Assessment of Teachers' Knowledge and Use of Mastery Learning Strategy in the Implementation of Basic School Creative Arts Curriculum in Katsina State, Nigeria

Culture is the pride of members of every society as the cultural elements of any society portray their needs, interest, aspirations and dilemmas. It is in this context that arts and design plays a significant role in creating and preserving some of the societal cultural heritage through painting, carving, molding and building. It is therefore disheartening to note that most of the roles which art as a subject was included in school curriculum to perform have been negated as a result of the inability of the teachers to effectively use strategies like mastery learning that could motivate students’ interest in the subject. The study, therefore, assessed teachers’ use of mastery learning strategy in implementation of basic school art education curriculum for reinforcement of cultural sustainability in Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population comprised of all the basic school teachers in Katsina state, Nigeria. Target population was creative art teachers in basic schools. The sample was 50 creative art teachers purposely selected from five public basic schools in Dutsinma Local Government Area (LGA), Katsina State. Questionnaire tagged: ‘Assessment of Mastery Learning Strategy Questionnaire’ (AMLS) was constructed, validated and trial tested on teachers in Kurfi LGA which yielded a reliability coefficient at 0.75. In an attempt to answer the questions raised, mean, percentage and standard deviation were employed to answer the research questions while chi-square test statistics were made use of in testing the formulated hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The finding of the study indicated that most teachers were uninformed of the mastery learning strategy. Based on the finding, the study recommended that workshops on mastery learning should be organized to update teachers' knowledge of mastery learning and other motivating learning strategies. The study concluded that similar studies should be carried out in related subjects to ascertain the effectiveness of learning strategies used in imparting knowledge to learners.