I.
Context and Rationale
I personally love Social Science or Araling Panlipunan. For me, Social
Science just happened to me naturally that I have grown a personal bias to
compared to my other subjects. Asking myself how did I develop my love
towards the subject, it would always lead me back to my excellent Araling
Panlipunan teachers in high school. Now that it is my turn to teach Araling
Panlipunan to my very own high school students, I find it frustrating that some
of them show disinterest to the subject. Some students yawn, sigh, direct their
attention outside of the classroom, others would totally shut off their world
from my class by sleeping through my class. I always thought coming in class
prepared with the lesson and some multimedia resources in hand would
adequately get me through the period. To my disbelief, students would turnover
very low scores in quizzes and periodic test.
Social Studies or Araling Panlipunan has been noted as one of the
important factors in Makabayan as an interdisciplinary subject that paves the
way to the foundation of inculcating nationalism, patriotism and responsible
citizenry among students (Pana and Escarlos, 2017). However, it is a popular
knowledge that many students dislike Araling Panlipunan or consider the
subject as one of the least liked subjects in school. According to Guimba et. al.
(2016) students do not believe Social Studies as an important subject or
consider it as one of their favorite areas of study. Many literatures even those
dating from 1970s to present express the common notion that Social Studies
are being neglected by learners as it is not viewed very important. Fernandez, et
al. (1976) concluded that high school students believed social studies was less
important than mathematics and English for their future occupation. Shaver, et
al. (1979) report similar results in their review of three National Science
Foundation studies. The Science Education Databook (1980) reported that
three percent of nine-year-old students named social studies as their favorite
subject compared to 48 percent for mathematics and 24 percent for language
arts. Fraser (1981), using a semantic differential with Australian students,
found that student attitudes toward social studies became increasingly negative
with increasing grade level in grades 7-10.
Fast forward, in the Philippine context, National Achievement Test
results for Araling Panlipunan showed a fluctuating performance result from
2015-2018.