An Investigation of History Teaching in Ethiopian Senior Secondary Schools

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the teaching of history with respect to four associated problems, viz., the basic reasoning for the placement of history in the senior secondary school curriculum, the practices and processes of syllabus development, the teaching strategies, methods and techniques, and the teaching materials used both in the past and the present. To this" e d both historical and descriptive-survey research techniques were employed. The historical research} ~ (attempted to investigate what happened and why it happened in a definite chronological. period It indicated trends, developments, phases, irrespective of past history teaching in Ethiopian senior secondary schools. Main findings of the historical study were: (i) The inclusion of history in the senior secondary school curriculum was a concomitant development with the beginning of secondary education in the country; (ii) At the earlier stage the history syllabi were solely constructed by subject specialists; (iii) Before 1963 the teaching of history was not aimed enquiry approach stands out as the most important ones. Al though the teaching of biology cannot be seen out of the context of the general educational system at this level, the excessive domination of verbalism in biology classrooms has led to what has been called "a dead study of life".