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Demonstration lessons are used in China to provide models of quality music instruction. However, to date, no research has been done on the quality of demonstration lessons and how this relates to the improvement of school music education in China. This content analysis provides an insight into China's music demonstration lesson implementation and its contextual adaptation for student-centered education (SCE). A total of 19 music demonstration lessons over 760 minutes have been examined, using both a systematic observational method and a qualitative thematic analysis method to look at in-class behavior and interaction. An analysis of data reveals that: (a) direct content-driven activities are still taking dominant roles in class, (b) students' individuality is seldomly promoted, (c) activity-based lesson structures have become prevalent, and (d) sequential patterns under a behaviorist perspective still can be seen in China's demonstration lessons. Although findings may not necessarily represent exactly what is happening in a regular school setting and it reveals a different adaptation of SCE compared to an international perspective, it serves as a starting point for understanding the official educational views of China and a different angle in perceiving the adaptation of SCE in practice under China context.

Sustainability has been incorporating multiculturalism in music education (MME) for decades, but the dialogs of MME in China has always focused on school education, neglecting community-based music education. The cultural-political context of this study is in Xijiang, southwest China, where is a Miao-dominated community integrating Miao, Han and other ethnic cultures. This study employed a mixed-method approach with a convergent parallel design that combined a survey with qualitative methods including casual conversation, semi-structured interview, and documentary analysis. Findings revealed that despite the promotion and inheritance of Miao's music are highly valued, and the interest of minority ethnic communities in engaging in music learning and performance remains considerable, the sustainability of multicultural music education in Xijiang is in question. Problems are attributed to inadequate and unequal educational resources, devaluation of state institutes, shortage of teachers, and high illiterate rate. This article contributes to theorizing on sustainability in multicultural music education within a multicultural background in southwest China, by identifying the stakeholders in the education system and drawing on the empirical evidence on the truly needs of communities. The implications of the study include improvements in the development of multicultural music education.

The primary purpose of the study was to explore the current situation of Chinese music majors' self-regulated learning (SRL) in the individual music practice context. Two undergraduate piano players' music practice profiles were collected using SRL microanalysis protocols and follow-up semi-structured interviews. The results have shown: (1) there were obvious differences between the two Chinese music majors' before, during, and after their practice sessions; (2) both participants' SRL during music practice could be enhanced by developing advanced practice strategies (including metacognitive and mental strategies); (3) music majors' SRL has been influenced by Chinese culture when seeking help from teachers and in self-attribution; (4) the SRL microanalysis can effectively obtain specific contextualized information regarding music majors' behavior, cognition, and affect during their practice in the Chinese context. This study reflects the Chinese music majors' current situation in terms of self-regulated music practice and provides insights useful to understanding the practices of students influenced by Chinese culture and improving them to achieve higher levels of self-regulated music practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigated the factors affecting the motivation of studio-based instrumental learners in Hong Kong. We interviewed a total of 13 participants who learnt the violin and/or the piano. We analyzed the interview data by selective coding accordingly to the three basic needs in the conceptual framework of Basic Psychology Needs Theory, which is one of the mini-theories from Self-Determination Theory. The thematization of basic needs are (1) autonomy, (2) relatedness, and (3) competency. We found relatedness and competence were more related to our participants. This study contributes to the understanding of studio-based, learning-environment characteristics as well as specific motivation factors attributed to the distinctions between the violin and the piano learning environments in Hong Kong. We also discussed the issues of music learning in school and teacher's style of teaching practice.

The Ministry of Education of China issued a new document of Music Curriculum Standards in 2011 substituting the old version of 2001. This study aims to investigate how music teachers in China implement and respond to the Curriculum Standards through a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews with voluntary teachers. A total of 2206 music teachers from 15 regions/provinces responded to the survey in 2015. Findings reveal that, after a few years of implementation, most teachers found different constraints in implementing the new curriculum. Trained teachers, younger teachers and experienced teachers are more receptive and capable in implementing the curriculum, while rural schools are still in a disadvantaged situation. Most teachers do not understand the concept of music education as aesthetic education. In-service training is found to be insufficient, especially in rural schools. In sum, the current 'knowledge-centered curriculum' might need to be redirected to the directions of society-centered and student-centered in order to make a balance.

