ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to determine the effects of Socratic Method on student's art performance in secondary schools in Kaduna Metropolis Nigeria. The specific objectives are to find out students performance when exposed to Socratic Method, determine if male students will perform better than female students when exposed to the Socratic Method, and determine if Socratic Method would have any effect on students performance in fine arts in both private and public schools. The study was a quasi-experimental design where pre-test and post-test control and experimental group was used. Forty (40) fine arts students (boys and girls) from four selected secondary schools were involved in the study. Simple random sampling was used to select the students. The instrument used for the study was a self-designed Art Appreciation Test (AAT) consisted of twenty (20) multiple choice items which was administered personally by the researcher for the collection of data. Obtained data was analyzed in frequency and percentage. The major findings obtained revealed that students perform better in fine art when taught using Socratic Method as compared to the conventional method. Female students are better in fine art performance when taught using Socratic Method. Private schools perform better than public schools when taught using Socratic Method. Based on the findings from the study, it was concluded that Students perform better in art when taught using Socratic Method as compared to conventional method. It was recommended that the teaching of art would be highly effective if art teachers start to use innovative teaching techniques such as Socratic Method to enhance the cognitive performance of art students.