General Knowledge in Art (GKA) is a core subject for Visual Arts students in Ghana's Senior High Schools but an elective for Home Economics students. Unlike Textiles, Ceramics and allied Visual Arts subjects which are taught by specialist teachers, GKA has no specialist teachers: all Visual Arts teacher are deemed competent to effectively deliver the GKA curriculum; hence teaching and student achievement in GKA varies according to the strengths of GKA teachers. This paper describes an investigation of how the teaching methods, instructional strategies and resources employed by GKA teachers in Ghana's Senior High Schools affect student achievement in the subject. Using findings analyzed from qualitative and quantitative data gathered via questionnaire administration to 420 GKA students (Visual Arts = 227 or 54.0%; Home Economics = 193 or 46.0%) in four schools in Ashanti Region; interview with nine GKA teachers, school librarians and storekeepers, as well as observation of 14.
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Abstract This study examines the pupils’ perceptions of factors likely to impact on their creativity development in public and private primary schools in Asokwa Sub-Metro Authority, in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Questionnaires were administered to the pupils to examine their attitudes, beliefs, and current school and classroom environments. Pupils were found to possess accurate concepts regarding what constitutes creativity and revealed conflicts with the school and classroom environments. The paradox between public and private schools pupils’ reported support for creativity enrichment and virtual lack of related classroom practice and inadequate school infrastructure is explored as a result of multiple misconceptions and contributing variables. Results tested at the 0.05 level of significance indicated that significant difference existed in the pupils` perception of detail bases on (i) school type; (ii) age; while no significant difference existed in the perception of details of pupils based on school class and gender. Implications are discussed, as well as possible limitations and directions for future research. Further studies would need to be conducted to investigate the conditions under which perception of creativity development in children would be enhanced alongside their academic achievement. Keywords: Creativity, creative teaching, learning environment, pupils’ perception.
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Figure drawing is at the centre of many visual art programmes in the tertiary institutions in Ghana such as Fashion Designing, Sculpture, Painting and Graphic Designing. This is important because careers in these programmes requires the use of knowledge on correct representation of the human figure. Fortunately, the second cycle Visual Art and General Art programmes syllabi mandates the teaching of figure drawing. Unfortunately, students who are admitted to pursue various programme options in Industrial Art at the Bolgatanga Polytechnic are unable to demonstrate good skill in the drawing of the human figure. This paper therefore sort to identify areas in figure drawing which pose challenging to students. The study was carried out between 2014 and 2017 with the level 100 students of Industrial Art department of the Bolgatanga Polytechnic. The students were made to produce several human figure drawings each week and these drawings were then scored and the various infractions recorded. The study revealed that human figure drawing is a general problem for graduates of the second cycle visual art programme. Areas in the human figure drawing which was very difficult for students to handle included the facial features as well as the fingers. The study recommends that the Ghana Art Teachers Association takes a look at this trend and advice teachers to take lessons of figure drawing serious. Also, figure drawing teachers in Tertiary institutions needs to start the lessons of figure drawing from the basics.
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International Institute for Science, Technology, and Education(Journal of Education and Practice)
This study investigates the attitude of Senior High School students towards the teaching and learning of geography in the Cape Coast Metropolis. To achieve this, a quantitative approach using descriptive survey design was employed. A sample of 120 students studying geography were selected from four (4) Senior High Schools in the Cape Coast Metropolis. The study employed purposive and simple random sampling procedure to select respondents from the schools for the study. Questionnaire (close-ended) were used, and data were coded and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 to produce inferential (means and standard deviation). The study revealed that students perceive geography as difficult to learn and understand because the geography subject involves a lot of drawings and terminologies, etcetera. It was again, unraveled that students have positive attitude towards the teaching and learning of geography. The findings of the study revealed that reading materials such as textbooks, handouts etc. are used by the geography teachers in teaching. It was therefore, recommended that teachers in the various schools should motivate their students to take geography lessons seriously and study it well, as it could be of relevance to them in the near future. Government and other stakeholders should provide schools with modern teaching and learning resources so as to help teachers to explain very well Geography concepts to the understanding of their students.
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Journal of Education and Practice
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Journal of Education and Practice
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The study examines the use of waste materials as instructional resources in teaching and learning Art lessons. Primary, Junior and Senior High School Art teachers in Ghana mostly teach their lessons without instructional resources because the government is not able to provide materials to create the needed resources. The study therefore explored local waste materials which create nuisance in the environment in Ghana to create appropriate teaching resources for Art in Ghana. This study shows differences in classroom atmosphere and student performance when instructional resources are used or not used in teaching and learning. The study adopted the exploratory, quasi-experimental and descriptive research methods. Art teachers from Kumasi were selected to teach with developed instructional resources after which lessons taught with and without the instructional resources were compared. The study found that when instructional resources are used for teaching and learning, lessons become more practical, interactive, interesting and real to pupils and students, and enables them to perform better in their academics. Importance of Using Instructional Resources in Teaching and Learning Clarification and Illustration of Concepts The one major reason for poor performance among learners is the abstract manner of which the courses are taught them. Aina (2013) and Adeyemo (2010) are of the view that the absence of instructional resources such as pictures, models or real objects makes it difficult for learners to understand communicated information. This is because young learners usually lack the ability to assimilate concepts abstractly making it imperative to adopt the use of interactive instructional resources. Instructional resources are very useful because they enable the teacher to clarify concepts to make learning more practical (Wathore, 2012). In many instances, the teacher may be faced with the problem of explaining some difficult ideas with which students are not familiar with, if this happens and the teacher does not have instructional resources to use, he or she may resort to various unhelpful means to explain the concept (Wathore, 2012). Educational activities carried out by using instructional resources displays several subjects, cases, works and operations in line with their real-life versions where students observe them by themselves to enrich the teaching process and increase the amount of learning (Yildirim, 2008). For example, a resource on one point perspective will help clarify the concept of perspective in terms of the appearance of close and distant objects to an observer, a resource on vanishing point and the horizon which will help learners understand the concept easily. A good visual aid is better and more effective in explaining a concept or point than several words of verbal communication. The idea is that visual aids help to illustrate and bring a sense of reality to what is taught therefore they produce simulating interest by creating correct impressions and bringing lessons to life (Yildirim, 2008). Instructional resources provide a great deal of convenience in teachers' ability to convey a message to students in an accurate, proper, clear and understandable manner, making abstract knowledge concrete and enabling students to comprehend complex ideas through simplification (Saglam, 2011). Arousal of Interest Instructional resource usage in teaching enables the teacher to arouse interest among students to enjoy an instruction (Onasanya, 2004). Students may not be interested because the learning experience is too abstract and vague, so they find it difficult to understand, grasp or create a mental picture of it. Once the teacher uses instructional resources such as models and specimens students' interests are aroused. Such an interest propels students to learn and enjoy the lesson (Wathore, 2012). Instructional resources are used in teaching and learning to focus attention of students, to reduce boredom in the classroom, and to make the teaching learning process more systematic, exciting and lively (Wathore, 2012). Igbo and Omeje (2014) adds that the use of instructional resources attract the attention of pupils and enable them to participate in the topic being taught by using the resources as reference to illustrate their thoughts and ideas. Utilisation of instructional resources really has the ability to provide a high degree of interest for students to involve themselves in an instruction (Ruis, Muhyidin & Waluyo, 2009). Assimilation of Ideas and Knowledge Since students get to observe instructional resources than mere words, they are effective in helping learners assimilate ideas and knowledge in the teaching and learning context. Teaching resources reinforce the processes
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Journal of Education and Practice
