017 2019

1 SOS 145 130 120 140 60 65 55 65 40 35 45 35

2 ENG 145 130 120 140 72 90 75 80 28 10 25 20

3 MATHS 145 130 115 140 40 80 70 70 60 20 30 30

4 INT. SCIE 145 130 120 140 65 80 86 80 35 20 14 20

5 ICT 120 110 120 135 86 70 80 90 10 30 20 10

6 RE 130 130 115 130 86 72 90 70 14 28 10 30

7 BS 100 90 120 120 76 80 74 95 24 10 26 5

Key;
SOS= Social Studies

22
The table 4 shows performance subject by subject for school number three grade nine exam
results (2015-2019). Comparing performance on candidates who failed Social Studies has a
bigger percentage as compared to other subjects. With records of 40 in 2015, 35 in 2017, 45 in
2018 and35 in the year 2019.

Table 4: School Number 4, Grade 9 2016, 2017 & 2019 ECZ Results By Subjects

S/ Subject Number Of Number Of Number Of

N Candidates Candidates Candidates Who
Who Sat For Who Passed In Failed In %
Examinations %
YEARS 2016 2017 2019 2016 2017 2019 2016 2017 2019

1 SOS 200 190 150 50 45 60 50 55 40

2 PE 200 190 150 55 70 80 45 30 30

3 HE 50 45 40 50 90 90 50 10 10
4 BS 55 50 40 65 85 80 35 15 20

5 RE 190 190 150 75 70 60 25 30 40

6 ENG 200 190 190 50 70 70 50 30 30

7 ICT 197 222 190 65 55 65 35 43 35

8 [Link] 197 222 190 79 63 87 21 37 13

E
9 MATHS 197 222 190 60 33 65 40 67 35

Key;
SOS= Social Studies

Table 5 shows performance subject by subject for school number four grade nine exam results
(2015-

2019). Comparing performance on candidates who failed, one can tell from the table social
studies has a bigger percentage as compared to other subjects. With records of 50 in the year
2016, 55 in the year 2017 and 40 in the year 2019.

4.2.1 Interview Data on Performance Review of Grade 9 Social Studies From 2015-2019.

Data obtained from interviews with teachers shows that teachers almost had same views
regarding the performance of leaners in Social Studies in National Examinations from 2015-
2019. The teachers stated that the performance of pupils in social studies National
Examination has not been good. The following is what the teachers said:

23
S1-Tr1: Ever since social studies was first examined in 2015 the performance of
the pupils at grade nine examination countrywide has been poor.

S2-Tr2: The performance has not been good, with the introduction of social studies
in schools from grades eight to nine.

S4-Tr 1: Poor performance is what we have been recording in social studies at

grade nine, from the time the three subjects were combined (civic, history, and
geography) to form social studies and be examined at grade nine.

S3-Tr 1: The performance has been poor. If you compare performance of pupils
in mathematics, you find that pupils are even doing better in mathematics than in
Social Studies.
However, some teachers indicated that they were not sure how the performance of
pupils has been in social studies at grade nine examinations. Nevertheless, an
analysis of their school records showed that the performance of learners in social
studies at grade nine has been poor. The following is what some teachers said:

S2-Tr 2: Well madam, eeh, if you look at the school rating of other subjects at
grade nine in our school, social studies has always been the least, making someone
to conclude that social studies performance at grade nine is has not been that ok.

S3-Tr 2: Madam the performance of pupils in social studies cannot be compared

to performance of pupils in other subjects. Social studies performance is the least
performed subject in this school at grade nine.

S4-Tr1: mmmmh… social studies grade nine examination performance has been
below standard, comparing to other subjects.

S1-Tr2: the performance of leaners in social studies is below average.

S1-Tr2: the performance is bad

S3-Tr2: the performance is not impressive. That has even been noted by parents
to the pupils.

S2-Tr2: it is very true the pass percentage has been below average and it is very
difficult to determine in which component they did not do well.

24
 Respondents from CDC, ECZ, DEBS Lusaka and MOGE had the following to say
regarding the performance review of leaners in Social Studies in National
Examinations from 2015-2019:

Specialist.1: the performance has been very poor, average of 39% of candidates
reach pass mark of 40%.

Specialist. 2: there is a decline in the performance of student in social studies

compared to the way pupils were performing when it was offered as history,
geography and civics at junior secondary school level. With social studies,
majority (of leaners) are in the fail compared to those who are able to pass. It is
a passing subject but only a minimal number reaches the base line of passing.

Specialist. 3: the performance has been below the pass mark of 40%, a sign that
it’s been poor.

The specialists at CDC, ECZ and MOGE clearly state that the performance in Social Studies
has been poor not only from 2015-2019 but also up to 2020. According to the Examinations
Council of Zambia performance report, the failure percentage in Social Studies for the years
2015- 2019 indicates that the performance of leaners in social studies in national grade 9
examinations has been below the 40% pass mark. In support of this, figures were given on how
performance has been from 2015-2019

Teachers` views from different schools also point out to the same record of poor performance
of leaners in social studies national grade nine examinations from 2015-2019 be it at school
level as well as national level. From the findings, it can be concluded that there has been poor
performance of leaners in social studies in national grade nine examinations from 2015-2019.

4.3 Stakeholders views on the factors contributing to poor performance of learners at

grade 9 in social studies.

The second objective of the study was to describe stakeholders’ views on the factors
contributing to poor performance of learners at grade 9 in social studies. In achieving this
objective, a few questions were posed to, specialist in higher offices, teachers as well as the
pupils. The second objective was guided by the question what are the major factors
contributing to poor performance of grade nine in national social studies examinations. This

25
 section therefore presents views of the curriculum developers (specialists from CDC, ECZ
and MOE), head teachers, teachers and leaners.

The major challenges brought out by participants are outlined below, and written as common
themes: teacher qualifications, teacher preparedness and bad attitude towards social studies
(pupils and teachers), Specialist Views by specialists with regard to lack of preparedness of
teachers of social studies and pupils towards the subject, methods teachers employed to teach
social studies, inadequate teacher training/ preparation, work experience of teachers of social
studies, use of poor teaching strategies, absenteeism and late coming, low literacy/ proficiency
levels of leaners and failure to adequately prepare leaners on how to tackle social studies
questions in good time.

4.7.1 Teacher Qualifications and Experience

Through the face-to-face interviews, the researcher managed to get information about the
qualifications and teaching experience of teacher respondents. This information was necessary
in achieving the second objective, which focuses on factors contributing to poor performance
of leaners at grade 9 in social studies. It was noted with concern that teachers teaching social
studies grade 8 & 9 in schools were not social studies trained. The teachers handling the
subjects were trained in any of the three components of social studies (geography, civics and
history).

These teachers also said there was no specific social studies training in colleges, until recently
when subject specialization was introduced in colleges of education and universities. It was
further discovered that despite the introduction of subject specialization most of the Social
Studies specialized graduates are still not yet deployed to schools by the government.

The qualifications of teachers can be summarized as shown in table 6

26
Table 6 Professional qualifications of teachers
S/N HIGHEST QUALIFICATION OBTAINED NUMBER OF TEACHERS

1 DIPLOMA 03

2 BACHELORS DEGREE 08

3 MASTERS DEGREE 01

4 TOTAL 12

Table 6 Shows the professional qualification of teachers of Social Studies in the observed
schools

The qualifications of teachers observed were that three teachers possessed secondary school
teachers’ diploma in civics/geography, eight teachers possessed a university degree in special
education/history and one teacher possessed a masters’ degree in civics adding on her first
degree in geography and civics.

(b) Experience of teachers involved in teaching social studies

As already been mentioned in the introduction to this chapter, teacher qualification and
experience in teaching the subject matter a lot when it comes to issues of leaner performance
in a particular subject. Good performance goes hand in hand with the qualification and
experience teachers have in their fields of speciality. The experience of the teachers of Social
Studies interviewed has been summarized in Table 7.

Table 7 Showing teaching experience of teachers in teaching Social Studies

S/N NUMBER OF YEARS NUMBER OF TEACHERS

1 0-4 02

2 5-10 05

3 11 and above 05

4 TOTAL 12

Table 7, shows that two teachers have taught four years and below, five teachers had taught
between five and ten years, and the other five teachers had taught above eleven years.

27
4.7.2 Lack of preparedness of teachers and bad attitude towards social studies

Data from interviews showed that teachers had different views regarding the adequacy of the
training they had received as far as teaching of social studies was concerned. Some teachers
stated that social studies are not a new subject; it has been there at primary school level,
although it used to be fragmented at junior secondary school. Combining geography, civics
and history to form social studies at junior secondary school level is not an issue since the
topics still remain the same. The teachers said they were very much prepared to teach social
studies. Consider the following responses:

S2-Tr1: I enjoy offering the subject, regardless of the performance of learners.

I find it to be interesting, though some people are complaining, that the
integration of three subjects has made the subject tough to deliver. I don’t see
anything tough about it.

S3-Tr 1: Madam, geography is my major and civics my minor. With history I

just apply my secondary school knowledge because I took History at
secondary school and passed very well. That helps me a lot to deliver. I am
not bored when teaching Social Studies. Moreover, we are talking about
social sciences.

S3-Tr 3: yes, because my services are needed at every level. I think you are
aware, madam, that the by combining of the three subjects to form one (social
studies) has lessened the issue of repeating the same topics to leaners which
use to

be common before the three subjects were integrated. For example; learning
and defining the same word population in all the three subjects (geography,
history and civics). Now, we are able to look at this topic only in social studies
as one subject.

S4-Tr1: very much prepared. The only problem which I can see, madam is
that, whenever something new comes in, which was not there, you expect
complaints from people. The fact is that social studies is not even new. It’s
been there at primary(school). Otherwise, the introduction of social studies
to junior secondary school is a great move.

28
 S3-Tr2: I enjoy teaching the subject, but the number of periods is not
enough for the subject (it has two periods per week/ per subject)

On the other hand, some teachers interviewed indicated that they were trained to teach either
two or one of the three subjects’ history, geography and civics not social studies which consist
all the three. To them(teachers), combining the three subjects to form social studies and
expecting three different teachers to deliver one subject is not a good idea. Consider the
following verbatim

S1-Tr2: Well, madam eeh, I am not prepared as long as the teaching has to do
with all the three components. You see madam, i may teach, to my level best, as
a history teacher on the side of history, then to my friends handling geography
and civics if they don’t do much, leaners will fail social studies. So, the issue of
three different personalities handling the same subject is totally wrong. For better
results from leaners in this subject, we need specifically trained teachers of social
studies to teach. there are no teachers, then better we go back to the old system.

