with a target population of 75 lower primary school teachers in the Effutu Municipality. The study sampled all

75 lower primary school teachers from public basic schools in the municipality using census technique. 5

teachers were purposefully sampled for the interview. The data was gathered using questionnaire and semi-

structured interview guide. While the reliability of the instrument was ascertained through a Cronbach Alpha

coefficient value of 0.78, trustworthiness of the interview was ensured through credibility, dependability,

transferability, and confirmability. The data were analysed using frequencies, percentages, mean of means,

standard deviations, and thematic approach. The study revealed that drums, costumes, scissors, televisions are

teaching and learning, learners’ interest, availability of resources, teaching experience, time allocation,

academic qualification, national curriculum, and availability of technology were factors that influence

accessibility

(Robinson, 2015), while the Ghana Teaching Syllabus for Creative Arts (2007) defines Creative Arts as an

amalgamation of Visual Arts (drawing, weaving, modelling, casting, carving and painting), Sewing, and

Performing Arts (music, dance and drama). This word originally, means every child’s art is different, based on

their own imagination and choice of how and what they want to create. It is also the creativity and exploration

of children’s ideas which brings out their expressive side by capturing their imagination (Duffy, 2006). This

gives them the freedom to appreciate the elements in nature that begin a colourful journey which allows them

to create an original piece of work that is so exclusive. According to Kindler (2008) Creative Arts consist of art

The finger and hand grips are developed when children use chubby crayons and coloured pencils to sketch and

colour. When children are exposed to a variety of mixed-media and natural resource materials to complete

their artwork, they can acquire skills that help in small muscle and large motor development. Thus, teachers

must support children in their choices of mediums and allow them to explore and be open-ended when they are

engaged in any artwork (Prentice, 2000). The creative arts engage children across all domains cognitive,

language, social, emotional, and physical, it is therefore important to develop these creative arts among

learners using developmentally appropriate instructional strategies (Mayesky, 2013).

Sarfo (2007) defines instructional strategies as the procedures or set of techniques selected by the teacher to

help learners experience the message that the teacher wants to put across. It also refers to the various ways or

processes by which interaction between teachers and learners can be beneficial and lead to learning. However,

language, emotion, social, physical, cognitive, creativity and children’s spirituality, attitude, and value (Loy,

2011; Rebecca, 2011, Pekdemir & Akyol, 2015; Cooper, 2016). All these can be successful when there is a

good combination of the Instructional strategies and instructional resources.

Instructional resources have been observed as a powerful strategy to bring about effective teaching and

learning. The importance of quality and adequate instructional resources in teaching and learning can occur

through their effective utilization during classroom teaching and learning process. Instructional resources

therefore include all the tools, materials, and everything that teachers use to make the teaching and learning

more interesting and memorable. (Adeogun,2001).

The teaching of creative arts in the Ghanaian basic schools can be quite tricky due to the lack of requisite

preparation for implementing the syllabus which has also plunged its teaching and learning into crisis (Boafo-

alleviation and the sustainability of social and economic development of the nation via job creation. However,

realistic as this may be, there are inherent problems that creative art is facing in its development. Notable

among them are shortage of qualified art teachers, inadequate teaching facilities, funding, poor governance,

and social identity.

According to Simonton (2000) People who work with young children need to understand creativity and have

the skill to help and encourage children to express their creative natures. Teachers should be able to identify

creativity in children and be able to help them develop a willingness to express this creativity. The most

important thing to realize about creativity is that everyone possesses a certain amount of it. Some people are

little more creative, some are little less, and no one is uncreative. (

and make sense of experiences (Timmermans, 2005). Drawing with children can represent what they know

about the world. It illustrates, choose to translate ideas and experiences into a visual language. This is their

way of thinking aloud. Children are exposed to visual arts materials which are an aspect of creative arts at an

early age, their critical thinking skills and abilities develop (Cornett & Smithrim, 2001). Problem-solving

become noticeable as children use symbols to represent their ideas in art and they begin to develop rules about

how they work with the materials. For example, when children work in specific sequences (drawing of head,

eyes, nose and then mouth) and have specific rules about space and location of elements in their drawings, a

problem-solving process is being used. Similarly, when children work with paints and modelling materials,

they explore the attributes of the materials. This leads them to discover cause and effect, balance, symmetry,

solidity, fluidity, absorption, and dilution, these skills are not developed in isolation, and they are taught using

the appropriate instructional strategies (Craig et al. 2002).

As children explore artefacts and have discussions about them, they share information that supports them in

basic one to three use instructional pedagogies such as project-based learning, exploration, inquire-based

learning, procedural learning, and experiential learning instructional strategies in facilitating teaching and

learning (NaCCA, 2019). These teaching strategies will build supportive environments in which they will build

in using the strategies outlined by National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA). The

researcher’s interactions with some of the teachers in the Effutu Municipality reveals that, the creative arts

lesson delivery is not effective in the early childhood classes, this was because many of the children lack skills

in writing, cutting, gluing, and tearing, so they find it difficult in using simple art tools (drawing and writing

tools) and have no interest in the creative art works. The teachers also indicated that this reflected the

instructional strategies used in teaching the creative arts at the early grade. However no empirical study has

been conducted to support claims made by teachers in the Effutu Municipality, there is therefore the need to

assess the instructional strategies used in teaching creative arts lessons in public primary schools in the Effutu

Municipality. Teachers often used teaching methodologies and strategies that are inappropriate in relation to

the capabilities and age of the children (Artwatch Ghana, 2017). This study, therefore, sought to assess the

Effutu Municipality.

The study was guided by the following research questions:

What resources are available for teachers the teaching of creative arts lessons in Public Primary Schools in the

Effutu Municipality?

What challenges do teachers face using instructional strategies for teaching creative arts lessons in Public

Primary Schools in the Effutu Municipality?

their degree of agreement or disagreement. The data were analysed and discussed using mean and standard

deviation. A mean score of 2.50 and above indicate the availability of resources and a mean score of 2.49 and

below indicates the absence of resources. The results have been presented in Table 1.

audiocassette, drum, scissors, and costume. This may be because of the availability of these instructional

However, few of the respondents make use of television, ink, and brushes. This implies television and ink, and

brushes are not available. The availability and use of instructional materials will improve pupils understanding.

According to Adeogun (2001), the importance of instructional resources is also evident in the performance of

students. It is, therefore, necessary for steps to be taken to provide the respondents with the instructional

materials that are not available (television, ink, and brushes). This finding confirms Farombi (1998), which

opined that the availability, adequacy, and relevance of instructional materials in classrooms can influence

quality teaching, which can have positive effect on students’ learning and academic performance.

of participants.

specific learning objective in creative arts, again, to facilitate teaching and learning and further understanding

of specific topics …” (T3).

sometimes use my laptop…” (TI).

“…I use colours, crayons, cardboard, clay, laptop etc. To make them understand the topics…” (TI).

It depends on the topic you are teaching, sometimes the learners bring their own resources and sometimes too I

bring those that I can provide, for example, drums, cloth, crayon, shells, hair gear etc. When you see you

remember so when I use those resources for example the cloth used in dancing, whenever the child will be

have experienced how they dress (T3).