AN EXAMINATION OF FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENT BEHAVIOUR IN CULTURAL AND CREATIVE ARTS

 Abstract

This study is on an examination of factors affecting student behaviour in cultural and creative arts. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected secondary schools in Obi local government of Nasarawa state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up principals, vice principals administration, senior staff and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies

 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

Cultural and Creative Arts education is a subject which leads children towards the understanding and appreciation of arts and culture. It develops the creative skills and aesthetic sensibilities of children. It involves the philosophy, psychology and sociology of education in learning situation. Cultural and Creative Arts programme is designed to meet the professional needs of students who plan to specialize in Fine Arts, Drama, and Music. Creative Arts provide and trains teachers for the schools and colleges. Nigerian government realizes the importance of Cultural and Creative Arts and therefore include it in the National Policy on Education (Federal Ministry of Education,1981, 2004, 2007).The teaching of the subject is compulsory in Junior Secondary School and it is made optional at the senior secondary level. To ensure successful implementation of this programme, the federal government provided Cultural and Creative Arts syllabus for all Junior Secondary Schools in Nigeria.

Crowder in Akolo (2000) perceived that a way of preserving the arts in Nigeria is to encourage effective teaching learning through provision of adequate materials and funds. Funds are not adequately allocated to Cultural and Creative Arts Secondary Schools principals. There is need for attitudinal change on the part of parents, teachers and school administrators as suggested by Olorukooba (1990; 2006); Mbahi,(1990; 2008). The attitudinal change on the part of the administrators is also part of the problem of the Cultural and Creative Arts. Teachers and students also make negative statements about Creative Arts to people in authority. Such attitudes have to change for the students to be receptive to the teaching of Cultural and Creative.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Cultural and Creative Arts is one of the subjects introduced in the 9-Year Basic Education by the Federal Government of Nigeria as part of educational reform in the education sector. Nigeria is undergoing social change which necessitated that indigenous technology should be vigorously pursued yet, many classrooms where indigenous technology should be emphasized, and lack local resources that can arouse the interest of students. The neglect of local resources was due to the Western education that brought foreign influences in schools, including imported educational resources which are now lacking in schools. Consequently, the researcher observed during his visit to some schools that the CCA is taught without enough instructional resources, thereby hampering participation and performance of students in CCA. This may be as a result of lack of foreign and commercial CCA materials which were extensively used in the past but are no longer accessible to both students and their teachers which is the concern of this study.

The scarcity was also due to the inflation and global economic melt-down which affected Nigerian foreign exchange and importation of some goods into the country, of which CCA instructional resources were part. As a result many commercial art materials for art works were contraband and no longer found in the open market. The teachers and students who were using foreign materials find it difficult to change to local resources which can easily be sourced from the environment. This situation makes teachers resort to verbalization of contents which otherwise would require concrete instructional resources. The students are not left out in the neglect of local resources. They avoid working on options involving such resource materials in mosaic, mural painting, calabash, pottery, clay, raffia and xylophone. Their scarcity also makes teachers present instructional resources haphazardly and deny learners the opportunity of laying their hands on the relevant instructional resources. The efficacy of local resources in CCA instruction is not known. The problem of this study, therefore, is absence of information on effects of local resources on achievement and interest of male and female students in Cultural and Creative Arts.