New movements of music education in Asian countries: Curriculum reform and afte

School music education has been moved from music-centered learning approach to integral arts learning approach. Music has been integrated with other art subjects in some Asian countries while in other countries, music is still an independent subject. The panelists of this group have reflected on the movements of curriculum reform as a long-term project for several years. The advantages for integration include: pupils can recognise the relationship between arts and daily lives more clearly and deeply; motivation for arts learning is strengthened; through integral approach, pupils can develop critical thinking and creativity; pupils can recognise his/her roles in the group and develop human relationship, independency and self-confidence; pupils can deepen his/her understanding for different cultures. The important issues to be resolved in teacher education include: to develop teacher competency in designing, implementing and evaluating the integral arts curriculum; to develop teaching materials; to cultivate knowledge and skills of teaching each art genre. The panel discussion will focus on balanced learning of integration and individual art genres in school arts curricula. Panelists from different regions of East and Southeast Asia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand will present deliverables significant to this changing form of integral art learning. This learning may foster creativity and cultural understanding, on the other hand, pupils’ musical knowledge and skills may be weakened. The presenters would like to illustrate the integral learning from various perspectives and propose strategies to foster pupils’ music learning. Panel members from countries introducing integral art subject (Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Korea) will show their experiences and analyse pupils’ learning from perspectives of ‘musical competency’. Panel members from the other countries (Thailand, Malaysia, Japan) will describe their present condition. Copyright © 2014 Arts Education Conference 2013.