Motivation: A Viable Tool for Boosting the Performance of Female Students in Visual Art Practical Lessons

It is worth noting that the subjects students choose to study in the Senior High Schools impact on their educational and career options in the future. However, single sex schools are seen as offering sex biased Visual Arts elective subjects whiles the choice of electives for mixed schools are normally male driven in Ghanaian Senior High Schools. Female students who are not fortunate to find themselves in schools which offer more male friendly electives are seriously disadvantaged at the tertiary level. To unearth the reasons why the gender disparity among elective Visual Arts subjects persist and to verify if the motivation has an effect on female student performance in the practical component of Visual Arts, a qualitative research that administered questionnaire and observation was undertaken to solicit data from 180 respondents in four selected Senior High Schools in Ashanti Region of Ghana. The findings revealed that the Visual Arts subjects, male students showed interests were frowned upon by female students because they felt incapacitated to pursue them. Yet, the study shows that if female students are motivated, there is a high possibility of recording high performances in their Visual Arts practical examinations. Therefore, the study recommends that female students who pursue Visual Arts must be motivated. The study concludes that Visual Arts female teachers must practice the visual arts to serve as a potent motivational tool for Visual Arts female students.