S2-Tr 1: I am not prepared to teach social studies but subjects like civics
education, geography and history

independently. I was trained to teach geography and civics at college. Now, due
to the introduction of social studies at junior secondary, I was requested to start
teaching history too. I couldn’t refuse... I took that bold decision since l am a
teacher of social sciences.

Other respondents pointed out that geography, civic and history have similar topics and all
fall under social sciences. Therefore, the integration of the three to form social studies
implies that the methods used to teach them are also similar. As a result, they felt positive
about their preparedness to teach social studies. Consider the following statements:

29
 S4-Tr2: ... I really am comfortable teaching social studies. It’s not
like they have taken you to a different department; we are still in the same
department social sciences.

S3-Tr1: geography, history and civics all fall under social

sciences. For me, any one trained to teach history can teach geography and
civics too, as long as the interest is there.
S2-Tr2: very much ready to teach. The only thing the stakeholders
(specialist in higher offices) can do to help us teachers deliver well is to reduce
the topics we need to cover. I feel the time given and topics to cover have not
been well looked at.

Other teachers explained that they were beginning to enjoy teaching the subject. This showed
that, initially, they had had negative perceptions about it, and that having been exposed to this
integration, their interest was beginning to be ignited. The following were some of the
responses from these teachers:

S1-Tr1: Mmmmh, very much. Actually, now I am more inclined towards teaching
social studies despite having little knowledge in geography. All I do is thorough
preparation

before lesson delivery. For instance, reading more books to understand the topic
better, and more consultations.

S4-Tr 2: At first when they integrated the three subjects into Social Studies, I
told myself this was impossible. Now, I feel it has come to stay. I was forced to
teach civics which is not part of my training at college... now, I am enjoying it.

I find it to be interesting... I don’t know what I can say, but it is very interesting
and with time l am getting there.

Findings from the interviews with teachers indicated that some teachers felt teaching Social
Studies at junior secondary school is a welcome move, adding that social studies are

30
important and interesting subject. However, it was also revealed that the majority of teachers
thought, for the successful delivery of the subject, there should be specifically trained teachers
of Social Studies unlike three personalities handling one subject. This negativity was as a result
of the challenges that were associated with it.

4.7.3 Lack of preparedness of pupils and bad leaner attitude towards social studies

Findings from focus group discussions with learners revealed that learners had mixed feelings
about the subject. Quite a number of learners acknowledged the fact that social studies was
interesting and beneficial to them. The findings also showed that some pupils considered social
studies to be a simple subject. Consider the following statements:

P5: As for me, social studies are a simple subject. I just have to put more effort
on what I am doing.

Pupil.6: I like social studies because it teaches us about our ancestors, the maps
and our rights us people.
Pupil.7: social studies make your brain active. It also sharpens someone’s level
of reasoning. It has helped me to know about my rights

Pupil. 8: I enjoy leaning social studies. If only they can reduce on topics to learn
that can even be much better for me.

Yet, other learners held conditional attitudes towards social studies. One respondent, for
instance, said that it depended on the component being looked at.

Pupil.9: I only enjoy civic and history not geography because of maps.

Pupil.10: three teachers teaching one subject is so confusing and when it comes to
study it confuses me even more.

Pupil.11: the teacher of history is not good, that makes me not to enjoy history. So,
I only like geography and civics

Pupil.12: ok, the subject, madam, is just ok. The only problem is that it has a lot of
topics to cover.

31
 Pupil.13: the subject is ok, madam. It’s us pupils who are not just serious. Too
much playing and not studying.

Pupil.14: the time allocated to learn social studies is not enough, making us not to
understand the subject.

On the other hand, a few other learners stated that social studies is a difficult subject. They
attributed this to the way questions are asked in the final examinations. Others felt that the
study of social studies involved the use of difficult words. The following verbatim indicated
the feelings of these learners:

P 15: social studies is one of the toughest subjects. Like when writing tests, mid-
term and end of term, I fail.

P 16: As for me, I am seeing that social studies is a difficult subject. The words that
we meet in social studies, are very hard to understand. They are for grade twelve’s
not grade nines.

P 17: Even myself, it is difficult.

P 18: social studies involve seeing things that we learn, for example ceremonies
or paintings of the past we need to go out there and see for ourselves. Now madam
at this school

we don’t go (for field work). Just showing as pictures that teachers have poorly
drawn, so boring.

P 19: The only problem that is there is understanding. There are bombastic words.

Pupil.20: ehhhh…this subject has a lot of things to learn. Madam, ok, the subject
is hard.

The findings revealed that the majority of learners found social studies an interesting subject.
However, it was also clear that negative attitudes towards the subject existed mainly because
of the challenges learners faced which resulted in poor results in the subject.

4.7.4 Specialist views with regards to lack of preparedness of teachers and pupils in
Social Studies

The findings from specialists on the attitude of teachers and pupils towards social studies
shows that the majority of teachers have failed to accept change, which has in turn affected
pupil’s attitude towards the subject, as they gave their responses below:
32
 Specialist .1: Teachers have not accepted change. When teaching, they teach as a
component and not as a subject. The mentality of teachers has a lot to play in the
way pupils respond towards this subject. So, if teachers have a positive attitude
even pupils will have a attitude towards the subject.

Specialist.2: Teachers teaching social studies lack cooperation (team work) in

achieving better results. Even in teaching they are biased and only concentrate on
areas of their strength. For example, teachers of geography only concentrate on
the geography aspect, leaving out other areas. This is the more reason why pupils
became selective too. For example, statements like me I like civics and not history.
They hear that from teachers as they teach. s

Specialist .3: combining of the subjects implies that some teachers lack knowledge
in other components which they were not teaching before. This can be sorted out
by having CPDs. Now you find that during CPDs, the same teachers are not
present.

4.7.4 Poor Teaching Methods

Another question that the teachers and pupils were asked concerned the methods teachers
employed in teaching social studies. To elicit answers to this question, the researcher used
face-to-face interviews with pupils, Heads of department and teachers of social studies, as
well as lesson observation. This was done to have a clear understanding of what really was
done in social studies lessons in terms of the teaching and learning process.

4.7.4.1Pupils views on the methods teachers employ to teach social studies

Pupil’s responses were almost the same. A number of pupils cited the same approaches and
techniques as the methods teachers employ to teach social studies. Following the responses
below:

Pupil.1: the teacher will make us stand and ask us questions. When you answer,
that’s when you are allowed to sit down.

Pupil.2: the teacher brings a chart and asks us to state anything that we can see
on the chart. Then she explains.

Pupil.3: the teacher puts us in groups and then gives work to each group. Then we
present in front after answering in groups.

33
 Pupil.4: most of the time, the teacher gives us books and asks us to write notes,
from the text books.

Pupil.5; the teachers also write note on the board, madam. Then we copy the notes
in our books.

[Link] Teachers’ views on the methods they employ to teach social studies

Teachers’ responses on were varied; a number of them cited both approaches and techniques
as the methods they employed to teach social studies. Few teachers indicated using techniques
which were more teacher-centered, such as teacher exposition and questioning technique.
Most teachers indicated that they used techniques such as discussions, dramatization and role
play which were more learner-centered. Asked to state the methods which they used to teach
social studies, here is what the teachers said:

S4- Tr2: Sometimes, I use dramatization, question and answer and class
discussion bout mostly, it is question and answer.

S1-Tr2: We use question and answer, sometimes teacher exposition where I

explain certain concepts. Sometimes we use group work or pair work and
class discussions. Sometimes we do dramatization of some topics.

S3-Tr1: I have found the situational methods to be better, for example,

roleplay. There is also exposition where one has to explain in detail. Question
and answer is also another method including communicative approach.

S2-Tr2: Among them is drama, role play and even teacher exposition where
you need to explain where the pupils don’t understand. Normally, I use
teacher exposition, even drama and role-play.

Other teachers pointed out that the choice of technique depended on the text that was being
taught. However, they pointed out that mostly, discussion and role play were the commonly
used teaching strategies. The following were the teacher’s responses:
S1-Tr2: ... It depends on the topic you are looking at. But I usually use discussion
and role play.

S2-Tr1: There is group discussion, dramatizing, like when we finish the topic, I
would select pupils to dramatize and oral questioning, giving in-class exercises
abruptly not warning them (the pupils).

34
 S3-Tr2: Aaah, one of the techniques is group work. I normally tell my pupils to
go and read at their own time so that when they come into class, I put them in
groups to discuss.

S4-Tr1: I think discussion method is more precise and also group work in terms
of question and answer. And also, homework, giving them tasks for presentation.

Some respondents mentioned approaches like the communicative and project approaches.
One respondent mentioned the chameleon approach, referring to the use of several methods.
The following is what they had to say:

Tr. 11: Mainly, I use communicative approach. I use role play (when dealing with
plays) project method as well as group work. For now, we are using much of
communicative and group work.

S4-Tr1: I find role play to be crucial. Apart from that I use project approach by giving
learners questions to guide their book review.

The responses from the teachers showed that different teaching strategies were used in
teaching social studies. However, it was not known whether this was the case in actual social
studies lessons as pupils only mentioned few of the approach’s teachers used when teaching.
Hence, conducting lesson observations was done to help the researcher make a much more
informed judgment on what actually transpired in the social studies lessons.
(a) Lesson observation

Eight lessons of Social studies were observed in the four schools to establish the methods that
characterized social studies teaching with a view to providing insights on the strategy’s
teachers used to teach, the mood obtaining in the lessons, and the challenges that were
encountered. Observation checklists were used to record.

(b) Lesson observation descriptions

This section presents a description of the observed lessons. As indicated earlier, eight lessons
were observed in all the four schools in the study. An analysis of both teacher activities and
learner activities was made to depict how the subject was being taught and learnt.

school 1; teacher 1; Lesson 1

The school is located within Lusaka district. The grade 9 social studies class was being
handled by a degree holder who is a graduate of the University of Zambia the teacher had
majored in geography and minored in civic education. She had six years teaching experience.
35
The class had 30 pupils. The number of available texts books (social studies) was 40, shared
among the learners with a pupil - book ratio of one to one. The teacher began the lesson by
greeting the class and introducing the visitor (the researcher). The book that was being used
as a source of information was Achievers’ Grade 8. The lesson objectives were to identify
relief features and describe relief features on a map. After the greetings and introductions, the
teacher used the questioning technique to recap the previous lesson on map reading
techniques.

