An investigation of a student-centered education-based implemented music curriculum in Guangdong public elementary schools /

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Student Theses

2022

Zhang, Lexuan

Hong Kong : The Education University of Hong Kong

Thesis

The development of a curriculum is a complex educational process which involves a series of planning, teaching, learning, evaluating and other detailed teacher-student related components. In the past, Goodlad's three-dimensions curriculum representation, the intended curriculum, the implemented curriculum and the attained curriculum, has been applied to explain diverse educational phenomena, particularly to understand the curriculum theory in a school setting. Theoretically, each dimension of the curriculum should involve a tight connection and mutual-supportive relationship to each other to maintain a balanced educational system. However, in practice, the issues caused by giving inadequate attention to implemented curricula are evident in many regions of the world and are also present in the Chinese context.Although a popular western learning approach, Student-Centered Education (SCE), has been applied in the latest China's curriculum reforms since 2000, its effective adaptation and application to Chinese school music education is underexplored. Without observing actual practice, the success of SCE, which features new educational perspectives that rely on knowledge being explored and learned actively, cannot be proven to support China's educational goals. It is possible that flaws might have entered the process between theory and practice. Therefore, this research aims to address the shortage of investigation into implemented curriculum in the Chinese context. Five research questions about general lesson implementation and the specific application of SCE were answered in two independent but consecutive studies to support the understanding of implemented curriculum from a primary music educational perspective. In the first study, 19 music demonstration lessons were used as models of quality and explored by content analysis. This provided an insight into China's music demonstration lesson implementation and its adaptation to SCE from a demonstrational aspect. Over 760 minutes were examined, using both a systematic observational method and a qualitative thematic method to look at in-class behavior and interaction. The second study applied a multiple case study research method. Three music teachers were studied through observation, interview, and inspection of written documents to understand the implemented curriculum with SCE adaptation from a regular school educational aspect. SCE has mostly been reported on from Western perspectives and its successful implementation has been noted in smaller-sized class sizes. China has a context of large music class sizes. Therefore, a set of qualitative lesson instructional training was designed to explore the possibilities generated by implementing SCE in a large number of student environments. Findings were illustrated from the following aspects. An analysis of data from both studies reveals that: (a) direct content-driven activities are still the dominant mode in classrooms, (b) student individuality is seldom promoted, (c) activity-based lesson structures have become prevalent, (d) behavioral sequential patterns can still be observed in Chinese demonstration lessons and regular school music lessons, and (e) SCE could be implemented into large class sizes but still require contextual support for long-term application. Rather than simply concluding whether or not SCE was being implemented successfully, this doctoral thesis offersa new perspective in interpreting SCE operating within different contexts. Contextual considerations with multiple interpretations might make SCE more adaptable in a broader perspective

LG51.H43 Dr 2020eb Zhanglx

https://educoll.lib.eduhk.hk/records/hCwssppx