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European Journal of <strong>Educational</strong> Studies 2(2), 2010ProceduresData collection took place during the spring semester of 2008, following approval of the study by the Ministryof Education. Each teacher received a survey packet containing the survey, cover letter, and return envelope.Teachers voluntarily participated in this study and anonymously responded to the survey. After the completedsurveys were returned, data were coded and analyzed using SPSS. Statistical analyses included descriptivestatistics and dependent (paired) t-tests to examine if there were statistically significant differences betweenthe perceived importance and perceived implementation of social studies goals and content areas. Sincemultiple t-tests were performed, the Bonferroni correction was used to control the familywise error rate. Thiswas accomplished by dividing the alpha level of .05 by number of t-tests being conducted (Huck, 2000).Cohen’s effect size was calculated to determine the magnitude of mean differences between the perceivedimportance and the perceived implementation of social studies goals and content areas. This wasaccomplished by dividing the difference between two means by the standard deviation of the difference(Kotrlik & Williams, 2003).RESULTSThis section includes demographic characteristics of social studies teachers and their perceptions about socialstudies goals, content areas, and challenges that may hinder the implementation of social studies goals andcontent areas.DemographicsOf 538 surveys sent to social studies teachers, 407 surveys were completed and received for a response rate of76%. The majority of social studies teachers were female (59.7%). The Bachelor of Education was the mostcommonly held degree (75.2 %), followed by a Bachelor of Arts and Diploma in Education (19.2%), a twoyearDiploma in Education (4.4%), and a Master’s degree (1.2%). The teachers were specialized in geography(59.7%), history (30.2 %), and general social studies (9.6%). Of the teachers in this study, 34.2% had one tothree years of teaching experience, 32.9% had seven to nine years, 16.5% had four to six years, 6.4% had 10-12 years, and 10% had over 12 years.Perceptions about Social Studies GoalsThe second part of the survey asked respondents to indicate the degree of importance of social studies goalson a scale ranging from one (unimportant) to four (very important) and the degree of implementation of thesegoals on a scale ranging from one (never) to four (very often). As shown in Table 1, social studies teacherssupported all goals suggested in this study. The top three important goals were to help students feel pride intheir country and its core values and beliefs (M = 3.87), cope with issues of contemporary life (M = 3.65), andacquire knowledge and skills from history and the social sciences (M = 3.59). Although social studies teachersviewed all social studies goals as important, the perceived implementation of each goal was lower than that ofimportance.To determine if there were statistically significant differences between the perceived importance andperceived implementation of social studies goals, dependent (paired) t-tests were conducted. Utilizing theBonferroni correction, the alpha level of .05 was divided by nine (= number of t-tests). Then, the results of thet-tests were compared to the adjusted alpha = .005. As indicated in Table 1, statistically significant differenceswere found between the perceived importance and perceived implementation on all social studies goals (p
European Journal of <strong>Educational</strong> Studies 2(2), 2010Table 1 Dependent (Paired) t Tests for the Degree of Importance and Implementation of Social Studies GoalsSocial Studies GoalsdfDegree ofImportanceDegree ofImplementation t pM SD M SDHelp students feel pride in their countryand its core values and beliefs.EffectSize402 3.87 0.39 3.48 0.66 12.24 .000* 0.60Help students cope with issues ofcontemporary life.397 3.65 0.59 3.13 0.81 12.82 .000* 0.64Help students acquire knowledge andskills from history, geography, andother social sciences.403 3.59 0.65 3.24 0.79 9.51 .000* 0.47Help students develop critical thinkingskills.401 3.47 0.68 2.90 0.78 14.13 .000* 0.70Help students examine the influence oftechnology tools on our lives.405 3.46 0.72 2.89 0.87 12.61 .000* 0.63Help students participate in social andpolitical affairs of their society.396 3.38 0.78 2.77 0.86 12.48 .000* 0.63Help students meet their personalinterests and needs related to socialstudies.397 3.37 0.68 2.96 0.81 11.39 .000* 0.57Help students learn about cultures andissues from other countries.399 3.29 0.83 2.89 0.85 8.94 .000* 0.45Help students learn about culturalheritage of Oman including customs,arts, music, and dance.400 3.12 0.93 2.75 0.95 8.95 .000* 0.45*p < .005Perceptions about Social Studies Content Areas180
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