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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 5
Publication Date: May 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/assrj.105.14567.
Ivrinteli, M. (2023). Teaching of Primary School Social Studies in Greece: An Analysis of Curriculum Implementation. Advances in
Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(5). 10-18.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Teaching of Primary School Social Studies in Greece:
An Analysis of Curriculum Implementation
Maria Ivrinteli
School of Education, Department of Primary Education,
University of Crete, Rethymnon, Greece
ABSTRACT
This study investigates how teachers and students assess curriculum
implementation in social studies courses at primary school in Greece. Through
survey questionnaire teachers were asked to express their perceptions of the
curriculum guidelines, materials and instructional and evaluation procedures. The
results indicated that teachers find little help in curriculum guidelines in terms of
determining instructional methods, materials and evaluation strategies they use in
their class. The most common approach to classroom instruction in social studies is
lecturing and discussion followed by recitation. The use of materials other than the
course textbook is very limited, and textbook-related activities are the most
common mode of homework assignment given to the students. Oral exams and
short-answer tests are the most common mode of student evaluation in social
studies classes.
Keywords: Primary education, social studies, curriculum implementation, teaching and
learning.
INTRODUCTION
This study is part of a larger research project designed to investigate social studies curriculum
implementation at primary school level in Greece. The purpose of this paper specifically is to
assess social studies teaching procedures in social studies courses at the primary school level
from the perspectives of teachers and students.
In the international literature the term social studies are used to describe 'a multidisciplinary
study of humankind that provides a bridge to understanding the values and concerns of
society'[1:274]. Through social studies, students come to understand how a dynamic society is
governed and how its affairs are conducted.
Social studies have a unique place among academic disciplines. They encompass every aspect
of human life. The social studies are the study of political, economic, cultural and environmental
aspects of societies in the past, present and future. The major aim of social studies is to produce
skeptical and thoughtful citizens capable of critical assessment of society and participation in
its improvement. Their purposes for young children can be summarized as followed: 'The social
studies equip them with the knowledge and understanding of the past necessary for coping
with the present and planning for the future, enable them to understand and participate
effectively in their world, and explain their relationship to other people and to social, economic,
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Ivrinteli, M. (2023). Teaching of Primary School Social Studies in Greece: An Analysis of Curriculum Implementation. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 10(5). 10-18.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.105.14567
and political institution'» [2:162]. Social studies provide students with critical thinking skills
for productive problem solving and decision making. In other words, social studies are the story
of human existence in all its manifold ramifications.
There are several perspectives concerning social studies content. One is the citizenship
education perspective, as reflected in chapters on thinking and decision making, social and
political participation, education for international understanding, multicultural education, and
controversial issues. Another perspective is that of educational psychology; chapters on values,
empathy, and moral development and on knowledge and concept development reflect that
approach. A third perspective comes from a content orientation; it is reflected in chapters on
history, economics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, government, civics, law and
geography [3-5].
Traditionalists want students to focus on a body of enduring historical facts. They prefer direct
instruction of these facts in the traditional disciplines of history, geography, and civics, and they
are critical of schools that focus on current values and issues while neglecting historic events
[6]. Progressive educators want students to go beyond a study of the disciplines to develop an
understanding of human commonalities. They prefer a social studies curriculum that teaches
about the diversity and similarities among the world’s people, one that helps students place the
human story in a larger context [3-5].
Social studies are a part of the elementary curriculum because we expect our children to
understand and participate effectively as citizens in a world that is becoming increasingly
complex. Social studies attempt to teach children about the problems of the individual and
her/his relation to others. The underlying premise of social studies instruction is to develop
competent civic participants, and it builds on the earliest human experiences. Social studies
teach skills of living together, identity, problem solving, research skills, scientific investigation
and a scientific attitude towards life problems. [7-9].
Longstreet [10-11:22] characterized the relationship between social studies and citizenship as
follows: 'citizenship may be widely accepted as the core of the social’s studies, but it is a
phantom core. Whatever is happening in the curriculum...the reason given for doing what we
do is ultimately related to the development of good citizenship. However, citizenship is the
phantom figure whose form is so unclearly perceived that it may be used to encourage
whatever is happening in the curriculum to go on happening'.
