Assessment of Clothing and Textile Practices and Their Impact on Students' Creative Skills in Secondary Schools in Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Mohammed Bello Adamu

doi:10.56201/ijssmr.vol.12no10.2026.pg136.143

📄 Download Paper

Assessment of Clothing and Textile Practices and Their Impact on Students' Creative Skills in Secondary Schools in Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Mohammed Bello Adamu

Abstract

Clothing and textile education occupy a central place within Home Economics in Nigerian secondary schools, offering learners structured opportunities to design, construct, decorate, and manage garments and fabric-based products. Beyond vocational competence, this area of the curriculum carries a largely underexploited potential to nurture creative skills such as fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration in adolescent learners. This paper theoretically examines clothing and textile practices in secondary schools in Nasarawa State, Nigeria, and their relationship with students' creative skills development. Drawing on Guilford's (1967) structure-of-intellect model, Torrance's (1974) theory of creative thinking, and Vygotsky's (1978) socio-constructivist perspective, the paper argues that the extent to which clothing and textile instruction stimulates creativity depends on how practices are taught rather than merely on the presence of the subject on the timetable. The review synthesises existing empirical literature, presents a conceptual framework linking instructional practice to creative outcomes, and identifies teacher competence, workshop facilities, curriculum delivery, and assessment style as the principal moderating factors. The paper concludes that where clothing and textile practices are delivered through activity-based, learner-centred methods, they can meaningfully strengthen students' creative capacities, and it offers recommendations for curriculum planners, teacher-training institutions, and school administrators in Nasarawa State.

Keywords

clothing and textilescreative skillssecondary educationHome EconomicsNasarawa Statevocational education

References

Amabile, T. M. (1996). Creativity in context: Update to the social psychology of creativity. Westview Press. Arubayi, D. O., & Obunadike, J. C. (2011). Problems of teaching and learning of Clothing and Textiles as perceived by senior secondary school students in Anambra State, Nigeria. Journal of Home Economics Research, 5(2), 113–139. British Council Nigeria. (2021). Creative education and skills in Nigeria: A rapid analysis. British Council. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. Macmillan. Federal Republic of Nigeria. (2013). National policy on education (6th ed.). NERDC Press. Guilford, J. P. (1967). The nature of human intelligence. McGraw-Hill. Isa, S. G., Mammam, M. A., Badar, Y., & Bala, T. (2020). The impact of teaching methods on academic performance of secondary school students in Nigeria. International Journal of Development Research, 10(6), 37382–37385. Marcketti, S., & Gordon, J. (2022). Educational value of clothing and textile museums. In Handbook of museum textiles (pp. 341–354). Wiley. Mpofu, M., Magagula, H., Manwa, L., & Manwa, L. (2023). An exploration of teachers' pedagogical knowledge on teaching practical skills in fashion and fabrics to high school learners. International Journal of Social Learning, 3(3), 378–394. National Educational Research and Development Council. (2014). Senior secondary education curriculum: Home economics for SS 1–3. NERDC. Nwosu, S. N., Etiubon, R. U., & Ofem, I. B. (2022). Effect of activity-based learning on basic science and technology students' non-cognitive skills in south-south Nigeria. International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology, 7(4), 1–9. Torrance, E. P. (1974). Torrance tests of creative thinking: Norms-technical manual. Personnel Press. University Press PLC. (2020). Home economics: Clothing and textiles for senior secondary schools. University Press. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

Assessment of Clothing and Textile Practices and Their Impact on Students' Creative Skills in Secondary Schools in Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Keywords

References

More Articles from INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND MANAGEMENT RESEARCH