Assessing alignment between curriculum standards and teachers’ instructional practices in China’s school music education

Abstract

Alignment between curriculum standards and teachers’ classroom instructional practices is critical in assessing curriculum implementation effectiveness and students’ learning. Using a modified version of the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) for music, this study explored the alignment between the enacted curriculum and the national curriculum standards in the Chinese school system. Curriculum standards and classroom instructional practices were represented using sets of two-dimensional matrices that comprised content themes and five learning domains: Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor, Social, and Cultural (the CAPSCt model). The results showed an overall high level of alignment (0.81–0.90). It was also suggested that the degree of alignment gradually decreased from the low grade to high grade band. Individual variations were evident in both the learning content and learning objectives, in which more emphasis was put on cognitive, affective, and psychomotor development than on social and cultural aspects. Methodological challenges and implications of the CAPSCt model for assessing curriculum enactment are also discussed.