THE RELEVANCE OF THE VISUAL ARTS CURRICULUM IN THE PREPARATION OF PRE-SERVICE VISUAL ARTS TEACHERS IN UGANDA

The research examined the relevance of the visual arts curriculum content with the view of assessing the extent to which it equips pre-service visual arts teachers with the knowledge and skills required for effective teaching. The study adopted a descriptive case study design. Data were collected from three purposively selected National Teacher Colleges (NTCs), six tutors and 90 final year pre-service visual arts teachers participated in this study. The research findings showed that teacher education institutions are inadequately preparing pre-service visual arts teachers because of the gaps in the Visual Arts Curriculum (VAC) used in NTCs. Some of these gaps are attributed to the structure of the visual arts curriculum tutors use in NTCs. The visual arts curriculum lacks explicit visual arts assessment strategies; it has wide and combined visual arts content to be covered within a short period of two years and the limited knowledge of the available art materials, tools and equipment. The research recommended the restructuring of the VAC to accommodate more practical; and the introduction of specialized knowledge in the visual arts education (VAE) to enable tutors decipher practical knowledge from the theory studied so as to adopt an integrated approach in VAE curriculum.