Teaching Methods

Historical Concepts and Their Teaching Challenges from Teachers' Perspective in Basic Education (Third Cycle) in Sulaymaniyah City

Awat Karim Mustafa, Sabir Bakr Mustafa

This research examines historical concepts, which comprise important terms and expressions related to historical events and occurrences that influence the thinking and values of the students and become integral components of students' cognitive structure. These concepts play a vital role in guiding students' lives. To achieve the research objectives, the researcher employed a descriptive-analytical method. The researcher designed a survey questionnaire to collect data about teachers' perspectives on historical concepts and their teaching challenges. After validating the reliability and consistency of the designed form, which consisted of 41 items, the research population comprised teachers from central Sulaymaniyah province, with a sample size of 408 teachers. After conducting statistical analysis of the collected data using the One Sample t-test, results showed that the calculated t-value (95.018) was greater than the table t-value (1.990), with degrees of freedom (df) of 399. This proved that according to teachers' perspectives, the concepts present challenges and they are unclear, leading to confusion among students. Additional challenges include insufficient allocated class time and a lack of appropriate teaching assistances are challenges of the teachers. Also, the large number of concepts in the curriculum and the incompatibility of some concepts with students' age levels create some other problems. Moreover, there is a continuous need to update knowledge and teaching methods. To address these challenges, several key points require attention. First, new technology and modern teaching methods should be implemented. Second, it is important to provide continuous training course for teachers to develop their capabilities.