For performing arts education, Sage on the stage and Learn from the Masters were halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and so did everything else. All lectures, tutorials and other face-to-face skill-based training sections were cancelled and were replaced by the online model. Such a model was only seen as one of the supplementary components for performing arts education in the past. From January 2020, this online pedagogy was inevitably placed to surmount the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The social distancing measures demanded the blended pedagogy into a new online approach, in which the traditional face-to-face teaching to be replaced by synchronous online learning (facilitated by technologies such as Zoom, Cisco Webex, Google Class, Panopto etc.). Meanwhile, to offer opportunities for cognitive participation which allows students to process the learning and be reflective, webinar and innovative performance projects were launched from the concept of ‘flipped classroom and outcome-based education.’ This mixed approach (blended learning, flipped classroom, and outcome-based education) is described as ‘hybrid learning’ in this study.The ‘hybrid learning’ pedagogy is implemented at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) for all teaching activities in the 2nd semester 2020/2021 to overcome the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire survey about how it affected the performing arts education, and how the new pedagogy was implemented took place in July 2020. The survey results from both the teachers (76) and students (163) share lessons, insights, and new understandings on teaching and learning online. Hybrid learning has been widely investigated and researched, yet study on hybrid learning in performing arts such as creative art, theatre art and music, remains insufficient. This study fills the research gap. Copyright © 2021 Springer Nature B.V.

The purpose of this study was to explore how instrumental teachers reflect their professional development pathways with reference to their own apprenticeship experiences. The participants were three female instrumental teachers who taught the piano and violin. Reflections of teachers’ own learning experiences on their career pathways and professional development were collected from the participants through interviews, teaching diaries, and field notes. Several themes emerged from the data collected over an approximately six-month period. First, all the participants experienced long musical apprenticeships. Second, the teachers rarely perceived pedagogical skills are ‘learnable’ skills as performing skills. Finally, all the teachers were only interested in practical, examination-oriented professional development programmes, as opposed to academic or pedagogically-oriented outcomes such as journals or conferences. The unitisation of professional development choices would appear to be the most urgent and pressing problem faced by instrumental teachers. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Transmitting traditional music for sustainability has been a common theme in global music education. Recently, the school systems of Hong Kong and Guangdong have been encouraged by governmental authorities to teach Cantonese opera aiming at enhancing the sustainability of the genre and promote a Chinese cultural identity within students. This paper details a survey of school music teachers working in Hong Kong and Guangdong examining the current state of Cantonese opera teaching in the schools of both regions and investigate how it is affected by teacher variables including their interest in Chinese opera, the confidence in teaching the subject, and their perceptions of their Chinese cultural identities. A total of 1,974 valid questionnaires were received and examined. Descriptive and inferential statistics including MANOVA and chi-square tests were used to analyze the data. Findings reveal that Cantonese opera teaching is limited in both regions. While teachers are modestly interested, confident, and knowledgeable about teaching the genre, there is a significant relationship between the music backgrounds of teachers and their interest in Cantonese opera. The article discusses the findings within the context of a historical predominance of Western music within music education curricula and wider societies. Implications for policy makers are proposed. Copyright © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Many Christians are worried about the Old Testament portraying God as violent and commanding people to kill others or commit genocide. This study conducted a survey of Sunday school and seminary teachers to obtain their opinions about the ethical and theological challenges of these problematic texts, with the goal of identifying which perspectives and approaches to God’s violence tend to be adopted by Bible teachers in Hong Kong in their training classes. This study included a questionnaire survey of 300 respondents and interviews with 40 selected interviewees. The results identified different approaches to divine violence, related to those proposed by Eric A. Seibert. Then, the researcher analysed the approaches, perceptions, thoughts, and ideas of the different teachers, and their willingness and reluctance to discuss divine violence in their training classes. The survey responses yielded insights into how to approach and interpret such problematic texts in the Bible. Moreover, they offered pedagogical suggestions on how to teach about divine violence, as well as discussing the actual nature of God and the ethical framework for His divine action. The conclusion of the study is that no matter how people interpret these problematic Scriptures, which describe God’s violent behaviour, Christians and non-Christians should no longer use violence to injure others or justify their violent behaviour in society. Instead, mutual communication between Christians and non-Christians should be encouraged. All rights reserved.

This pilot study investigates the impact of using mobile devices to facilitate the practising of scales and arpeggios. The AI application was designed by an engineer/musician in Hong Kong. This AI application enables students to practise, record themselves, view their mistakes and prepare for examinations based on the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music’s scales and arpeggios syllabus for five instruments (violin, flute, clarinet, trumpet and saxophone). This study (a) examines the progress of learners who use the application to practise scales and arpeggios; (b) observes how elementary learners perceive mobile practising in a virtual learning environment and (c) proposes a blended learning model that uses mobile practising with the support of AI. Copyright © 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

This study investigates designs for developing knowledge building (KB) and higher order competencies among academically low-achieving students. Thirty-seven low-achieving students from a ninth-grade visual arts course in Hong Kong participated. The design involved principle-based KB pedagogy, with students writing on Knowledge Forum® (KF), enriched by analytics-supported reflective assessment. Analysis of the discourse on KF showed that the low achievers were able to engage in productive discourse, with evidence of metacognitive, collaborative, and epistemic inquiry. Analysis illustrates how the design supported student engagement, including (1) reflective inquiry and social metacognition; (2) reflective meta- and epistemic talk; (3) evidence-based reflection for collective growth; and (4) reflection embedded in community ethos. Implications of reflective assessment for supporting low achievers for inquiry learning and KB are discussed. Copyright © Sage Publications Ltd.

傳統或現代水墨在香港學校的視覺藝術教育中向來有待開發，站在地域上，香港自然是中西文化交融最成功地方之一，視覺藝術教育卻未正視此特質。雖然多年來偶有熱心水墨教育者申請基金舉辦活動，但正規中、小學課程仍然未能平衡中、西方藝術教育。文章通過行動研究探討在香港這特殊地理位置下，學校水墨教育可能應用的教學法。筆者在教學行動研究中加入現代和當代水墨的觀念元素和創作技法，並試以電腦方式加入草稿構想佈局，模仿傳統水墨中「搜盡奇峰打草稿」或臨摹不同古賢作品後重新結構自己作品方式－如謝赫「六法」中的「傳移模寫」後，自己重新構想「胸中幽壑」的方法。大量的電腦資料庫有助學生作構圖拼合（用 photoshop 軟件 )，省略了大量造型描摹時間，更易專注於用筆和墨韻的學習和練習。大會主題為「挑戰與轉化」，香港學校水墨畫教學應透過研究與時並進。除了考慮香港中、西文化交融的特質外，亦可以嘗試在傳統的創作媒介中結合現代主題和科技應用，讓年輕一代有機會通過學校視覺藝術教育接觸到中國傳統藝術，期望達致「轉化」學校視覺藝術教育長期忽略水墨畫教學的慣性和價值觀。 Copyright © 2020 Author(s). All rights reserved.