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This article presents six case studies from England, Australia, and Hong Kong, which illustrate the different ways creativity in music is defined and assessed by teachers and learners in various educational contexts. It considers the influence of educational policies on the assessment of musical creativity. It also examines the key features of music creativity assessment in order to draw parallels between various contexts. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for classroom practice.

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.

Present research provides strong support for the use of creative activities such as composing in school music programmes based on evidence that learning music is more effective when students are exposed to authentic, experiential learning activities. Based on this premise the purpose of this study was to address the need to explore methods and skills necessary for incorporating music composition in Hong Kong schools given that this dimension of music teaching generally receives little attention from music teachers. A group of eight in-service music teachers were asked to design their own creative projects that were taught during a four-week Teaching Practice session. Field notes of observations and video recordings were analysed, which resulted in ten teaching strategies being identified according to four components of creativity: task motivation, domain-relevant skills, creativityrelevant processes, and metacognition. It is suggested that these components of creativity provide a framework that Hong Kong music teachers can use when implementing creative music activities in their classrooms.

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.

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.

ArticleResearch Studies in Music Education 32(2) 155-168 AbstractStudying music in schools has not been regarded to be important for Hong Kong students and parents. Similar to many other countries and regions, music is marginalized in the school curriculum. However, facing the 21st century, the Hong Kong government regards arts education to be an important contribution to the creative industries. The motivation of students in learning music thus becomes more critical. This article reports data drawn from an international study that examined students' motivation to study music as compared to other school subjects across the school grades. A total of 4495 students from 23 primary and 20 secondary schools participated in a survey. Results indicate a significant decline in competence beliefs and values (p < .001) and a significant increase in task difficulty for music and other school subjects across the school levels. Compared with Chinese, mathematics, visual arts and physical education (PE), music was ranked rather low in terms of competence beliefs and values, and task difficulty. In addition, there is a trend towards many secondary students learning instruments outside schools. Results may be attributed to a range of factors including a utilitarian view of education held by parents and students and the overall business-oriented atmosphere of the society, in that people focus on financial success rather than a holistic human development.

Schooling has been the main approach for transmitting knowledge and skills in both Eastern and Western cultures. The conservatory, for instance, has been the main cradle of great musicians. However, traditional folk arts in the East relied on apprenticeship using an oral approach for transmission. Applying Lave and Wenger's theory of legitimate peripheral participation as a theoretical framework, this article reports an interview study with five Cantonese opera artists in Hong Kong, all of whom have previously served and led apprenticeships. It was evident that the master artists took on limited numbers of apprentices for the purposes of transmitting personal artistry rather than monetary benefit. The master and the apprentice build up a quasi-parental relationship while the apprentice was regarded as a family member of the field. This study supplements the aforementioned theoretical framework with the Chinese cultural element of family ethics which may imply an application of apprenticeship in artistic and non-artistic transmissions through schooling.