In mainland China, the implementation of the junior secondary school's music curriculum is highly dependent on music teachers' attitudes towards music and music education. This study investigated the possible relationship between teachers' attitudes towards teaching Chinese folk music and their music teaching practice in junior secondary schools in Weifang, China. A total of 72 secondary school teachers responded to a questionnaire regarding their attitude towards teaching Chinese folk music and their perception of students' attitudes to learning the genre. Six semi-structured interviews with voluntary teachers were conducted to explore the constraints of teaching Chinese folk music. Findings indicate that most respondents have a positive attitude towards teaching Chinese folk music although they spent limited time teaching the genre. Teachers' attitudes are not only related to their personal musical preference and students' responses, but are also shaped and modified by the educational context of China, including music teachers' professional training, teaching responsibility, and the needs of the job market. Promoting Chinese music through education requires both music teachers and teaching policy makers to have an appropriate understanding of Chinese folk music which should not be supplementary to the main content; rather, it should be an imperative part of the music curriculum. Learning Chinese folk music is beneficial for nurturing students' musical identities. Balancing the ratio of Western classical music and Chinese folk music in music classes is helpful in cultivating students' multicultural perspectives.

China has been instituting national basic education curriculum reforms since 2001. This study provides an updated understanding of present-day, rural primary school music education in Northeastern China's Tonghua region. A total of 126 rural primary music teachers and 674 students from 28 primary schools in the region were surveyed using a questionnaire. In addition, teachers were interviewed about the factors responsible for the current situation. The findings reveal that primary music education in the rural areas of North-east China is suffering from a number of problems including the inadequate provision of resources by local government, teachers' lack of professionalism in terms of music education, and an inadequate understanding of the new curriculum reforms and rationales. The measures recommended to improve the current situation in the region may also provide insights that would prove useful for global consideration.

The Hong Kong Government has advocated teaching Cantonese opera in the school music curriculum to promote Chinese culture education. This longitudinal study aims to examine how and why teachers transform within 3 years in learning and teaching Cantonese opera with a teacher-artist partnership approach in schools. Five primary and two secondary teachers collaborated with a Cantonese opera artist to teach the genre for 8 weeks in 2008. With reference to the Transformative Learning Theory, two rounds of interviews with teachers in 2008 and 2011 were carried out to investigate the extent they had transformed in relation to teaching Cantonese opera. Informational learning from the partnership and self reflection in sufficient time are the main attributes in teachers' transformation. It is implied that music teachers may reinterpret their old experience of learning the Chinese music with the assistance of relevant experts in order to make new meaning of their perception on music education.

Demonstration lessons are used in China to provide models of quality music instruction. However, to date, no research has been done on the quality of demonstration lessons and how this relates to the improvement of school music education in China. This content analysis provides an insight into China's music demonstration lesson implementation and its contextual adaptation for student-centered education (SCE). A total of 19 music demonstration lessons over 760 minutes have been examined, using both a systematic observational method and a qualitative thematic analysis method to look at in-class behavior and interaction. An analysis of data reveals that: (a) direct content-driven activities are still taking dominant roles in class, (b) students' individuality is seldomly promoted, (c) activity-based lesson structures have become prevalent, and (d) sequential patterns under a behaviorist perspective still can be seen in China's demonstration lessons. Although findings may not necessarily represent exactly what is happening in a regular school setting and it reveals a different adaptation of SCE compared to an international perspective, it serves as a starting point for understanding the official educational views of China and a different angle in perceiving the adaptation of SCE in practice under China context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports students' motivation changes after they were guided to compose. A total of 582 students in five primary schools responded to a set of pre- and post-activity questionnaires before and after participating in composing activities. A univariate ANOVA and a series of repeated measures ANOVAs were used to compare the mean scores before and after the composing activities to measure the different levels of student perception towards music composition. Results suggested that students' gender and their instrumental learning experience were two factors that significantly affected the motivational changes. In general, boys and non-instrumentalists had a significantly lower level of motivation than girls and instrumentalists. However, after experiencing the composing activities, boys had significantly elevated their self-efficacy, while non-instrumentalists had increased their self-efficacy, intrinsic value, utility value and expectancy. (Contains 6 figures and 2 tables.)

