Instructional Strategies, Institutional Support and Student Achievement in General Knowledge in Art: Implications for Visual Arts Education in Ghana

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 lessons, the study revealed a high student-teacher ratio which encourages ‘whole class’ teaching via the lecture method, and teacher use of verbal examples, textbook illustrations, chalkboard diagrams, and photographs as instructional media. It emerged that lack of art studios, tools and materials, inadequate funding, and weak institutional support discourage the teaching of practical lessons, including fieldtrips to derive aesthetic experiences from community resources. Lack of ICT and internet facilities also discourage research that could supplement teaching notes GKA students learn for assessment. Invariably, many Visual Arts and Home Economics students who offer GKA make poor grades in internal and external examinations and miss out on higher education. Keywords: Teaching; Student achievement; General Knowledge in Art; Visual Arts; Home Economics; Senior High School; Ghana