The teacher then told the class that they would continue looking at map reading techniques,
from where they had left off in the previous lesson. Then she wrote new words that were to
be learnt on that day; spot features, layer coloring, contour lines, trigonometric stations,
pictorial representation, hachuring and hill shading she asked the pupils to read the words as
well as to freely explain the words according to their general knowledge. Teacher wrote all
definitions given by pupils on the board. She thanked the pupils for their participation in
explaining the words and went on to correct the mistakes made by pupils. The explanation
went alongside referring to the chart on contour lines and spot heights.

The teacher then called for questions from the class stating that the lesson had almost come
to an end. One pupil, a boy, asked the following question:

Pupil: Is it correct to say contour lines can be used to show how deep an area is?
Teacher: Yes.
In explaining the teacher referred to the chart that she had drawn on contour lines.
Teacher: Have I answered your question?
Pupil: Yes, madam lam now clear

Teacher: Any other question?

Pupils: No questions, madam

Teacher if there are no questions then let’s take out our books and write an exercise

Exercise

1. Explain what contour lines are?

2. Describe the difference between spot heights and trigonometric stations?

After marking pupils` books, the teacher concluded the lesson by asking learners random,
questions with regard to what they had learnt.

36
School 2; Teacher 1; Lesson 1

The school is located within Lusaka district. The Grade 9 social studies class was being
handled by a degree holder a graduate of the University of Zambia. The teacher’s combination
was History and Special Education. She had six years teaching experience.

The class had 43 pupils; the pupils had no text books to use apart from one copy for the
teacher.

The teacher began the lesson by greeting the class and introducing the visitor (the researcher).
Then she displayed a phone, handbag, stones, fruits and rings on a table in front of the class.
She went on to choose four pupils and stationed them at different points. She then instructed
them to get whatever is of their interest from what was displayed on the table. After the
demonstration, she later explained the meaning. Due to lack of text books the teacher
throughout the lesson used her personal copy to teach; social studies learners’ book 9 and
Progress in Social Studies [Link] lesson objectives were to define imperialism, the
scramble for Africa, and the partition of Africa and to assess the aims of European imperialism
and the scramble for Africa.

After the greetings and introductions, the teacher wrote the areas that the topic was to cover.
This was followed by asking pupils to state and briefly explain what they saw from the
demonstration.

Pupil.1: The pupils rushed for the materials on the table at once.

Pupil.2: The pupils picked whatever they wanted, though others did not pick anything,
because by the time they reached the table everything was already taken by other pupils.

Teacher then explained the scramble for Africa in line with the demonstration that was done.
She also explained what was done to avoid conflict during the scramble for Africa and

brought out a new term, Belin Conference, what it was, when and where it was held and who
chaired it.

Teacher probes class on why the Europeans scrambled for Africa

Pupils.1: Looking for minerals

Pupil.2: Looking for land for farming

37
Pupil.3: Seeing the beauty of Africa

Pupil.4: Because of the beautiful falls, mountains and rivers

Teacher guides leaners on each category of the reasons for the scramble by stating and
explaining the following terms: economic, political, social and humanitarian cause.

Teacher asked the pupils to write the scramble for Africa in essay form bringing out the
meaning of the term scramble for Africa and stating and explaining the reasons for the
scramble for Africa.

Homework;

1, define imperialism. Scramble for Africa and the partition of Africa

2, what conference was held to prevent war during the scramble for Africa and where was it
held?

3, mention 3 economic reasons for the scramble for Africa

Teacher was unable to mark and conclude the lesson due to time which was not enough. It
turned out that even work which was to be written from the class became home work.

School 2, Teacher 2, Lesson 2

The school is a combined school situated in Lusaka district. The teacher is a holder of a
university degree from the University of Zambia. She has 7 years’ experience of teaching
Geography a component in social studies. The teacher had only one copy of the text that was
being studied, the teachers copy (Progress Grade 8 Social Studies Leaners Book). The number
of pupils in the class was 35. The topic for the lesson was Man and his environment and the
sub-topic was Fishing.

The teacher greeted the learners and introduced the visitor (the researcher). Thereafter, she
wrote the topic on the board. And told telling the leaners that the lesson was a continuation
from where they had ended in the previous lessons

The teacher wrote the words on the board in line with the types of fishing methods and
examples:

1. The subsistence fishing methods: spear, basket, hooks and lines, traps, drug-out-canoes

2. The commercial fishing methods; hand nets, fish craft, gill nets, seine or drown nets,
poisons and explosives
38
She then went on to explain the two major types of fishing as outlined above and gave
examples of each.
To conclude, the teacher emphasized the lesson outcomes. Which was seen by making leaners
stand then teacher asked the questions to leaners those that gave correct answers were made
to go for break and for those that were not able to of which in this case were only few remained
to sweep the class.

Homework:

1, Describe the types of fishing methods.

School 2, Teacher 3, Lesson 3

The school is found/ located within Lusaka district. It was recently upgraded to secondary
school status. The teacher is a holder of a first degree from a public university in Zambia. She
had barely a year of teaching at that particular school after being transferred from another
school. The book which was being used was Achievers’ Junior Secondary Social Studies
Leaner Book 9. The class had no copies to use except the same book which was being used
by the teacher. The objective of the lesson was to;

1. Define demand and supply.

2. Describe the law of supply and demand.

3. Explain how price influences demand and supply.

The number of learner’s present was 10; almost 28 learners were absent. The high absenteeism
on this day was due to the fact that, being a civilian day, the learners were

required to pay a k5.00 in order to come in clothes, other than school uniforms. This made
them stay away from school. It was a single, 40 minutes’ period commencing at 07:0 hrs.

The teacher made the pupils sit in a semi-circle at the front of the classroom facing the
teacher’s table. The lesson commenced with a question-and-answer session to recap what had
been covered earlier. The following were some of the questions asked by the teacher during
the introductory part of the lesson:

Teacher: The quality of money that enables travelers to pay different fares is

Pupil: Divisible
Teacher: The quality of money that means money should be very difficult to get is

39
The pupils were not able to answer the second question correctly. The teacher therefore
provided the answers, scarce.

After the introduction, the teacher went on with the lesson development where she explained
the meaning of demand and supply. The explanation was accompanied with examples. She
then summarised the explanation with the following formula;

High Demand=Low Supply=High Price

Low Demand=High Supply=Low Price

The teacher then explained how price influences demand and supply, with the following
examples: -A rise in the price of goods or services may lead to a low demand. A drop in the
price of goods and services may lead to a high demand.

To conclude, teacher summarized the main points of the lesson.

School 3, Teacher 1, Lesson1

The school is situated on the west of Lusaka district. It is managed by a Church organization.
The observed teacher is a holder of a university degree from a public university in Zambia.
She has two years teaching experience.

The teacher started by greeting the class and introducing the visitor (the researcher). She then
inquired from the class if everybody was in class. She was informed that only one learner
was absent (that she was not feeling well). The teacher went straight into writing the topic for
the day on the board, the development of slavery. The subtopic was slavery / slave trade.
Teacher asked the leaners for the meaning of the term slavery
Pupil1: Working for somebody without being paid.
Pupil 2: Being forced to work for somebody, and no token of appreciation is given at the end.

Teacher then explained the term slavery to the cleaners, as the system in which one is forced
to work for someone who regards him /her as a property to be bought and sold.

Teacher went on to explain the term ‘slave’, as a person who is legally owned by another
person and is forced to work without pay.

In groups, leaners were given a task to discuss the following task:

[Link] the reasons for slavery and slave trade.

2. Explain the effects of slave trade on African societies.

40
Pupils in their groups discussed the two questions as the teachers went around monitoring the
discussions in groups.

Then, randomly, the teacher appoints two pupils from each group to present the answers to
the whole class. After the presentations, the teacher corrected and added on to the answers
given by the class by putting Task 1 into, economic, political and social reasons. Then for task
2 she divided it into political, social and economic motives.

During recapitulation, the teacher emphasized the motives of slave trade and its effects on
African societies.

Leaners were given the following home work:

1. Research on slave trade routes

2. The Triangular Slave Trade and its stages.

School 3, Teacher 2, Lesson 2

The lesson begun with the teacher going through the previous lesson, explaining the terms
tourism and tourist. She then went on to state the types of tourist and the importance of
tourism, as follows:

Types of tourists

1. Domestic tourists as people or tourists within the country

2. International tourists as people or tourists from another country.

This lesson was at 10:30hours immediately after break. The teacher observed is a holder of a
university degree from a named university abroad. She had seven years of experience in
teaching. The class had 38 pupils. The number of available text books was 20 shared among
the learners. Therefore, the pupil – book ratio was two to one. The teacher commenced the
lesson by first greeting the class and introducing the guest (the researcher). Afterwards, she
wrote the heading Corruption on the blackboard followed by the sub-heading Types of
Corruption. The objectives of the lesson were for the pupils to define corruption, state the
types and forms of corruption, and explain the causes of corruption.

Then, the teacher asked the pupils to mention the regional organization that Zambia belongs
to, in line with the previous lesson they had.

41
Teacher explained what corruption is to the pupils as the abuse of power or authority for
personal gain. Then the teacher went further that corruption involves giving gifts in return for
favour.

Group work

The teacher then divided the class into groups and assigned topics, as follows:

Group1-discuss the forms of corruption

Group2-what are the forms of corruption

Group3-discuss the types of corruption

Group4-explain the causes of corruption

After discussions, leaners did presentations in front to the whole class. The teacher pointed
out mistakes made after each presentation and added on information left out by leaners. The
teacher explained the forms of corruption as nepotism, embezzlement, theft, favoritism and
bribery. She went on to list and explain the types of corruption as petty, grand and political.
Lastly, the teacher explained the causes of corruption, that is greed, poverty, poor salaries,

and ignorance. The teacher then gave an exercise, but due to time, the pupils were told to do
the work at home.

School 3, Teacher 3, Lesson 3

The school is located within Lusaka district. The grade 9 social studies lesson was being
handled by a degree holder from a public university in Zambia, with a combination of
geography and civics. He had three years teaching experience. The class had 40 pupils.

The teacher began the lesson by greeting the class and introducing the visitor (the researcher).
The teacher wrote the topic for the day on the board, Map work and mapping techniques, then
the sub-topic as Location of places on a map. He first asked the pupils what they know
regarding to location of places on the map.

The teacher distributed the maps and past papers for previous examinations to the leaners to
work out together as a class the questions connected to the topic.

42
She clearly explains how to read grid references, that the grid lines running from north to
south (top to bottom) are called Eastings because they represent distances eastwards from the
origin.

The grid lines running from west to east (left to right) are called northings because they
represent distances northwards from the origin.

When locating a place, you have to start with giving eastings and end with the northings.