One of the major goals of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) is to "nurture, advocate and promote music education and education through music in all parts of the world". In an effort to assist music educators internationally as they advocate for music to be included in the school curriculum, the author offers an annotated list of resources for music education advocacy. This list identifies websites, books, articles, and advocacy materials that can provide valuable information and rationales for including music in the school curriculum, and strategies for convincing stakeholders and decision makers of the importance of music. The author urges music educators to review these advocacy materials and use them to strengthen and promote music education and education through music in their local communities.

Sustainability has been incorporating multiculturalism in music education (MME) for decades, but the dialogs of MME in China has always focused on school education, neglecting community-based music education. The cultural-political context of this study is in Xijiang, southwest China, where is a Miao-dominated community integrating Miao, Han and other ethnic cultures. This study employed a mixed-method approach with a convergent parallel design that combined a survey with qualitative methods including casual conversation, semi-structured interview, and documentary analysis. Findings revealed that despite the promotion and inheritance of Miao's music are highly valued, and the interest of minority ethnic communities in engaging in music learning and performance remains considerable, the sustainability of multicultural music education in Xijiang is in question. Problems are attributed to inadequate and unequal educational resources, devaluation of state institutes, shortage of teachers, and high illiterate rate. This article contributes to theorizing on sustainability in multicultural music education within a multicultural background in southwest China, by identifying the stakeholders in the education system and drawing on the empirical evidence on the truly needs of communities. The implications of the study include improvements in the development of multicultural music education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In mainland China, the implementation of the junior secondary school’s music curriculum is highly dependent on music teachers’ attitudes towards music and music education. This study investigated the possible relationship between teachers’ attitudes towards teaching Chinese folk music and their music teaching practice in junior secondary schools in Weifang, China. A total of 72 secondary school teachers responded to a questionnaire regarding their attitude towards teaching Chinese folk music and their perception of students’ attitudes to learning the genre. Six semi-structured interviews with voluntary teachers were conducted to explore the constraints of teaching Chinese folk music. Findings indicate that most respondents have a positive attitude towards teaching Chinese folk music although they spent limited time teaching the genre. Teachers’ attitudes are not only related to their personal musical preference and students’ responses, but are also shaped and modified by the educational context of China, including music teachers’ professional training, teaching responsibility, and the needs of the job market. Promoting Chinese music through education requires both music teachers and teaching policy makers to have an appropriate understanding of Chinese folk music which should not be supplementary to the main content; rather, it should be an imperative part of the music curriculum. Learning Chinese folk music is beneficial for nurturing students’ musical identities. Balancing the ratio of Western classical music and Chinese folk music in music classes is helpful in cultivating students’ multicultural perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been instituting national basic education curriculum reforms since 2001. This study provides an updated understanding of present-day, rural primary school music education in Northeastern China’s Tonghua region. A total of 126 rural primary music teachers and 674 students from 28 primary schools in the region were surveyed using a questionnaire. In addition, teachers were interviewed about the factors responsible for the current situation. The findings reveal that primary music education in the rural areas of North-east China is suffering from a number of problems including the inadequate provision of resources by local government, teachers’ lack of professionalism in terms of music education, and an inadequate understanding of the new curriculum reforms and rationales. The measures recommended to improve the current situation in the region may also provide insights that would prove useful for global consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]