Ghanaian university students perception of their readiness to teach cutting out of garments upon graduation

Abstract

The Universities of Cape Coast (UCC) and Education Winneba (UEW) are public universities in Ghana where students are trained to become teachers mainly at the secondary level. This paper was aimed at finding out the readiness of graduates from these two universities to teach cutting out of garments, through making pattern or cutting freehand, upon graduation. All final year students who had offered clothing as part of their programme during the 2013/2014 academic year were used for the study. A total number of 28 and 60 participants from UCC and UEW respectively were employed for the study. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for the analysis of the data collected. The data obtained were mainly described with the help of frequencies and percentages. The results of the study indicated that most of the respondents entered the universities directly from the SHS and did not have any freehand cutting skills prior to entering the university. Their skills in pattern making were also limited. On confidence in cutting out, patternmaking was higher than freehand cutting so was their confidence in teaching the two skills upon graduation. The differences between clothing and textiles major and food and nutrition major in terms of confidence in teaching both skills were about the same. It is recommended that a full 3-credit course in freehand cutting be introduced at the university level. More attention should also be paid to methods of cutting out at the SHS level. Key words: Cutting out, confidence, teaching, teachers in training.