Abstract:
To analyze the relevancy between the objectives and the content in the social studies program of the lower comprehensive school curriculum. Research Procedures In pursuing this content analysis, it was necessary first to set criteria for evaluation. The criteria were determined from an interpretative analysis of the objectives in the social studies program of the lower comprehensive school curriculum. The interpretation of the objectives was accomplished by the researcher herself and nine graduate students of Department of Educational Administration. Then, it was examined by three specialists who are qualified in the areas of curriculum development, curriculum evaluation, and social studies teaching. Next, the interpretation of the objectives was used as a source for questionnaire con¬struction. After the questionnaire was complete, thirty-one qualified educators were asked to rank the significance of each content item. Finally, all of the content items ware ranked again by the use of means and classified into six categories according to the six objectives. The value of the Product-moment Correlation Coefficient was between 0.47123 and 0.70283 at a five per cent level of significance. All of the nineteen social studies textbooks were examined and their content was analyzed. The number of pages and lines con-taining content relevant to the objectives were recorded as the researcher went through each textbook. The total amount of relevant content was computed in percentage, and the rank-order coefficient of the content was arranged in accordance with the one of the objectives. Research Results It was found out that only three out of the nineteen textbooks examined presented relevant content to all of the six objectives in the social studies program. Four presented content rele¬vant to only five objectives, nine presented content relevant only four objectives, two presented content relevant to three objectives, and one only to two objectives. In conclusion, the content appeared in all of textbook used in the social studies program was insufficiently relevant to the objectives. Although some' of the textbooks presented the rank-order of the content in accordance with the rank-order of some objectives, none of them contained the content correlating to all objectives at the five per cent level of significance. Considering all of the content presented in the nineteen textbooks 1 it revealed that the content most significantly empha¬sized was the content about historical concerns. In terms of percentage, it was as much as 45.51. But when the content was considered according to the thirty-six items, it was found that these textbooks emphasized the content concerning foreign history the most, amounting to 16.32 per cent of the content in the social studies program. The objectives and the content in the social studies program were found to be minimally relevant to each other. Those who are responsible in the development of the secondary education curriculum should analyze and rank the objectives, and if possible transform them into behavioral terms. This will be helpful to the selection of relevant content to be presented in social studies textbooks. The writers of the nineteen textbooks examined in this study should revise their textbooks and present more relevant content to the ob¬jectives of the curriculum. Further study should be conducted to examine the relevancy between content and objectives in other subjects at other grade levels.