THE EFFECT OF ART EDUCATION ON CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study aimed at determining the effect of art education on childhood development and academic achievement in Rivers State, Nigeria. A research question was formulated and one hypothesis was tested at 0.05 alpha levels. A descriptive survey design was used for the study. The research concentrated on the South-East Senatorial Districts which covered seven Local Government Areas. Namely; Andoni, Eleme, Gokana, Khana, Opobo/Nkoro, Oyigbo and Tai. The population for this study comprised four selected local government areas from Rivers South-East Senatorial District. They are: Andoni, Khana, Gokana, and Eleme local government areas with a  population of 217924, 292924, 233813, and 190194 respectively bringing it to a total population of 934855 (National Population Census, 2006). A sample size of 400 was arrived at through the use of Taro Yamane Formula and used in the study. The instrument for data
collection was a structured questionnaire. It was validated. Pearson Moment Correlation Coeffcient was used to determine the reliability of the instrument. A value of r=0.84 was realized. Descriptive statistics such as Frequency count, Mean and Standard deviation, were used to analyze the data collected while inferential statistics of Z-test was used to test the formulated hypothesis. The findings of this study revealed that art education have impact on childhood development in Rivers State. The study recommended that efforts aimed at making sure that the impact of art education on childhood development is achievable should be made. Also, children learning art should be encouraged to enhance their skills and self-development.