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The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions of teacher trainers and
trainees on Creative Arts teacher education curriculum in Kenya. The objectives of
the study were to; establish the perceptions of teacher trainers and trainees on
objectives, content, learning activities, resources and assessment methods of Creative
Arts teacher education curriculum in Kenya. This study drew inspiration from Tyler’s
Objective-Centered Model. The philosophical stance adopted was pragmatic
paradigm. The study adopted the mixed methods research design. These involved
integrating the qualitative and quantitative approaches. Under this design both the
qualitative and quantitative data were collected concurrently, analyzed separately and
then merged for interpretation of overall results. This study targeted Creative Arts
teacher trainees and trainers. The researcher used stratified and simple random
sampling techniques to select the study sample. Data was collected by the use of
questionnaires and interview schedules. The computer program used was the
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program. Data analysis was done
by the use of descriptive statistics whereby frequencies and percentages were
calculated. The findings from the study showed that teacher trainees and trainers
perceived objectives of Creative Arts were relevant in handling diversity and
nurturing individual talents among others. Teacher trainees and trainers were
dissatisfied with the practical integration in curriculum implementation. The Creative
Arts content was relevant in terms of skills such as singing and template patterning
among others but they lacked practical orientation in teaching. The findings further
showed that they perceived activities such as performing in music and carving among
others were relevant but inadequate and the few available lacked practical integration.
The findings revealed that teacher trainees and trainers perceived resources such as
song repertoire and audio-visuals among others relevant to their needs but inadequate.
The study further showed that teacher trainees and trainers’ assessment techniques
such as written exercises and oral questions among others were relevant to their needs
but inadequate. The study made the following recommendations, that the creative arts
curriculum for primary teacher education should be reframed so as to give pre-service
teachers needed practical skills in teaching creative arts disciplines; there was need to
use a practical approach to teaching so that trainees could actually actualize their
needs; to set aside adequate space so that the content which was perceived to be
adequate could be taught more practically; curriculum developers to avail more time
for the teaching of specific arts so that trainees could be able to master them; parental
and community support could also go a long way in helping cover the content. The
activities used to teach Creative Arts though relevant requires to be given a more
practical grounding so that trainers can acquire and internalize the intended skills. The
creative arts curriculum had suggested very relevant resources for use, therefore,
colleges should endeavor to provide these resources and replace those that are
obsolete. Emphasis should be put on teaching the subject in a more practical way that
can allow practical oriented evaluation techniques to be used for purposes of trainees’
development of practical skills. It is my hope that the results of this study will be
useful to pre-service teachers, teacher trainers, policy makers and researchers,
especially those whose studies are to design the teacher education Creative Arts
curriculum for relevance to learner and societal needs. |
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