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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJRISS)
ISSN No. 2454-6186 | DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS | Volume IX Issue XXVI October 2025 | Special Issue on Education
Strategies for Improving High School Students' Music Appreciation
Ability in Chinese Senior High School Music Teaching
He Zhenge, Zaharul Lailiddin Bin Saidon
Qingdao Chengyang District Experimental Senior High School
DOI:
https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.903SEDU0687
Received: 04 November 2025; Accepted: 10 November 2025; Published: 23 November 2025
ABSTRACT
With the deepening and development of China’s new round of curriculum reform, senior high school education
has increasingly emphasized the comprehensive cultivation of students' overall quality, covering morality,
intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, labor, and cultural literacy. As an important part of senior high school
education, music courses are not only a key carrier for enhancing students' aesthetic taste but also effectively
relieve academic pressure and enrich their spiritual world. However, current senior high school music education
in China still faces many practical difficulties, such as insufficient school attention, weak students' interest in
music learning, poor reserve of music theoretical knowledge, unclear assessment criteria for music appreciation
ability, and insufficient consideration of the feasibility of teaching reforms in different regional contexts. These
problems have seriously restricted the improvement of students' music appreciation ability. Based on teaching
practice, integrated with global research on music pedagogy and aesthetic education, as well as cognitive and
affective learning theories, this paper explores effective strategies for enhancing senior high school students'
music appreciation ability from four dimensions: concept transformation, method innovation, resource
integration, and evaluation optimization. It also clarifies the assessment criteria for music appreciation ability
and analyzes the feasibility of reform implementation in urban and rural schools, so as to provide more
comprehensive and practical reference for the reform of senior high school music teaching.
Keywords: Senior High School Music; Classroom Teaching; Appreciation Ability; Improvement Strategies;
Assessment Criteria; Feasibility Analysis
INTRODUCTION
Music appreciation ability is a core component of students' aesthetic literacy and an important manifestation of
their comprehensive quality development. The new round of basic education curriculum reform clearly states
that senior high school music teaching should focus on the goal of "aesthetic education", guiding students to feel
the charm of music, understand its connotation, and form independent musical aesthetic judgments.
Existing global research on music pedagogy has laid a solid theoretical foundation for this field. For example,
Dalcroze’s eurhythmics emphasizes the connection between body movement and music perception, Kodály’s
method highlights the combination of national music culture and music education, and Orff’s approach advocates
integrating music, movement, and language to stimulate students' inherent musicality. In the field of aesthetic
education, Dewey’s theory of aesthetic experience emphasizes the interaction between students and artworks,
emphasizing that aesthetic development comes from personal emotional experience and cognitive participation.
However, under the inertia of exam-oriented education in China, music courses in senior high schools are often
regarded as "non-core subjects". Problems such as insufficient allocation of teaching resources, rigid teaching
methods, unclear assessment criteria for music appreciation ability, and inadequate consideration of regional
differences in reform feasibility are widespread, making it difficult for students to truly engage with and
understand music. The cultivation of appreciation ability has fallen into a "formalized" predicament.
Cognitive learning theories (such as Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives) point out that students'
understanding of music goes through the process of knowledge memory, comprehension, application, analysis,
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJRISS)
ISSN No. 2454-6186 | DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS | Volume IX Issue XXVI October 2025 | Special Issue on Education
evaluation, and creation. Affective learning theories (such as Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory and
Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence Theory) emphasize that music appreciation is not only a cognitive activity
but also an emotional experience process, which requires the coordination of emotional perception, emotional
expression, and emotional regulation. Integrating these theoretical insights into music teaching can better explain
how students engage with music emotionally and intellectually, and provide a scientific basis for the design of
teaching strategies.
Therefore, exploring scientific and effective improvement strategies to solve the problems in senior high school
music teaching, clarifying assessment criteria, and considering the feasibility of regional implementation is of
great practical significance for implementing the curriculum reform requirements and promoting students' all-
round development.
