TEACHING THE PERFORMING ARTS IN GHANAIAN PRIMARY SCHOOLS: A DILEMMA FOR PRE-SERVICE GENERALIST TEACHERS

Pre-service generalist teachers in Ghanaian Colleges of Education spend two years for studies on campus and one year for practical training in teaching in partner primary schools during which they teach all curriculum subjects. They however express fear and lack of adequate preparation to teach the performing arts. Through action research, nine selected pre-service teachers were guided to plan and implement activity based Performing Arts lessons. Participants’ confidence and competence of teaching the Performing Arts appreciated significantly after the study, suggesting that knowledge, understanding and skills of pre-service teachers who did not offered the full complement of the Performing Arts courses in College can be built through training workshops during their practical training session. Regular training workshops and in-service training for both generalist pre-service and in-service teachers in teaching the Performing Arts is recommended