Social science literacy among form four students in Malaysian secondary schools

Abstract

An exploratory study was conducted to investigate the social science literacy among form four students in Malaysian secondary schools. The aim of the study was to explore social science literacy in selected social science subjects, namely History, Geography, Moral Education, and Islamic Education as well as the students‟s general knowledge in the area of social science in Malaysian secondary schools. The study also intended to propose guidelines on standards in social science literacy for secondary schools in Malaysia. The study used quantitative research method. Five sets of questionnaires in the form of objective multiple-choice tests were developed to identify social science literacy in the three domains of knowledge, skills and values in the four selected subjects and general knowledge. The respondents were 16 years old students studying in form four at national secondary schools throughout Malaysia. From the total of 4705 respondents, the number of respondents for Geography was 1031, 1002 for History, 967 for Islamic Education, 704 for Moral Education and 1001 for General Knowledge. Descriptive analyses were used to identify the social science literacy level for each subject and general knowledge. The overall literacy score obtained by the respondents to the General Knowledge questionnaire was 66.5 %, 63.0 % in History , 55.0 %, in Geography, 55.0 %, 71.9 % in Moral Education, 71.9 % and 58.1 % in Islamic Education. Based on these findings, guidelines on standards of social science literacy for Malaysian secondary schools were proposed with the aim of providing guidelines for policy makers and educators in social sciences, including teacher educators.