This study explores the impacts of popular music education in classroom practices from different aspects such as learning by ear, motivation, musicianship, peer learning and creativity. The Sing by Ear approach was created based on the concepts of informal learning in singing a cappella. A total of 323 participants aged 11–14 were invited to participate in the 3-month project. Students learnt to sing cover songs by ear in an a cappella setting instead of reading music notations. The result from the case studies showed that students gained positive experiences in musicianship, peer-learning and peer-teaching, confidence and satisfaction, and creativity following the project. A pedagogical model was proposed based on the literature and findings in the study to inform the research and practice in popular music education for teachers and researchers. Copyright © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the types of musical activities carried out in preschools for children aged 3–6 years in two contrasting cultural settings: Spain, a Mediterranean European country, and Hong Kong, a special administrative region in China. Participants were 398 teachers in preschools, 199 in each location. We administered a survey in which we asked how often they carried out 19 musical activities. In our analysis, we considered these activities independently and clustered by content (based on the type of musical practice involved) and nature (based on the potential of the activity to foster creativity). Participants in Hong Kong reported carrying out eight activities most often while participants in Spain reported carrying out four activities most often. Regarding content, Singing and Voice activities were provided most often in Hong Kong, whereas Rhythmic Movement activities were provided most often in Spain. Regarding nature, Reproductive activities were carried out more often than Creative activities in both locations. Contrary to our expectations, Creative activities were carried out more often in Hong Kong than Spain. We conclude that there are mismatches between the curriculum for music and actual practices in both cultures, with repetitive musical practices being the most prevalent. Implications are discussed for curriculum designers, teacher educators, and teachers themselves. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s).

Globalisation has significantly influenced preschool education around the world, including Hong Kong, where the official curriculum framework has recently integrated the Western notion of creativity as part of arts education, forming a new learning area: Arts and Creativity. The purpose of this study was to investigate how Hong Kong preschool stakeholders perceived Arts and Creativity and its viability in practice. We interviewed 20 teachers, 10 principals, and 20 teacher educators specialising in arts education (N = 50). Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used. Findings showed that Hong Kong preschool stakeholders: (1) perceived most Western pedagogical characteristics as important but not fully viable in the local context; (2) expressed that children’s arts creativity is fostered from a low/null to a moderate extent, due to constraints such as parental demands, time, and resources; (3) suggested strategies to maximise children’s arts creativity focusing on curricular amendments, parental education, teacher preparation, and societal changes at large. We conclude that Arts and Creativity is not perceived to be implemented in accordance to the official curriculum framework. The study reveals the need to ‘glocalize’ this learning area in the Hong Kong context. Implications for moving forward in arts creativity preschool education are discussed. Copyright © 2023 Pedagogy, Culture & Society.

Hong Kong students’ declining motivation levels in learning music have become an alarming issue and a challenge for music educators. At the same time, while expressing an interest in popular music, local students have limited opportunities to study the genre as part of their formal school curricula. It leaves the question of what kinds of teaching strategies and music materials should be constructed to provide students with educational and musical values in the school music curriculum. The present study explores the effects and responses of implementing popular music education in the local classroom, examines students’ motivational levels and, the psychology of music learning based on the self-determination theory.A teaching approach was created based on the concepts from informal learning practices with the addition of singing elements, namely the Sing by Ear project. The approach is tailored to the Hong Kong classroom music context, as instruments and spacious practice rooms are not required when resources are limited. The project aims to provide a comprehensive music learning approach in which confidence, and satisfaction, and musicianship through listening, creating, and performing could be earned collaboratively and simultaneously with the activity. The current research was administered under the explanatory sequential approach, which involves two phases of data collection: a quantitative phase followed by a qualitative phase. By employing the convenience sampling method, 323 participants (aged 11- 14) were invited to the three-month project. Students were involved in singing cover songs by ear instead of reading music notations in an a cappella setting. A mobile learning strategy was adopted due to the enforcement of social distancing measures following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.Data were collected by pre-test and post-test survey instruments and student interviews to determine (1) the extent of self-determination for having formal school music lessons

Although studying music at school can be an enriching and enjoyable experience, it is an unpopular choice for many Hong Kong senior secondary students. The purpose of this study was to examine the rationale behind the low enrolment of music as a Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) subject. A questionnaire was conducted among senior secondary school students (N = 121) studying music at the HKDSE level, collecting information about their learning experiences and their perceptions of the curriculum. The results provided evidence supporting the difficulties and struggles faced by the students, including degrees of familiarity with, and confidence about, subject matters of different musical cultures, which subjects were prioritised when it came to studying, and the amount of prior specialist knowledge needed as part of the decision-making process. Tensions were revealed between the driving forces behind curriculum change and the readiness of students to cope with these changes, along with perceptions of music as an elitist subject with low utilitarian value. Socio-cultural interventions, such as making music education more accessible for all, while simultaneously ensuring that stakeholders' voices are heard as part of the decolonisation process, remain fundamental challenges facing the curriculum. Copyright © 2022 Sage Publications.

To investigate music teachers' perceptions and concerns in fostering music creativity of students with intellectual disabilities, findings are presented from a study of nine music teachers purposely sampled from across all three categories (mild, medium, severe) of Hong Kong's special school for students with intellectual disabilities. Personal profiles identify respondents' displaying three professional knowledge gaps -- music expertise, special-education training and prior experience of being taught 'creativity'. Findings also indicate that respondents add to the creativity literature: first by supplementing Hargreaves' 2012. "Musical Imagination: Perception and Production, Beauty and Creativity." "Psychology of Music" 40 (5): 539-557] 'process' to include 'music making' and 'body movement', and second, that music creativity may be described as a spectrum that embraces various forms of expressions. Copyright © 2022 Routledge.

The first COVID-19 case in Hong Kong was detected on January 22, 2020. The disease spread quickly. Schools were suspended from January 25 to May 24. During these four months, the Government promoted online learning to replace face-to-face learning. However, as online teaching was very new, school music teachers had found tremendous difficulties, especially in recorder playing and ensemble training.On the other hand, the Hong Kong Diploma for Secondary Education Examination was postponed from March 11 to April 24 in the same year. New measurements for disease prevention were implemented. For example, Paper-II Performing was cancelled as it involved ensemble playing, which was not in line with the Government’s disease prevention policy. In this study, I have invited two primary school music teachers and two secondary music teachers to share the challenges and opportunities they have faced in teaching during the pandemic. Copyright © 2022 International Society for Music Education.

Art classrooms and museums are places where teachers and students talk about artworks. However, there is a lack of empirical research into dialogue—the most basic component of classroom teaching and the most used education strategy in museums. I investigated the development and experimentation of a dialogue-and-questioning framework for art classrooms and museums. I conducted a design-based research study with seven primary schoolteachers and 187 6th-grade students in Hong Kong. I found that the total number of questions asked by the teacher participants increased significantly. Teachers’ performance, when asking personal connection, observation, interpretation, and evaluation questions, also improved significantly. They became more conscious of relating artworks to the students in a personal way and developed a practice that fostered a more comprehensive understanding of artworks. Student participants began to approach artworks from different perspectives and engaged in more in-depth examinations. Copyright © 2022 National Art Education Association.