FOUR FIGURE GRID REFERENCE

This gives a general location of a point in a grid square. Using a map the teacher explained:
take the readings of the eastings first, then the northings second. Then she gave the following
example:

70 71 72 73
33 A C 33

32 B 32
31 31
30 70 71 72 73 30

QUESTION: What is the four-figure grid reference for station C?

Teacher explains how to find the grid reference then gives the answer

Due to insufficient time, the class exercise turned into group work. The teacher then ended
the lesson by marking the work which was being done in groups.

School 4, Teacher 1, Lesson 1

The lesson was at 09:40hours. The teacher started the lesson by revising the previous lesson
which was on the Late Stone Age. The teacher made the pupils stand up, then one by one to
say anything they knew about the Late Stone Age and sit down.

Pupi11: In the late Stone Age there lived people called the Saan people

Pupil 2: The Saan people were known for their paintings

Pupil 3: They survived through fishing and hunting

43
Thereafter, the teacher thanked the pupils for their participation and wrote the topic for the
day on the board, that is Artistic paintings and methods of hunting. The teacher organized the
pupils into groups and gave them tasks to discuss.

1. Types of paintings

2. Methods of paintings

Each group was given chance to present their findings to the whole class. Then, as
presentations went on, the teacher corrected the mistakes made by the pupils and added a few
points which leaners had left out in their presentations.

Due to insufficient time, the teacher could not conclude the lesson. She, therefore, asked the
class monitor to find time to collect homework for the whole class from her.

School 4, Teacher 2, Lesson 2

The lesson started at 12:00hours, with a recap of previous work. The recap was based on the
topic Characteristics of human rights. Thereafter, the teacher wrote the topic on the board and
told the pupils that it was a continuation of the previous topic which was on Human Rights.
The sub-topic was on Categories of Human Rights.
Using class discussion, the teacher, together with the leaners explained on how human rights
are categorized. The discussion brought out the following categories:

1. Civil and political rights (first generation rights).

2. Economic, social and cultural rights.

3. Collective rights also known as third generation rights.

After the discussion, the teacher gave out group work to the pupils. She asked them to give
reasons as to why they thought human rights were important. The teacher then moved from

one group to the other checking the participation of leaners in each group, making sure that
they were all involved in the group discussion.

Afterwards group presentations were then made in front of the whole class and the teacher
came in to correct mistakes after each presentation she also added points that were left out.
To conclude the lesson, pupils were given homework and thanked for their participation.

44
Summary

Altogether, eight social studies lessons were observed in the study schools. The following
books were used as reference books; Achievers’ Grade 9, Longman Social Studies Grade 9,
Social Studies (MK) Grade 9 and Hantobolo Junior Secondary.

4.7.5 Inadequate teacher training/ preparation

The data obtained from interviews with HoDs and teachers of social studies revealed that
some teachers were not adequately prepared to teach social studies.
Consider the following responses:

S1-Tr1: Well madam, eeh, I may teach to my level best as a history teacher on
the side of history. Then, to my friends handling geography and civics if they don’t
do much, leaners will fail social studies. So, the issue of three different
personalities handling the same subject is totally wrong. For better results from
leaners in this subject, we need specifically trained teachers of social studies to
teach. If there are no teachers, then better we go back to the old system

S2-Tr1: To teach social studies…. mmmmmmmh, you see, madam, I was trained
to teach geography and civic at college. Now, due to the introduction of social
studies at

junior secondary, I was requested to start teaching history too. I couldn’t refuse...
I took that bold decision since Iam a teacher of social sciences.

S4-Tr2: integrating of three subjects to form social studies is really not a great
move. The stakeholders were first

supposed to consult more. Even consult us teachers and hear the response,
madam we are the implementers. It’s us who see the challenges that we go
through in our classes, not those in bigger offices. We just have to go back to the
old system. It is really confusing these social studies.

S3-Tr1: l am prepared but not so much,…my specialist are history and special
education, but still I am learning since I have no other choice.
S2-Tr2: In terms of being well prepared to teach social studies, well, I should say
lam trying to adjust. But the fact still remains the same that am trained to teacher
of geography and civics, making it difficult to switch to social studies.

45
 S4-Tr1: ... Iam prepared but not so much... my specialties are (history and special
education) but still I am learning..... Since I have no other choice

S3-Tr2: In terms of being well prepared to teach social studies, well, I should say
Iam trying to learn. But the fact still remains that lam trained in geography and
civics, making it difficult to switch to social studies.

While teachers viewed the teaching of social studies to be challenging, specialists had the
following to say:

Specialist 1; There may be no trained teachers yet to handle the subject as a

whole, but still we have teachers of civics, geography and history in schools. All
they need is cooperation to achieve one goal. By cooperating it means teachers
need to be having CPDS where they educate and inform one another with regards
to the subject.

Specialist 2: Teachers have not yet accepted the fact that there is change which
is offering social studies at junior secondary school to replace civics, geography,
and history.

The moment they accept this fact all will be fine. The moment they accept change
they will be able to share content, be cooperative, and do the in-service training
and so on. Which I feel will better the performance of pupils.

Specialist .3: Teachers resisting change is the major contributor to the poor
performance. They want to teach the old syllabus and not accept change.

This also adds on to the issue that teachers don’t know yet how to share topics.

With regard to the specialist respondents above, the researcher asked another question bringing
out pupils and teachers’ complaint on the bulkiness of the subject comparing to the level of
pupils in question.

Specialist .1: It’s not bulky, you know, madam. The subject is the first of its nature
so you expect a lot of complaints from pupils and teachers. I, personally, feel as
time goes on all shall be fine. We will all get used.

Specialist .2: It’s not bulky, but the problem is the way it’s being handled by the
teachers themselves. That has a lot to do with even when it comes to the pupils’

46
 mentality towards the subject. l am sure you know what I mean since you are a
teacher too.

Specialist 3: The subject is very ok and suits the level of the pupils. Actually, the
way it is in terms of workload is meant to prepare pupils as they proceed to higher
grades. The only challenge we have at the moment are the teachers (civics,
geography and history teachers), who in most schools fail to cooperate knowing
very well that they are working towards achieving one goal.

Pupils’ views with regard to the question of the subject being bulk for them were as follows:
Pupil.1: The subject has a lot of things to study madam.
Pupil.2: The notes that teachers give us are not well summarized. That makes it
difficult for us even to study.

Pupil.3: Mmmh…. Madam, me, I will talk about the books. To prepare for social
studies, we need to study three books: One for each of civics, geography, and
history. That makes the whole subject involving. If they can just allow us to use
one book for social studies, then, that, way, it will be easy.

Pupil.4: Madam, like my friend has said, surely, when we are told to prepare for
social studies test we have to go through or study three books before considering
yourself ready for the test its involving.

Pupil.5: I love social studies. The only thing that makes me uncomfortable is
having too many things to study for the exams. The teacher at times just asks us
to copy notes which are not even explained.

Pupil.6: Madam, I feel what makes social studies to have a lot of work is learning
about the Late Stone Age, Bushmen, and many other things I feel all that is not
important. They need to update the work. We should be leaning new things to suit
the society we are in now. Not things for a long time ago.

Pupil.7: (Straight into disagreeing with the friend) We need to learn about things
of the past for us to know where we are coming from. That is important, madam.
Maybe, what should be done is just summarizing the work for us to be able to
study nicely. And, instead of learning things in class, we need to go out there and
see things for ourselves so that during exams we just remember what we saw and
write.

47
4.7.6 Work experience of teachers of Social Studies

A number of teachers of social studies had worked for many years in teaching, a sign that their
experience to teach was good, accept that teaching of social studies to replace

geography, civics and history at junior secondary school was still new to most of the teachers
and majority feels it’s not a good idea.

Two teachers of social studies had worked for less than four years’ and one of them was
handling the geography component of social studies, teaching the grade nines. This teacher
barely had one-year teaching experience at the time of the study. Consider the following
verbatim responses:

S1-Tr1: I started teaching social studies last year. I was given a Grade nine class
for (name of a teacher) who went on transfer...just when I arrived at this school,
which is my first deployment.

S4-Tr1: Social studies at junior secondary school, I am just starting. I have been
teaching at primary school all along. I was transferred to junior secondary school
early this year after upgrading my paper as a secondary teacher (special
education and history). And, now l am even teaching even grade nines.

4.7.7 Use of poor teaching strategies

A comparison was also drawn to show methods/ strategies used by the teachers in teaching
Social Studies to Leaners in the four schools studied. From the diagram below, it can be
deducing that teachers in most lessons used teacher centered method.

48
 9%
1 st Qtr
10 %

2 nd Qtr
23 % 58 %
3 rd Qtr

Figure 4. 5 showing Methods mostly used by teachers to teach social studies

KEY
Teacher centered method
Individualized work
Pair/ group work
Question and answer

Despite the fact that most responses from teachers indicated that they mostly used learner-
cantered strategies, responses from pupils indicated that teacher-cantered strategies were
mainly used. Consider the following responses from pupils interviewed:

Pupil 1: Social studies is difficult. The reason why is that the teachers give
complicated examples, when teaching and mostly used bombastic words.

Pupil3: The teacher always leaves notes for us to write. We have a lot of notes
which are not even explained by the teacher. The fact that they are not explained
makes it difficult for us to study.

Pupil4: Some maps are not clearly explained by the teacher. When you ask [for
an example], she responds to say the key is there to guide.

Pupil 5: The teacher is too fast. I am not understanding

49
 Pupil 6: Sometimes he (the teacher) would leave the book and tell us to read in
his absence. Anyone would read.

Pupil 7: Social studies is difficult. The reason why our teacher only explains in
English. We don’t know English. Yes, when the teacher is reading from the ‘ka’
book, we don’t understand very well.

Pupil 8: The teacher reading in class... No, only the teacher has the copy. Unless
you pupils get the book which the teacher is using, you go and photocopy, that’s
when you can access the book.

Pupil 9... Madam, teacher (name of the teacher) is boring. She always makes us
sleep because she keeps on talking without letting us talk too.
Pupil 10: At this school, each term, we have a different teacher, who also comes
with her own rules. So, just when you start getting used to that teacher, they bring
a different one. That affects us a lot, madam.

Pupil 11: Our teacher, madam, is boring, when she comes, she just reads, then
asks us to keep quiet. After reading, she asks as to take out our books and write
an exercise. No time for as to ask questions. At times when she is reading, we fall
asleep because of being bored

4.7.8 Failure to cover/ complete the syllabus in good time

Another factor that was asked about was the issue of completing the syllabus before the time
for the final examinations. This was revealed by both the pupils and some teachers, some of
whom were found using grade eight books in grade nine during the survey. On this matter, this
is what the teachers said:

S2-Tr1: The time given (periods) to teach is not just enough. We fail to cover
prepared work during the lesson, and just end up giving home work instead of an
exercise.

