Bridging the Blueprint and the Classroom: How Constructivist Principles Manifest in Chinese Choreography Curricula

Chinese dance choreography education faces a persistent paradox. Although course syllabi universally list creative thinking as a core objective, graduates frequently exhibit rigid technique application and difficulty transforming lived experience into choreographic expression. This suggests the problem lies not in goal articulation but in how the curriculum framework is structured.This research provides insight into how the five principles of constructivist learning (experience-driven learning, socially collaborative, ability to self-regulate and reflect, use of multiple representations, and situated learning) are embedded in choreography curricula, and it looks at how these principles are represented differently across different course categories. Findings indicate that while the four traditional courses have a strong emphasis on experience-driven learning and self-regulation and reflection, they lack significant representation of situated learning and social collaboration. The site-specific dance course demonstrates a distinctive embedding pattern in which all five constructivist principles are present, with situated learning serving as the organising principle that connects the other dimensions.Based on these findings, this research hypothesises a reciprocal model to provide a clearer understanding of how teacher behaviours and curriculum documentation interact in a reciprocal manner through a cycle of principle interpretation, contextual application, and teacher feedback, rather than through a linear cause-and-effect pattern. Consequently, the reciprocal process identified in this study provides an approach for reforming the choreography curriculum using a diagonal pathway of understanding the principles of constructivist learning as they apply to dance education practice.

Constructivist learning theory, Choreography curriculum, Site-specific dance, Situated learning, Curriculum design

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