A variety of goals of the social studies curriculum have been proposed by various groups. The
following is a composite list of social studies goals: 'providing a collective memory of our
democratic heritage; developing an understanding of the moral value of our nation’s social,
political, and economic rights as well as obligations; studying the themes of continuity and
change; providing a chronicle of dramatic events in our interdependent world; studying causes,
issues, and consequences; developing an understanding of the complexity of human endeavors;
and taking students on a trip around the world' [1].
The curriculum for any social studies course in all primary schools in Greece is prepared and
approved by the Ministry of Education. All teachers have to use the centrally designed
curriculum in their respective area. Although the curriculum guidelines vary in terms of their
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 10, Issue 5, May-2023
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
length, detail and approach, any curriculum includes at least the goals and objectives of the
course and the list of units and topics to be taught.
In Greece’s primary schools, social studies are organized separately around four academic
disciplines: History, Geography, Civics and Religion. History and Religion are taught for four
years (grades 3-6) while Geography and Civics for two (grades 5 and 6).
The Ministry of Education in designing the curriculum and teaching in social studies in primary
schools adapted a separate organization for all relevant courses because of the belief that it
allowed a rigorous and intellectually demanding focus during instruction. This approach has
allowed the strict control of the process and contents of subject matter, and textbooks have
served as the major element of structure in curriculum [12].
A typical primary school social studies curriculum guideline outlines the objectives,
explanations about the implementation of the guideline and the major topics. In the objectives
section, the curriculum guideline specifies the related knowledge, skills and attitudes that will
be developed in students. In the explanations section, the teacher is provided with some
suggestions and directions as regard to instruction, assignments and evaluation of students’
success. In this section, links are made to course objectives, and ways to reach them are outlined
in general terms. Finally, in the topics section, topics and sub-topics are listed for each primary
school grade. The content outline is very much like the table of contents of a textbook. No
content explanations or directions are provided in this section. This standardised curriculum
has an immense impact on teaching practices since it controls the scope and sequence, and does
not allow much flexibility to the teacher [12].
The goals of social studies instruction fall into four categories: knowledge, skills, values and
participation. All these goals are more or less evident in the curriculum guidelines for all four
social studies courses. In addition, the guidelines recommend the use of various instructional
materials and strategies to involve students in their learning more actively [13]. However, it
remains unclear as to what degree social studies teaching leads to achieving the main goals
stated above. It is also unclear about how the curriculum is perceived and actualised by both
teachers and students. Despite a long-standing commitment to social studies education in
primary schools in Greece, relatively few researchers have examined the substance of
classroom life teachers’ and students’ experiences and the outcomes of actual curriculum
implementation for students. In this sense the perceptions of teachers and students in social
studies courses might be important in understanding the social studies teaching and learning
process, and their possible impact on students.
METHODS AND PROCEDURES
The study design included 153 primary schools in provinces representing all geographic
regions in Greece. These schools were selected randomly by taking into consideration a list of
criteria. The criteria included representation of all geographic regions, all provinces in each
geographic area, and three schools in each province. The selected schools were considered
representative of the primary schools in Greece. The main data sources were History,
Geography, Civics and Religion teachers at all four grade levels. All the social studies courses
teachers in the selected schools were asked to participate in this study.
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Ivrinteli, M. (2023). Teaching of Primary School Social Studies in Greece: An Analysis of Curriculum Implementation. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 10(5). 10-18.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.105.14567
Separate questionnaires were designed in order to explore their perceptions of the teaching
and learning process in social studies courses. The teacher questionnaire has four closely
parallel versions asking the social studies teachers to evaluate social studies courses separately.
The questionnaires included both open-ended and closed-ended questions on the perceptions
of content, materials and instructional and evaluation procedures.
The questionnaires were mailed to the social studies teachers in each sampled school who
undertook obligation to sent them back to the researcher. As a result, a total of 724 teachers
(out of 918 mailed) questionnaires were secured for analysis. This represented a 79% return
rate for the teacher sample.
