Performance of Ceramic Students with Different Backgrounds at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana

Abstract

This study assessed the performance of ceramic students with different backgrounds at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, using the cross-sectional design. A total of 170 students were sampled using a simple random sampling technique. A questionnaire yielded the Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.89 which confirmed the required reliability of the instrument. Data was treated using t-test and ANOVA so as to establish the difference in performance by learners categorized according to their backgrounds. The study established no significant difference in performance between students with arts and those without arts background in SHS. The study did not establish difference in performance by students categorized according to their genders. The performance of second year students was significantly lower than that of the first and third and fourth years combined. This might be due to the fact that second years curriculum is the beginning of studio practice where students struggle to learn how to throw on the potter’s wheel and begin producing arts works. The study recommends that SHS teachers should enhance the teaching strategies of arts studies at the SHS level so that students who went through the studies might even outperform those who did not take the subject at the SHS level. Students in second year of studies need more attention as they navigate their path in the manipulation of clay for them to perform better in their studies before they join the two final years of ceramic studies.