S4-Tr2: If we had enough books for the pupils to use that can simplify our work.
Now, the situation of relying on one book for the whole class even where you need
to make pupils do the work at their own time to move fast you fail, because they
don’t have books to use.

50
 S3-Tr1: Due to having too much work to cover with the learners, we fail to
complete the work on time. In most cases, instead of revising with the leaners in
term three, we concentrate on finishing the syllabus and leaners go into exams
without revising or revising being prepared for exams.

The above sentiment was also echoed by a teacher who explained that she had been very
frustrated by the management in the school, that when she went on maternity leave, there was
no one to take cover geography component which she taught, until she came back. As a result,
she was rushing and panicking to cover work which was supposed to have been covered the
previous term if the department was cooperative.

4.7.9 Teacher-relationship with pupils

Teacher interaction with pupils is very important in achieving excellent performance. Despite
teachers knowing the importance of creating an enabling environment for leaners, a few
teachers were reported to have been creating a hostile environment for leaners. The following
were the responses from pupils:

Pupil.1: The civics teacher is so annoying, madam, like when you just ask a
question, she tells you that you are dull.

Pupil.2: As for me, madam, I was once told by teacher (name of a teacher) that
lam foolish. Only because I was arguing with his definition, because the book I
was using at home gave a different definition from the teacher’s.

Pupil.3: The teacher for history always likes giving us names when we fail to
answer his questions. Names like, you broken hill man, your head looks like
proconsul, you are short like a bush man. And all the friends would start calling
you like that. It pains, madam.

4.7.10 Absenteeism and late coming

Absenteeism was cited as another factor contributing to poor performance of learners. With
the responses obtained from teachers, some learners were frequently absent from social
studies lessons, this aspect was also noted in some lessons that were observed. In one

51
geography lesson, only ten pupils out of a class of thirty-five attended. In another lesson
almost half of the

pupils were missing. Some learners came late for the lesson, some up to twenty (20) minutes
after the lesson had started. Consider the following responses:

Tr 1: We have a big problem at this school, madam. Here is a leaner who does
not know how to read and write then this is the same leaner who frequently misses
lessons. How such a leaner can perform well in the examination? Such leaners
are the majority here.

S1-Tr 2: Another challenge is absenteeism. Most pupils abscond classes.

Pupil 1: I dodged from geography lessons because I did not understand what we
were learning... I do not like the subject.

Pupil 2: The teacher for civics, madam, is just too much. She likes telling us you
are big for nothing when we fail to answer a question and that makes me to miss
civics and just learn history and geography.

4.7.11 Low literacy / proficiency levels of learners

One other challenge that became apparent was low literacy or proficiency levels of learners
in English. Some learners were said to have problems reading and writing English. Focus
group discussions with Grade 9 learners also revealed that learners had challenges expressing
themselves in English. Consider the following responses:

Tr 1: Our learners come into grade eight without knowing how to properly read
and write. They find a lot of challenges in comprehending academic work...
S4-Tr 2: Some learners are not able to read and write. Illiteracy levels are
simply high. So, if they cannot read and write, it is very difficult for them to
perform well because the subject involves a lot of reading to understand the
question, then writing clearly.

S3-Tr3: The caliber of leaners received in grade 8, some of them don’t seem to
be able to read and write. The type of learners we receive leaves much to be
desired.

52
4.7.12Failure to adequately prepare leaners on how to tackle social studies
questions on time

In some schools, inadequate preparation or early exposure of learners to examination type

questions was another factor that was cited in interviews with Grade 9 learners. The pupils
explained that, despite being in grade nine, they had not yet started getting acquainted with
past examination papers. According to them, they spent more time on note taking than
preparation for examinations. Consider the following responses:

Pupil 1: Social studies has lot of notes madam. And when we ask the teacher to
assist us with a few past paper questions, the teacher always says we have not
yet come to that part. We will revise. First, we need to have enough notes to
study as we prepare for exams.

Pupil. 2: Yah, in grade eight, I was really enjoying classes. When I just wrote
my mock, when I saw the questions how they came even my mind got disturbed.
They gave us tests but I used to pass. But it came to mock, that is where I started
failing. Maybe, they should start teaching pupils how the questions come in the
exams just in Grade eight, not in

Grade 9 term three. It will be very difficult for them to answer, exam questions.
Pupil 3: Social studies is a very difficult subject because of the way questions
come. They really confuse people. And there are so many things to learn.

Pupil.4: We need teachers’ guidance on how to answer questions in the final

exams, like during mock time was not enough. For me, I did not finish all the
sections. That’s why I failed. Not sure how I will write during finals. l am even
more scared.

4.8 Measures put in place to address the problem of poor performance at grade 9 in
social studies

In order to achieve the third objective, which was to find out from stakeholders’ measures put
in place to address the problem of poor performance at grade 9 in social studies, a number of
questions relating to what the participants thought could ease the challenges of teaching and
learning social studies were asked to the pupils, teachers and specialists.

53
4.8.1 Leaners

The leaners’ major contributions to the solutions on challenges they faced in the leaning of
social studies, were as follows:

Pupil 1: Teachers need to involve us a lot in lesson activities and assign us with
a lot of tasks to do, be at home or school.

Pupil 4: We need to go out for tours (field trips), instead of learning within the
classroom all the time. Social Studies would not be as boring as it is.

Pupil 8: Having one teacher to teach social studies, is much better than three
teachers each with a separate text book which makes social studies bulky and
more complicated.

4.8.2 Teachers

The major solution that teachers suggested concerning failure at grade 9 was training teachers
of social studies. They proposed that, instead of three teachers teaching the three components
of social studies, one teacher could be trained to teach all the three. Consider the following
responses:

S3-Tr2: You see, madam, I may teach to my level best as a history teacher, then
to my fellow teachers handling geography and civics if they don’t do much,
leaners will still fail social studies. So, the issue of three teachers handling the
same subject is wrong. For better results from leaners in the subject, we need
specifically trained teachers of social studies to teach. If there are no teachers,
then better we go back to the old system.

S4-Tr1: Time allocation for Social Studies should be looked into. The subject is
just too wide due to it being integrated

S1-Tr 1: I enjoy teaching the subject but the number of periods is not just
enough for the subject [it has two periods per week].

54
4.8.3 Specialists

To find out measures put in place to address the problem of poor performance at grade 9 in
social studies, interviews were held with specialists. The findings from the interviews were as
follows:

Specialist 1: Poor performance is there, so as the office we are doing our best
to see to it that this poor performance comes to an end. Some measures that we
have put in place are conducting performance reviews and giving feedback to
teachers. Apart from that, we do meet teachers during gatherings like SOSTAZ
to share or discuss together latest developments.

Specialist 2: Our office, together with other offices involved, work hand in hand
to see to it that information moves along syllabus, the curriculum and what
comes in exams. We are also working extra hard that more teachers are trained
in colleges and universities to teach social studies. Not only that, we also orient
and sensitize teachers in social studies by going into schools. With the coming
of Covid 19, we now use platforms where we select a few people, for instance,
the DEBS, HODS and head teachers to disseminate needed information to
teachers in the country.

Specialist 3: We distribute materials in schools which include the syllabus and

text books which are first evaluated and then recommended by our members of
staff if they can be used in schools. So, for social studies grade 8 and 9 text
books, we have the following which we have evaluated and recommended
teachers to use: Progress in social studies, Longman Social Studies, Zebra
Social Studies, Achievers ‘Social Studies and MK Social Studies.

4.9 Chapter Summary

This chapter has presented the findings of the study on factors contributing to poor
performance of grade 9 pupils in national social studies examinations in selected schools in
Lusaka district, the findings have been presented according to themes derived from the
objectives of the study. The study has revealed that the failure percentage in social studies for
the years 2015-2019 indicates that the performance of leaners in social studies national grade
9 examinations has been below the 40% pass mark.
55
The results have reviewed a number of factors contributing to poor performance of leaners at
grade 9 in social studies: These factors include lack of preparedness of teachers/ pupils,
negative attitude towards the subject, poor methods teachers employ to teach the subject,
failure to cover and complete the syllabus in good time, poor teacher-pupil relationship, low
literacy and proficiency levels of leaners, and failure to adequately prepare leaners on how to
tackle Social Studies examination questions in good time.

Further, the study has ascertained that, while most teachers of social studies felt that they were
not prepared to teach social studies, specialists felt it was because a number of them have failed
to accept change. According to the experts this failure to accept change or adjust to the changes
that the new subject has brought, has resulted into a lot of negativities towards social studies,
like making teachers think the subject is bulk, that time given to teach the subject is and that
not enough, materials are not enough in schools.

56
 CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS

5.1 OVERVIEW

The previous chapter presented the research findings. This chapter compares and contrasts the
study findings with the reviewed studies carried out elsewhere. The discussion also shows how
the theory of constructivism which was espoused by Jean Piaget is applicable to the findings
of the current study. It is also worth noting that the discussion has been done in line with the
three specific objectives, as follows:

a) To review performance of leaners at grade 9 in social studies from 2015-2019 in selected

schools of Lusaka district.

b) To describe stakeholders’ views on the factors contributing to poor performance of leaners

at grade 9 in social studies in the selected schools.

c) To establish measures put in place to address the problem of poor performance at grade 9
in social studies in the selected schools.

5.2 Performance of Leaners at Grade 9 In Social Studies From 2015-2019 In Selected

Schools of Lusaka District

The Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) grade nine performance review reports show that
the performance of candidates in social studies stood below the 40% pass mark at 36.72% in
2015 and 39.65% in 2016. This appalling performance was repeated in 2017 and 2018 in which
social studies recorded pass rates of

30.03% and 38. 73%, respectively. In the year 2019, social studies still recorded the lowest
performance among other subjects at 48.53%.

Coming to the schools where the research was conducted, performance review reports for 2015
to 2019 shows that the performance of candidates in social studies has remained quite poor as
compared to other subjects. The number of candidates passing the

57
subject has always remained between 30 and 60%, unlike performance in other subjects where
passing is in the range of 70-100%. Therefore, social studies at school level has

been proven to be one of the subjects with higher records of candidates failing.

5.3 Factors Contributing to Poor Performance of Leaners at Grade 9 In Social Studies.

This section discusses the factors contributing to poor performance at grade nine. These factors
included, inadequate teacher preparation, attitude of teacher/leaners towards the subject, use of
inappropriate teaching strategies, lack of subject background knowledge among most teachers
and lack of motivation. Other factors are low leaner proficiency levels in English, absenteeism
and late coming among leaners, failure to complete the syllabus in time and failure to expose
leaners to examination type of questions on time.