Both female and male teachers were almost equally represented in the study (59% and 41%
respectively). More than half of the teachers had 11-20 years of teaching experience (58%)
while 29% had 1-10 years and 13% more than 20 years of teaching experience. The majority of
teachers (60%) had a four-year undergraduate degree, while close to one third (26%)
graduated from a two-year teacher training institute. Only few (14%) had masters or doctoral
degrees. The number of students in a class also influences the quality of teaching and learning
process to a certain degree. The 59% of the teachers had more than 25 students in their class
while 33% had between 20-25 and only 8% and less than 20 students.
Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data collected through closed- ended questions. Both separate and combined analyses were conducted on teacher
questionnaires by subject area to see whether there were subject specific differences in their
responses. The responses to the questions were more or less consistent across all social studies
areas, therefore, combined analyses were used to reach the results of this paper. In addition, t- test and ANOVA were used to analyse the differences in the responses based on certain
background variables, and the results indicated that most of the background variables did not
cause any significant difference in the subjects’ perceptions. Thematic categories according to
the main themes identified were established to analyse the open-ended data.
RESULTS
A major challenge in social studies teaching is to provide a reasonable balance between the four
major goals categories: knowledge, skills, values and participation, as well as to use these goals
in support of each other. In order to achieve that, the social studies teacher should vary learning
activities to allow active student involvement in the instructional-learning process. Deductive
approaches as well as inductive strategies should be balancly used so that students develop
both social and critical capabilities simultaneously. To explore what goes on in social studies
classes in this respect, both teachers and students were asked to indicate the frequency of
different teaching strategies they use or are exposed to respectively in class.
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 10, Issue 5, May-2023
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Table 1: Frequency of different teaching strategies used in the classroom
Teaching Strategies VO
(5)
O
(4)
S
(3)
R
(2)
N
(1)
MEAN N
Discussion 56.6 38.2 4.8 .4 - 4.51 724
Recitation (question- answer)
16.6 25.1 38.3 17.0 3.0 3.53 724
Lecturing 14.9 34.0 33.2 15.3 2.6 3.43 724
Group activity 10.3 15.6 46.1 21.4 6.6 3.02 724
Student presentation 5.0 8.6 35.3 31.2 20.0 2.48 724
Inquiry 3.1 5.2 23.1 32.3 36.2 2.07 724
Role playing/
Simulation
- 2.3 14.3 34.3 49.1 1.70 724
VO= very often, O=often, S= sometimes, R=rarely, N=never
As mentioned in table 1, according to the teachers, the most frequent teaching strategy used is
discussion. Recitation, through which the teacher asks students questions to check their
understanding of the content, is the second most frequent teaching strategy, while lecturing is
the third. It is interesting that group activity is used frequently as a mode of teaching and
learning. Student presentation is used sometimes, and the frequency for inquiry is ranked
somewhere between 'sometimes' and 'rarely', indicating that both strategies are not commonly
used in class. Other activities such as role playing/simulation are used rarely. These findings
are somewhat contrary to the assumption that lecturing is the most common mode of teaching
in social studies.
Beyond the teaching strategies, the materials used in instruction are also important in order to
make social studies more active and meaningful. Traditionally the textbook is the most
dominant instructional material used in class [14]. However, in order to examine the degree to
which other supporting materials are used in class, both teachers and students were asked to
report on the frequency of use of such course-related materials.
Table 2: Use of course-related support materials
VO
(5)
O
(4)
S
(3)
R
(2)
N
(1)
MEAN N
Teachers 6.7 8.9 20.1 17.0 47.3 2.11 724
VO= very often, O=often, S= sometimes, R=rarely, N=never
As seen in table 3, both teachers report that the use of course-related materials other than the
textbook in class is rare. This implies that the instructional activities are heavily dependent on
the textbook. Students are those who seem to experience the lack of use of instructional
materials more often than their teachers do. On the other hand, teachers do feel the need for
additional course materials assuming that they will result in an increase in the quality of the
teaching-learning process.
The various kinds of assignments given to students are of great significance in social studies
teaching since they can contribute to various goals if they are used effectively. In order to obtain
how often certain types of assignments are given to students in social studies courses,
assignments were grouped in three categories. These are: a) textbook-related assignments,