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How to make social science more interesting for students: tips for teachers

 

 

Among various academic subjects, social science is also an important one for students. Till secondary classes, social science is a compulsory academic subject for students. It has three divisions: history, geography, and political science. But for many students, social science is a less interesting subject. Let us read a few reasons behind this. We will also be discussing some effective tips that teachers can follow to teach social science better and boost students’ interest in this subject.

Why students find social science less interesting

  • Lengthy lessons

The history lessons are full of dates, definitions, civilizations, names, places, and more. The political science lessons have many amendments, policies, laws, and changes. This makes lessons lengthy. Looking at these lengthy lessons in the textbooks becomes a boring and less engaging learning experience for students.

  • Too much theory to memorize

Students prefer quick and easy learning tasks. When they don’t study regularly, they pile up huge chunks of lessons for them.  With so much content to read, learn and memorize, students feel hectic and pressured. This reduces their interest in social science learning.

  • Monotonous teaching patterns

Following the same teaching practices, every day makes the classes monotonous. With nothing new, creative and fun, students feel bored and less interested in the class. Every day listening to teachers reading the lessons, then writing question answers in notebooks, are quite conventional ways of teaching.

Tips for teachers to boost students’ interest in social science

  1. Use technology to teach

The history, geography and political science lessons are quite detailed. Understanding every topic from the textbooks can be difficult for students. And this reduces their interest in the subject too. To overcome this problem, technology helps to a great extent.

By using online teaching apps and sites, teachers can access several audiovisual tools like educational videos modules, demonstrations, picture cards, PowerPoint presentations, and more. With the help of visualization, students tend to understand the concepts better and quicker. Learning via technical tools becomes an eye-catching, attractive, and fun experience for students.

  1. Conduct outdoor visits

Having theoretical knowledge is important, but to understand it better, having practical experience holds more importance. Directly understanding and memorizing the historical topics, topography, and political changes is not easy for students from textbooks.

 

Teachers should try to provide students with a real-life experience of learning. By using an educational institute ERP, teachers can manage to conduct outdoor visits for students. For example, visits to historical places, monuments, and museums are helpful. For teaching geography lessons, you can take students to biodiversity parks, zoos, mining sites,s, nearby natural places, etc.

 

  1. Have regular tests for easy memorization

 

Many students avoid learning social science regularly. This makes them pile up huge chunks of lessons that become difficult to overcome together. This makes students lose interest in the subject. To overcome this problem, teachers should conduct regular class tests. For example, after finishing every lesson, plan for a quick revision test. This will make students consistent with social science subjects. Learning in shorter portions is easy, effective, and interesting.

 

  1. Avoid a teacher-centered approach to teaching, involve students more in the class

 

The teacher-centered approach of teaching means teachers coming to the classes, explaining the topics, and students simply sitting as mere listeners. With no opportunity to speak, share and interact, students relate less to the topics being taught and lose interest in learning too. All social science teachers should try to involve students in the classroom as much as possible.

 

Have participatory activities: in social science classes, avoid the monotonous teaching practices and conduct various fun participatory activities. For example, group discussions, question-answer rounds, presentations, online quizzes, games, puzzles, and more. With the opportunity to speak, share and learn in these creative ways, students feel interested in social science classes.

 

Ask students to read aloud: listening to the teachers reading out the lengthy textbook social science lessons can be boring many times. Instead of doing this for students, teachers should reverse the process. Ask students to read aloud the lessons one by one. When students are asked to read aloud anytime, they tend to stay more attentive and active in the class.

Conclusion

Social science is quite a detailed and theoretical academic subject. Because of this, students have less interest in this. However, the right teaching strategies can help in this regard. By following the above-mentioned tips, teachers can conduct effective social science classes for students. This will help teachers to boost students’ interest in understanding, learning, and performing well in this subject.

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