5.3.1 Inadequate teacher preparation

In order to find out about the preparedness of teachers to teach social studies, face to face
interviews were conducted with teachers of social studies as well as specialists in higher
offices. Adequate teacher preparation is one factor that many researchers including Mambwe
(2020) and Mambwe et al., (2019) have echoed as key in pupil performance. In this study,
interviews with teachers, Heads of Department and other key stakeholders were held to
interrogate teacher preparation to each social studies as a subject. The study revealed that
teachers of social studies held different views regarding the degree of their preparedness to
teach the subject. A few teachers felt that teaching social studies at junior secondary school is
a welcome move, adding that social studies is an important and interesting subject and that the
integration of the three subjects has reduced repetition of some topics taught to leaners at junior
secondary. The Zambia Education Curriculum Framework 2015, for instance, contends that
civic education, geography and history have been integrated into social studies because some
content in the three subjects is interrelated and some competences are similar too.

However, it was also revealed that other teachers thought that, for the successful delivery of
the subject, there should be specifically trained teachers of social studies, unlike three
personalities(teachers) handling one subject. The negativity which was as a result of the
challenges that were associated with it more especially on subject competences agreeing to the
commonly held notion of, Clotfelter and Kochhar who separately points out that there are
ample divisions on what constitute a qualified teacher. To them content knowledge and
pedagogical skills is what makes a qualified teacher. This implies that teaching is all about
content knowledge and knowing exactly what to teach and how to teach that particular topic
58
(methods to use). In this case, most teachers of social studies in the four selected schools lack
content knowledge, with the fact that they were not trained to handle all the three subjects as
one. They were either trained in one or two only, from the three components of social studies.

This seems to contrast with views from the specialists in higher offices on teacher preparedness
to teach social studies as a sub-topic in answering the second objective on the factors
contributing to poor performance of leaners in social studies in grade 9 national examinations
in the country since its introduction to the syllabus in 2014.

Some specialists pointed out that, combining of the subjects implies that some teachers lack
knowledge in components which they were not teaching before, but still this can be sorted out
by having CPDs. Daniel and Preddy (2006) explain that, “staff trainings, conferences or
workshops help teachers to stay abreast with the current data and not following the old one”.
In the four schools this kind of training is not there, and because of that most teachers still feel
that old methods in which the subject was being handled is still the best and despite the changes
the majority of teachers in the four schools, are still using old books and methods to teach
social studies which has denied greater achievement in Social Studies.

Similarly, Pappamihiel (2007: 44) as cited by Correll (2016) also underlines the significance
of other determinants of teacher performance While teacher preparatory programs attempt to
develop teachers’ knowledge, scholars, psychologists and researchers have proposed that an
individual’s beliefs are so strong that they are more influential in determining actions and
behaviors than is learned knowledge. This is not to say that teacher training is unimportant, but
that other factors can affect or influence teaching. In this context, the views held by some
teachers that they could teach social studies based on the fact that they are still in the social
sciences department and that, in terms of pedagogy, still the same, are justified. Yet, other
teachers indicated that the fact that they were only trained to teach one or two of the three
components of social studies they cannot teach social studies. Such teachers stated that they
just taught social studies because of having no choice, they stated that teaching social studies
involved passion and that without it, teaching the subject would be a nightmare because social
studies involved reading extensively more especially current affairs. This finding corresponds
to Adeyoyin (1977), who indicated that, “in order to achieve greatness in social studies one
needs to be well informed with current affair”. This underlines the importance of a positive
disposition in the teaching of social studies despite the challenges faced.

59
Another point which the specialist brought forward was failure to accept change by the
teachers. The results show that teachers are not ready, not even are they showing any sign to
accept to teach social studies. Teachers still feel the time will come when they will have to go
back to teaching social studies the old way, as individual subject. Relating this with the
principles that guide constructivism approach where leaning is gradual, one needs knowledge
and motivation being the key. In this case, knowledge in the three components of social studies
is not there in teachers, and due to lack of this knowledge they have completely failed to accept
change. This has also affected the leaners, because that teachers are not able to motivate them
or make them accept and embrace fully the subject there. The result is poor performance.

5.3.2Attitudes of teachers/learners towards the subject

Teachers seemed to have a negative attitude towards social studies because they demanded that it
was bulky in nature due to the integration of subjects Okoth (2015) stresses the importance of a
positive perception or cognition regarding a Particular teaching subject, its content. He also
points out the importance of teachers’ sense of self efficacy as far as teaching is concerned.
Thus, teachers need a high sense of self-efficacy to be able to teach any subject, including
social studies. In the context of this study, it can be said positive attitude towards the subject
by teachers handling it has not yet developed; most teacher actually suggested that social
studies should be reverted to the old way of teaching it. However, some of the teachers who
had initially held negative attitudes indicated that they were slowly developing interest in
teaching the subject, because they have no choice but just to adjust.

On the side of pupils, the results show that there is a positive attitude to learning social studies.
However, the leaners felt that if learning social studies was going to be complete few conditions
needed to be met. One such condition is that since social studies involves seeing things that
they learn, for example, ceremonies or paintings of the past, they need to go out there and see
for themselves. This way, leaners feel they will be able to remember such details during exams.
The study shows that field work is not taught in the four schools studied. To help pupils
understand better, teachers only draw pictures on the board. According to the pupils, these
pictures are sometimes poorly drawn. This view from the pupils is supported by, the principles
of constructivism that learning as takes place through the application of senses and as a social
activity where leaners interact with other people and environment reference. In the absence of
field work, learning is either missing or is incomplete.

60
5.3.3 Use of inappropriate teaching strategies

The principle of constructivism also suggests that learning uses language hence the language
used affects learning. Use abusive language to leaners, when they ask questions or fail to
answer questions from the teacher, this has made leaners to lose interest in the subject, resulting
into absconding in this sense. Teachers have failed to create an enabling environment for their
learners.
According to the theory of constructivism, performance is an outcome of learning. Hence, the
manner in which leaners learn determines the outcome or performance. Durgunoglu and
Hughes (2010) opines that ‘researchers have demonstrated that individual’s self-efficacy
relates significantly to performance in the workplace, even when confronted by tasks which
are challenging.’ To learn social studies, the following are involved: asking questions,
observation, from the environment, exploration and assessment. All of the activities are
elaborated as main principles of constructivism learning theory.

5.3.5 Lack of subject background knowledge among most teachers

Additionally, the study has established that most of the teachers of social studies had enough
teaching experience in their subjects of training like civics, geography and history, except that
teaching of social studies to replace geography, civics and history at junior secondary is still
new to most of them. Therefore, the majority of them feels it’s not a good idea. This factor
most likely contributed to teachers’ sense of unpreparedness to teach social studies with the
fact that they were not trained in the three subject area back at college. Another scenario is that
one teacher indicated that he or she recently been moved from the primary school sector to
teach social studies at junior secondary school level. Such teachers lack what Sanoto (2017)
termed Pedagogical Content Knowledge” Taking CPDs seriously can help to improve both the
pedagogical and content knowledge of such teachers. The study

has further revealed that some teachers were forced by their school managers to teach social
studies even if they were not trained to teach it. To some extent, this was responsible for their
sense of unpreparedness.

5.3.4 Lack of motivation

These findings correspond to Whetten, and Cameron (2011) who opine that poor performance
has its roots in low motivation. Therefore, if the teachers who had been forced to start teaching
social studies were developing positive attitudes towards the subject, it is plausible to argue

61
that the use of motivation strategies as part of the principles that guide the constructivism
theory could help to achieve even better results. This can be done by the government creating
a motivating environment for teachers in which to work. This includes: setting and taking
seriously performance goals starting at school level, district, province to nation. On taking
goals seriously, teachers must understand what expected of them and agree on what they need
to do to improve as well as knowing the consequences of failing to achieve set goals. Provision
of performance assistance which include assessing the teacher’s ability and act if its deficient,
providing the necessary training, securing resources needed and encouraging team work.

Performance feedback is also another key in motivating teachers, pupils need feedback on their
efforts. This includes awarding teachers with outstanding performance in the teaching subject
both at school level and national level. From this study, it was evident that in the observed
schools’ teachers handling social studies are usually left out from awards, with the fact that
poor performance is what keeps on occurring from time social studies sufficed at junior
secondary to replace civics, geography and history. Even when the teacher on the side of civics
put efforts and learners do well in civics section her efforts are not recognized with the fact
that leaners have failed the study area as a whole ((social studies). If only teachers are
motivated and individual efforts are recognized to teacher offering the subject, this can build
self-confidence and a feeling of self-efficacy which can help them to ultimately embark on the
journey to self-actualization. Indeed, motivation can be used to improve the performance of
social studies. Teachers of social studies should be shown that their efforts are achievable and
valued and that they can perform even Much better if they positively apply themselves to their
work despite the changes. Thus, achievable goals should be set for teachers of social studies
as achievement of those goals would improve Teachers’ sense of self-worth leading to effective
implementation in the teaching of the subject. Additionally, periodic Continuous Professional
Development (CPD) sessions can be undertaken seriously to help teachers of social studies
enhance their subject knowledge and ultimately, their confidence.

5.3.6 Low learner proficiency levels in English

The study further established that low literacy levels among learners was another challenge,
that hindered effective learning of social studies in schools.

62
Some learners stated that they could not do well anything in history as they were unable to read
and write essays. Apart from this, some teachers of social studies used big words when
explaining. Kateregga (2014) suggest that teachers can speak to such learners using simple and
summarized English” while Ghazali (2008) suggests, “the use of various approaches, such as
extra classes or remedial work, and organizing group discussions for leaners to understand
clear from friends”.

“Teachers can speak to such learners using simple and summarized English “while Ghazali
(2008) affirms that, “the use of various approaches such as extra classes or remedial work,
organizing group discussions for leaners to understand clear from friends”.
5.3.7 Absenteeism and late-coming among learners

Another finding identified by the study which is probably linked to the use of inappropriate
or poor strategies by teachers and negative attitudes was absenteeism and late-coming by some
Grade 9 learners. This problem was identified in at least four out of the ten social studies
lessons the researcher observed. In one of the classes, more than three quarters of the
pupils were missing when the lesson commenced. At the end of the double period, only half
of the learners were in class. The learners were probably not very passionate about learning
the subject. Some learners indicated that they dodged lessons owing to the fact that they found
social studies difficult and uninteresting. Learners being absent for lessons could mean that
such a leaner is left behind and friends are ahead, and if such a leaner does not change, even
performance gets affected. Poonam (2014) and Lewis (2017) propose the use of a multimodal
approach involving the inclusion of ICT in lessons as a way of enhancing learner engagement
and motivation, adding on to another principle of constructivism where leaning

is taken as an active process, and should apply the use of senses. It has been established that
the use of appropriate methods by teachers can help enhance learner engagement and interest
in social studies lessons, thereby enhancing learner performance (Ghazali, 2008; Mwanza,
2020).

