SOME PARTICULARITIES OF STUDENT SATISFACTION WITH THE VISUAL ARTS TEACHING METHODOLOGY COURSE TAUGHT AT CROATIAN FACULTIES OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Student satisfaction with the Visual Arts Teaching Methodology course is an indicator of course quality in terms of teacher performance, mentorship quality, and institutional course organization. Therefore, assessing student satisfaction can be a useful method for identifying areas that require further improvement to increase the quality of courses and study programs. It is important to improve and maintain a high level of course quality in initial teacher education because it directly affects the quality of education in elementary schools.

The Visual Arts Teaching Methodology course is an important part of the primary teacher education program because it combines theoretical lectures and practical experience to prepare students for conducting visual arts activities in primary education. The course provides students with the opportunity to gain teaching experience and skills by working with pupils in the classroom, so it is directly related to the development of the students’ professional teaching competences.

The purpose of this study was to gain insights into the particularities of student satisfaction with the Visual Arts Teaching Methodology course by investigating the differences in overall satisfaction with the course between groups. The sample consisted of 489 students from six Croatian faculties of teacher education and four dislocated departments of those faculties. The ANOVA results showed that students enrolled in the primary teacher education program with the visual arts module are less satisfied with the quality of the course methodology compared to students enrolled in the same study program, but with different modules. Furthermore, the results of the one-sample t-test confirmed that students enrolled in the primary teacher education program with the visual arts module are not satisfied with the methodology of teaching in the course. The bivariate correlation analysis confirmed that the relationship between the students’ overall satisfaction with the course and their final grades was statistically significant. However, the relationship between those two variables was no longer statistically significant when controlling for the effect of modules in partial correlation. The results of this study support the findings of previous studies, which found that students who perceive a course as too easy or too difficult relative to their current knowledge and abilities express lower satisfaction with those courses.