FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING OF HISTORY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN DALA LOCAL GOVERNEMENT AREA, KANO STATE

ABSTRACT The study sought to determine the factors affecting students’ attitudes towards learning of History among Secondary Schools Students in Dala local government area of Kano State. The researchers used descriptive survey research design for the study. The targeted population comprised of all the 21 public senior secondary schools in Dala local government, all the History teachers teaching History and all the students taking History in the study area. Purposive random sampling technique was used to select 4 secondary schools, 11 History teachers and 365 SS III students taking History as the sample size. The researchers used questionnaire as an instrument to obtain information from History teachers and students. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data collected using frequency and percentage counts. Findings from the study showed that Poor methods of teaching and instruction, inadequacy of instructional materials, complexity and abstract nature of the subject and its irrelevance to the daily life of the students were the factors affecting students’ attitudes towards learning of history. Also, the findings of the study revealed that the history teachers provide guidance and counselling to the students, apply incentives techniques, make clarity of history lessons to the students, use digital based teaching methods and modify the curriculum context of history all just to influence the students towards learning of history. And lastly, the findings from the study revealed that gender difference does not affect students’ attitudes towards learning of history. It was concluded that majority of the students had negative attitude towards learning of History. The researchers recommended that principals and teachers should endeavor to cultivate positive attitude in students for all the subjects since most teachers encourage the students to take sciences more seriously than humanities. More research should be carried out to determine the major reason why the negative attitude and low interest of students in learning of history in the study area is still persistent.