5.3.8 Failure to complete the syllabus in time

The study further established that some teachers failed to complete the syllabus in good time.
This was noticed in some classes where grade nines were still using grade eight books to learn.
They had not yet started using grade nine books. This implies they need to cover left over work
in grade nine at a faster rate without having time for revision and preparing for exams. With
this situation it is very unlikely that learners can perform very well. The study also established
63
that another possible cause for the failure to finish the syllabus was the high rate of turnover
of teachers through transfers from one school to another.
5.3.9 Failure to expose learners’ examination type of questions in good time

Yet another factor that was identified was the failure to expose learners to examination type of
questions in good time. This challenge was highlighted by learners who were interviewed.
Some learners attributed their failure during mock exams to challenges they faced when
answering mock examination questions. They indicated that learners should be exposed to
examination type questions in good time. This finding somehow corresponds to findings of
studies done by Mudenda (1987) and Simuchimba (2016). Mudenda (1987) identified

teachers’ poor questioning technique as a factor affecting learner performance. The study noted
that teachers tended to use lower order type of questions in social studies lessons. On

the other hand, Simuchimba (2016) established that learners lacked adequate training in
English essay writing. This can be attributed to teachers lacking adequate teacher preparation
or training, basic subject background knowledge and experience.

5.5 Solutions to address the problem of poor performance at grade 9 in social studies

The following were the suggested solutions revealed in the research findings that could be
implemented towards improving performance of pupils in grade 9 in social studies
examinations.

5.5.1 On Negative Attitudes of Teachers and Learners Towards the Subject

Both teachers and learners should be sensitized and motivated on the importance of Social
studies. The Ministry of Education should attach and support social studies vigorously just like
they support subjects like science and mathematics. The Ministry should work at enhancing
incentives for the teaching force and reinforce capacities for teachers.

5.5.2 On Failure to complete the syllabus in time

Social studies is very wide. Therefore, it needs to be allocated more time on the timetables so
as to give teachers enough time to teach and prepare pupils for examinations. When a new term
begins, teachers involved in the teaching of social studies at school level should plan together
as a team on how best they would deliver the subject to the pupils, putting in mind that they
also need to leave room for revision.

64
5.5.3 On failure to expose learners to examination type of questions in good time

Teachers offering social studies in school need team work or to cooperate at the beginning of
the term. The team work should focus much on how best the topics can be shared (planning)
in line with the time frame given to teach before examinations. Teachers need to study the
syllabus thoroughly as they embark on planning for the term. Proper planning will help
teachers to make sure that within given time they finish teaching and have plenty of time to go
through past-papers with pupils to prepare them for exams. On the other hand,

when teachers offering social studies in schools work as a team, it will help them to formulate
proper questions as a team to give the leaners at any time they want to assess the leaners. This
will help leaners to familiarize

5.5.4 On absenteeism and late-coming among learners

This could have been caused by pupils being bored during lessons. Schools should include
education tours to sites, organizations and institutions to help the learners have a first-hand
experience on the things they are learning about. This can stimulate their interest for learning
and in return yield the expected teaching and learning objectives. Learning away from the

learner’s usual classroom is generally interesting for learners and can help reduce on
absenteeism and late-coming.

In addition, absenteeism can also be of the ways they can do this is through the language they
use when teaching. be reduced by teachers themselves creating a friendly environment for the
leaners. As observed by Jean Piaget in the theory of constructivism, “learning uses language
hence the language used influences leaning”. It is very important that teachers use motivating
language to pupils as they give their comments to pupils. Teachers need to treat the pupils in
class in a good and proper manner without favoring anyone. Creating such kind of environment
will enable each and every leaner to feel comfortable in class and help reduce on absenteeism
5.5.5 On transformation in the field
When there is curriculum review, the Ministry of Education should ensure wide consultation
and arrangements with book writers so that high quality material and text books are produced
in line with and to suit the curriculum. Teachers at school level (the implementers) need to be

65
involved for they are the people who understand better the challenges they face in the
classroom.
5.5.6 On Low levels of proficiency of leaners in English

The Ministry of Education needs to take grade seven examinations very seriously. The current
practice is that all pupils who sit for grade seven exams make it to grade eight (100% pass
rate). However, there is need to sieve pupils who go to grade eight, with the help of cut-of
points. Low leaner proficiency levels in English is as a result of considering all pupils to have
passed grade seven examinations.

Leaning is about communicating to one another. Therefore, there is need for teachers in class
to be mindful of the type of English they use to the leaners. A grade eight teacher needs to use
language (English) that is appropriate to pupils at that level as he or she explains concepts in
social studies. Having that in mind examinations are set in English in almost all papers, the
Ministry of Education needs to ensure that learning English is implemented at an early age in
schools (the moment one enters pre-school) so as to prepare leaners for the future.

5.5.7 On Lack of subject background knowledge and experience among most teachers

The Ministry of Education needs to make sure that they employ more teachers of social studies
in schools to fill the gap. This will enable teachers offering the subject to interact and learn
from the social studies teachers how the subject needs to be handled; in methods as well as
strategies when it comes to teaching.

Already serving teachers need to be involved in CPDs, and school workshops where concerns
about social studies can be shared in such meetings, challenges being faced in teaching social
studies and the best ways to overcome them can be raised.
In addition, teachers need to take continuous learning seriously. They should not be satisfied
or contented with the certificates they obtained at college, but look to go back to school and
advance in their chosen fields of specialization to stay abreast with new information

5.4 Summary

The study has established that teachers and learners of social studies face many challenges
which impact negatively on the teaching and learning of the subject thereby contributing to
poor performance of learners in social studies examinations. The challenges include inadequate
teacher preparation; lack of subject background knowledge among most teachers; inexperience
66
of some teachers; use of inappropriate teaching strategies and negative attitudes of teachers
and learners towards the subject; Other challenges include low learner proficiency levels in
English; lack of teaching and learning materials; absenteeism and late-coming among learners;
failure to complete the syllabus in time and failure to expose learners to examination type of
questions in good time. The study contends that performance is outcome of learning, hence the
manner in which leaners learn determines outcome or performance (constructivism approach).

this implies that, academic performance in social studies is the outcome of how the subject was
learnt or taught by teachers. To properly learn social studies the following must be involved;
asking questions, observation from the communities/ relating lessons to real life situations, and
exploration and assessment. All of these activities are elaborated as main principles of
constructivism learning theory.

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 CHAPTER SIX

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1 Overview

This chapter presents conclusions. The chapter further makes recommendations for the
possible remedial measures to be taken by respective persons and key stakeholders in the
Ministry of Education (MoE). The chapter suggests areas for future research in the field of
social studies.

6.2 Conclusions

In line with revealing how performance has been at grade 9 in social studies from 2015-2019
in selected schools of Lusaka district as the first objective of the study, the study concluded
that performance has been poor. Specialists at CDC, ECZ& MOE stated that the performance
has been poor, not only from 2015-2019 but also up to 2020.

According to the Examination Council of Zambia (ECZ) performance report, the failure
percentage in Social Studies for the years 2015- 2019 indicates that the performance of leaners
in social studies in national grade 9 examinations has been below the 40% pass mark. In
support of this, statistics were given on how performance has been from 2015-2019. Teachers
views from different schools also points out to the same record of poor performance of leaners
in social studies national grade nine examination from 2015-2019 be it at school level as well
as national level. From the findings, it can be concluded that there has been poor performance
of leaners in social studies in national grade nine examinations from 2015-2019.

Secondly, the objective of the study was to investigate factors contributing to poor performance
of leaners at grade 9 in social studies. A lot of factors were cited by stake-holders involved and
the study revealed that both teachers and learners of social studies faced a number of challenges
which most probably contributed to the poor performance of Grade 9 pupils in social studies.
The study also established that apart from being inadequately prepared, some teachers handling
social studies lacked subject background knowledge as they were not trained to handle the
subject as a whole but trained in one or two components that make up social studies.

68
The findings further revealed that as a result, a number of teachers employed inappropriate
teaching and learning strategies which probably contributed to some pupils developing
negative attitudes towards the subject of which in this case teachers used much of teacher
cantered methods to teach. The findings further revealed that teachers and learners held
different attitudes towards social studies. Hence the effect and evidence of their negative
attitudes towards the subject. This challenge was compounded by low learner proficiency
levels in English reading and writing. Yet another related factor was the fact that some
institutions were experiencing serious or acute shortage of teaching and learning materials for
instance in some schools where pupil book ratio was 1 to 5. The study also revealed that other
factors such as absenteeism and late coming of learners, failure to complete the syllabus in
good time as well as not exposing learners to examination type questions early enough were
possible contributing factors to the poor performance of Grade 9 pupils in social studies
examinations in Lusaka district of Zambia.

The study concludes that the factors contributing to poor performance of leaners at grade nine
in social studies examination since 2015 are mostly methodological in nature and luck of much
information on the vision 2030, in line with the kind of citizens the country desires. This could
be tackled using constructivism approach where leaning should be; an active process where
senses are applied, a social activity where learners interact with other people and the
environment, uses language hence the language used influences learning, being contextual
where people learn in line with what is believed, known or observed and leaning being gradual
and not instantaneous. One need Knowledge to learn and motivation is the key. Following with
passion the principles that guide constructivism will enhance the interest and engagement of
teachers and Learners, thereby improving learner performance in social studies examinations
in Lusaka district in particular and Zambia in general.

The final objective was to find out stakeholders’ measures put in place to address the

problem of poor performance at grade 9 in social studies.

Some measures that stake-holders have put in place include; conducting performance review
and give feedback to teachers. Meeting teachers during gatherings like SOSTAZ to share or
discuss together latest development. Higher offices do co-operate to see to it that information
in the syllabus marry with the curriculum as well as what comes in the examinations. They are
as well pushing for more teachers of social studies to be deployed by government to

69
cushion up the gap in schools. Orientations as well as sensitizations are done to in schools,
though with the coming of COVD 19 platforms are now used with selected people like DEBS,
HODs and Head Teachers who have to disseminate needed information to teachers in the
country.

