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The "Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australians" (MCEETYA, 2008) cited confident and creative citizens as a key goal for Australian students. This goal aligns with global research on visual arts, specifically visual literacy. Being visually literate means decoding images, understanding the relationship between image and context, and recoding personal experiences into visual artworks. This learning is a core outcome of responding activities in secondary school visual arts. However, students will only develop visual literacy skills if they are engaged in their learning activities. Subsequently, this research sought to explore the cognitive engagement of students in the Year 11 visual arts course. The research utilised a mixed methods approach, which aimed to measure factors affecting student engagement. Quantitative measures of student engagement are rarely subject specific, and the creation of a quantitative visual arts diagnostic instrument gave information about students' engagement that could inform teacher instruction. Factors affecting students' engagement were determined through exploratory analysis of the diagnostic assessment instrument, with qualitative data used to explain the students' quantitative responses. Three key factors of cognitive engagement were determined: intrinsic motivation, metacognition and autonomy. Developing students' skills in these areas may improve their cognitive engagement in their visual arts education.

Secondary visual arts education provides learners with opportunities to develop critical thinking, and their creative potential, as part of their personal growth. This development happens when visual arts teachers actively integrate creative pedagogies to target creative thinking in learners. Ghana's 2019 National Pre‐tertiary Curriculum Framework has added creativity as one goal for all learners. This research study explores teachers' perceptions and use of creative pedagogies as part of implementing this creativity into their teaching. A multi‐site qualitative case study was conducted in government secondary schools within Sekondi‐Takoradi, Ghana, and data were gathered from interviews and participant observations. The 16 cases specifically examined creative pedagogies in practice in the secondary visual arts programme, as the subject of visual arts is commensurate with developing creativity. The study revealed that teachers' pedagogical perceptions of developing creativity do not align with the actual pedagogies they employ, with teachers being observed to emphasise teacher‐centred pedagogies. It is suggested that the integration of creative pedagogies should be contextualised in Ghana's secondary visual arts programme, in order to support teachers to meet the goal of creativity development for all learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study draws on student engagement factors to examine the relationship between students’ non-school-based arts experiences on their intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy to participate in visual arts responding tasks. Visual arts responding in the curriculum includes learning about artists and artworks, decoding art and making critical judgements, and is important in building twenty-first century learning skills such as critical thinking and communication. A total of 266 Year 10 to 12 students from 18 schools in Western Australia (WA) participated in the quantitative research, which explored outside-school arts engagement as well as cognitive and psychological engagement factors in their current year of secondary schooling. The findings showed that while being an art consumer appears to impact on intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy, producing art as a hobby outside of school does not appear to do so. The research raised questions about links between practice and theory, and how to promote students’ engagement in responding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Science Teacher Efficacy Belief Instrument has been a widely reported measure of teachers' personal efficacy and outcome efficacy beliefs. This pilot study examined if the instrument could be amended for use in The Arts learning area. A small cohort of 110 Graduate Diploma of Education preservice teachers participated in the pilot. Factor structures were examined through confirmatory factor analyses. The model displaying best fit consisted of six items measuring outcome expectancy and 10 items related to teaching efficacy. Measuring self-efficacy is important as many teachers who teach the Arts in Australia and internationally are not subject specialist teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The investigation establishes a gap in teachers' knowledge and understanding of creativity. • Teachers' definition of creativity was limited to generating ideas and problem-solving. • Teachers perceived creativity as a universal trait. • Teachers believed creativity is a teachable skill—taught, inspired, and developed in visual arts in education. • Teachers' perception and understanding of creativity were shaped by initial teacher education (ITE), educational material—textbooks and syllabi, cultural and religious ideologies. Developing creativity in learners is contingent on how teachers define and understand creativity. This qualitative multi-site case study investigated secondary visual arts teachers' perceptions and understanding of creativity in Sekondi-Takoradi in Ghana and the influences that impact their perceptions. Data were gathered from 16 secondary visual arts teachers in Ghana using interviews and documents review. It was evidenced that the secondary visual arts teachers' perceptions and understanding of creativity are limited and built on historical Ghanaian educational materials. The findings suggest teacher training materials and school-based educational resources in Ghana must be upgraded to extend teachers' understanding of creativity within education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Visual Arts are essential to interpreting culture and introduction to the Visual Arts often occurs within primary school. A mixed methods study was undertaken at a Western Australian university across the Arts subjects: dance, drama, media Arts, music and Visual Arts. This paper reports the quantitative findings of the Visual Arts section of the investigation, examining students' prior Visual Arts experiences and their self-efficacy to deliver the Visual Arts on graduating their degree. The research underscores the importance of positive Visual Arts experiences to build self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation among pre-service primary teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]