Abstract:
This paper will describe the research methodology and present the pilot study findings of empirical research into the status of social studies and the attitudes of middle and upper grade students toward social studies in Western Australian government primary schools. The pilot study data were obtained from two government primary schools. The analysis suggests a deterioration in attitude toward social studies from middle primary through to upper primary and shows that there exist differences in students' attitudes to social studies which appear attributable to teacher gender and student gender. This pilot study formed the basis from which to proceed on a major study involving over 3000 students from 30 government primary schools.