Recommended materials in schools are distributed too. Like for social studies grade 8 and 9
books materials which are evaluated and recommended to use include; Longman social studies,
zebra social studies, achievers’ social studies and MK social studies.

6.6 Recommendations

This study makes the following recommendations as a consequence of the research findings.

1)The study established that a number of teachers of social studies were inadequately prepared,
inexperienced and lacked subject background knowledge in the subject as a whole (social
studies). Consequently, the study recommends that teachers need to take Continuous
Professional Development (CPD) and workshops programme at school, district and provincial
levels seriously to enhance teachers’ knowledge and competences. This will help improve
teacher’s self-efficacy as far as the teaching of social studies is concerned.

2) The study also established that teachers faced challenges in terms of teaching strategies used
in teaching social studies. Coupled with the fact that most of them were lacking in subject
background knowledge, the study recommends that, for effectiveness in the delivery of the
subject, teachers of social studies should be deployed quickly by the government into schools.

3) The study further established that motivation played a role in the teaching and learning of
social studies and that teachers and learners held different attitudes towards social studies.

Therefore, the study recommends that hard work or outstanding teachers and pupils’
performance in social studies should be recognized and rewarded at school, district or
provincial levels to inspire or motivate them.

4) The study further noted that in as far as the subject has been integrated as one (social studies)
the manner in which examinations questions are set in sections needs to be checked; civic in
A, History in B and geography in C is not a good idea, in addition, leaners using three books
for social studies adds to bulkiness when it comes to studying. As a result, the

70
study recommends that the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Examination Council of
Zambia should work together and see to it that leaners use only one book for social studies and
exam questions are set in a manner that they appear as one subject (mixed).

6.7 Proposals for future research

Social studies is a subject that is beneficial to learners who diligently attend to it.
Notwithstanding learner performance in the subject in Lusaka district leaves much to be
desired. As such, a lot of research is still required to establish the state of the subject in the
province and in Zambia, and what needs to be done to remedy the situation. This study has
shed some light on a number of issues and especially on the role of CPDs to teachers of social
studies in schools. Nonetheless, much more still needs to be done in terms of research in the
area of social studies; teaching and learning in the country. Therefore, this study proposes the
following topics for further research on the subject:

1) The preparedness of social studies students at selected universities in Zambia to teach social
studies.

2) An analysis of the junior secondary social studies syllabus/ text books content to establish
their suitability for the leaners involved.

71
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APPEDIX A: INTRODUCTORY LETTER FROM UNZA

77
APPEDIX B: PERMISSION LETTER TO DEBS OFFICE LUSAKA FROM UNZA

P.O Box 32379 Lusaka.

21st March,2022 Dear Sir/Madam

REF: REQUEST FOR PERMISSION TO CONDUCT A RESEARCH IN YOUR DISTRICT

Reference is made to the above captioned subject. I write to seek permission from your office
to carry out a research in some schools of Lusaka District. I am a postgraduate student pursuing
a Masters of Education in Social studies Education at the University of Zambia and will
conduct a research on ‘factors contributing to poor performance of grade 9 pupils in national
social studies examinations in Lusaka district in selected secondary schools’’. This research is
purely for academic purposes. Find attached my introductory letter from The University of
Zambia.

I will be grateful if permission will be granted

Yours faithfully,

Mutale Prisca Computer #: 2019099306

78
APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR SPECIALIST (C.D.C, MOE & E.C.Z)

Dear respondents,

I am a post graduate student at the University of Zambia pursuing a Master of Education in

social studies. I am conducting a research on the ‘factors contributing to poor performance of
grade 9 Pupils in national social studies examinations in Lusaka district in selected secondary
schools. The purpose of the study is to establish the factors contributing to poor performance
of learners in grade nine national examination, since 2015.’ Feel free to express your views as
honestly as you can your response will be treated with confidentiality. Note that should you,
at any point during the course of the interview, feel that you cannot continue you are free to
withdraw. The interview will be in two parts; the first part will require you to give biographical
information. The second part will seek to get your opinion on social studies.

Part 1.

-Tick in the appropriate space/box for your response to the statement in the questionnaire

-Write briefly to responses that require explanation Gender: [] Male [] Female

Age: (in years): 25-30[] 31-35[]36-40[]41-45[]46 and above [] Qualifications:

Certificate [] Diploma [] First Degree [] Master’s Degree [] PhD []

Length of service (in range of years) below 5 [ ] 5-10 [ ] 11-15 [ ] 16 and above [ ]

Are you trained in social studies? Yes [ ] No [ ], which

institution? (If your answer is yes)

…………………………………………………………………

Have you taught social studies in school before?Yes [ ] No [

], which school? (If your answer is yes)

…………………………………………………………………

Part 2(your opinion on social studies)

79
Grade nine performance in national social studies examination has been below the percentage
passing rate from [Link] can you say in regards to the statement?

What are the major factors contributing to poor performance of grade nine pupils in national
social studies examinations?

What do you think should be done to improve the performance of learners in social studies?

What has your office done/ doing to address the problems of poor performance at grade 9 in
social studies?

What is the future like, in regards to social studies leaner performance at grade nine national
examination in schools?

Any other personal observations or comments regarding to social studies and leaner
performance in schools?s

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS!!!

80
APPENDIX D: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR HEADS OF DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES AND TEACHERS OF SOCIAL STUDIES

Dear respondents,

I am a post graduate student at the University of Zambia pursuing a Master of Education in

social studies. I am conducting a research on the ‘factors contributing to poor performance of
grade 9 Pupils in national social studies examinations in Lusaka district in selected secondary
schools. The purpose of the study is to establish the factors contributing to poor performance
of learners in grade nine national examination, since 2015.’ Feel free to express your views as
honestly as you can. Your response will be treated with confidentiality. Note that should you,
at any point during the course of the interview, feel that you cannot continue you are free to
withdraw. The interview will be in two parts; the first part will require you to give biographical
information. The second part will seek to get your opinion on social studies.

Part 1:

-Tick in the appropriate space/box for your response to the statement in the questionnaire

-Write briefly to responses that require explanation Gender: [] Male []

Female

Age: (in years): 25-30[] 31-35[] 36-40[] 41-45[]

4
6 and above [] Qualifications: Certificate [] Diploma [] First Degree [] Master’s Degree [] PhD
[]

Length of service (in range of years) below 5 [ ] 5-10 [ ] 11-15 [ ] 16 and above [ ]

Are you trained to teach children in social studies? Yes [ ] No [ ], which institution?
(If your answer is yes)

…………………………………………………………………

Part 2

Grade nine performance in national social studies examination has been below the percentage
passing rate from [Link] can you say in regards to the statement?

81
What can you say regarding learner performance in social studies at your school?

Do you enjoy teaching the subject? YES OR NO (give reasons)

Are you prepared to teach social studies at junior secondary? (give reasons to your answer)

What do you think are the major factors contributing to poor performance of grade nine pupils
in national social studies examinations?

How prepared are your pupils to learn social studies?

What attitudes do your learners have toward social studies?

Which methods do you employ in teaching social studies?

What challenges do you and your pupils face in teaching and learning of social studies at this
school?

What do you think should be done /need to put in place to improve the performance of leaners
in social studies?

What has your school done/ doing to address the problems of poor performance at grade 9 in
social studies?

What is the future like, in regards to social studies leaner performance at grade nine national
examination in schools?

Any other personal observations or comments regarding to

social studies and leaner performance?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS!!!

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APPENDIX E: FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR GRADE NINE
LEARNERS

Dear pupils,

I am a post graduate student at the University of Zambia pursuing a Master of Education in

social studies. I am conducting a research on the ‘factors contributing to poor performance of
grade 9 Pupils in national social studies examinations in Lusaka district in selected secondary
schools. The purpose of the study is to establish the factors contributing to poor performance
of learners in grade nine national examination, since 2015.’ Feel free to express your views as
honestly as you can. Your response will be treated with confidentiality. Note that should you,
at any point during the course of the interview, feel that you cannot continue you are free to
withdraw. The interview will be in two parts; the first part will require you to give biographical
information. The second part will seek to get your opinion on social studies.

During the course of the interview, feel that you cannot continue you are free to withdraw.

Instructions: Our discussion will be on the teaching and learning of social studies. I have a few
questions to guide the discussion. As stated earlier, feel free to express your views as honestly
as you can.

What can you say in regards to performance of pupils in social studies? Is it good or poor?

What do you think are the reasons or causes for the way learners are performing in social
studies?

Do you find social studies enjoyable? Explain.

Are you prepared to learn social studies? (Give reasons to your answer)

How often do you learn social studies in a week?

Do you have access to social studies text books to read at your spare time?

In what ways do you learn social studies with the teacher?

What challenges do you face in learning social studies?

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What do you think should be done /need to put in place to improve your performance in social
studies

Any other personal observations or comments regarding to social studies and leaner
0performance

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS!!!

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 APPENDIX F: LESSON OBSERVATION CHECKLIST

School: ............................. District: ............................ Date: ...............................

No: of pupils in class:..............; Boys:................ Girls:............ Duration:...............

Text being studied:.............................................Topic / lesson:

L
esson objectives:

i. ...............................................................................................

ii. ...............................................................................................

iii. ...............................................................................................

iv. ...............................................................................................

Teaching and learning aids:

Charts [ ] Pictures [ ] Commentaries [ ] ICT [ ] Blackboard [ ]

No: of Books (Text being studied) :.................... Pupil – book ratio:..........................

Comments on lesson:

Introduction: (Methods/ activities)

Question & Answer [ ] Recapping previous lesson [ ] Revising exercises [ ]

other............................................................................................

Duration (in mins): Up to 5 mins. [ ]. 5 – 10 mins. [ ]

Lesson development:

Methods/activities:

Teacher reading to pupils [ ] Teacher Exposition [ ] Pupil reading to class [ ] Silent reading [ ]
Class discussion [ ] Group work [ ]

Pair work [ ] Dramatization [ ] Debate [ ] Exercise [ ] Comment on methods / activities:

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......................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................

......................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................

........................................................................................

Duration: 10 – 20 mins.[ ] 20 – 30 mins. [ ] 40 mins. [ ].

Conclusion:

Methods/ Activities: 146 Teacher Exposition [ ] Q & A [ ] Revision of exercise [ ]

other.............................................................................................................................

Homework given [ ]

Duration: 5 – 10 mins. [ ] 10 – 15 mins [ ]

General impression:

Achievement of objectives:

Excellent Above average Average Below average Poor

Level of learner participation:

Excellent Above average Average Below average Poor

Level of learner interest

Excellent Above average Average Below average Poor

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Summary:.....................................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................................

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