CURRENT SITUATION OF CULTIVATING STUDENTS' APPRECIATION ABILITY
IN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING
2.1 Insufficient Attention to Teaching and Imbalanced Resource Allocation
Most senior high schools focus their teaching on college entrance examination core subjects. The class hours of
music courses are compressed, and even "occupied or diverted" in some cases. Schools have obvious insufficient
investment in music teaching resources, lacking professional music teachers and inadequate equipment such as
musical instruments and multimedia teaching tools, which are difficult to meet the basic needs of appreciation
teaching.
There are significant differences in resource allocation between urban and rural schools. Urban schools have
relatively sufficient funds to purchase advanced teaching equipment, invite professional musicians to give
lectures, and organize students to participate in off-campus music activities. In contrast, rural and underfunded
schools face more severe challenges, such as a shortage of full-time music teachers, outdated or insufficient
musical instruments, and limited access to online music resources due to poor network conditions.
2.2 Rigid and Single Teaching Methods, Lack of Interactive Experience
Current senior high school music teaching mostly adopts the traditional mode of "teacher plays—students
listen—teacher explains", which lacks interest and interactivity. Teachers overemphasize the inculcation of
music theoretical knowledge, ignoring students' subjective feelings and experiences. This leads to students
passively accepting knowledge, being unable to actively participate in the music appreciation process, and their
learning interest gradually fades.
The lack of integration of cognitive and affective learning theories in teaching methods makes it difficult to
mobilize students' emotional resonance while imparting knowledge. Students can only memorize superficial
theoretical knowledge but cannot deeply understand the emotional connotation and cultural background of music
works.
2.3 Uneven Student Foundation and Weak Theoretical Reserve
There are significant differences in the music foundation of senior high school students. Some students lack
basic music common sense and have vague cognition of core concepts such as musical notes, rhythm, and
melody. At the same time, the types of music students are exposed to are relatively single, mostly confined to
pop music. They have little understanding of diverse musical forms such as classical music and national music,
resulting in a narrow appreciation perspective and difficulty in forming systematic appreciation thinking.
2.4 Unclear Assessment Criteria and Lack of Objective Evaluation Basis
At present, there is no clear and unified assessment criteria for students' music appreciation ability in senior high
school music teaching. The evaluation method is mostly single summative evaluation, focusing on students'
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mastery of theoretical knowledge, while ignoring the assessment of emotional experience, aesthetic expression,
and cultural understanding in the process of music appreciation. This makes it difficult to objectively evaluate
students' progress in music appreciation ability and cannot provide effective feedback for teaching improvement.
STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING STUDENTS' APPRECIATION ABILITY IN SENIOR
HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHING
3.1 Transform Teaching Concepts and Establish Students' Subject Status
1. Break the cognitive prejudice of regarding music as a "non-core subject", incorporate music appreciation
teaching into the students' comprehensive quality evaluation system, and enhance the attention paid by
schools and students to music courses.
2. Design teaching content based on students' interests and cognitive laws, respect their personalized aesthetic
experiences, encourage students to boldly express their understanding and feelings about music, and
abandon the constraint of "standard answers".
3. Guided by cognitive and affective learning theories, pay equal attention to students' cognitive development
and emotional experience in teaching, and promote the coordinated development of students' intellectual
and emotional engagement in music appreciation.
3.2 Innovate Teaching Methods and Strengthen Interactive Experience
1. Adopt situational teaching methods, using multimedia technology to create scenarios related to the
historical background and life scenes of musical works. For example, play film and television clips of the
Chu-Han Contention when playing Ambush from Ten Sides, allowing students to intuitively feel the
emotional connotation of the music and deepen their cognitive understanding through emotional
experience.
2. Introduce interactive teaching, organizing activities such as group discussions, music appreciation debates,
and simple musical instrument performance experiences. Let students deepen their understanding of music
through communication and practice, and improve their participation enthusiasm. This method is
consistent with the cognitive learning theory’s emphasis on active participation and knowledge
construction.
3. Implement interdisciplinary integrated teaching, combining music with Chinese, history, art and other
subjects. For example, when appreciating poetry-matched music works, link Chinese knowledge to
interpret the artistic conception of lyrics, and combine historical backgrounds to understand the formation
reasons of musical styles. This helps students establish a systematic knowledge framework and improve
their comprehensive cognitive ability.
3.3 Integrate Curriculum Resources and Broaden Appreciation Horizons
3.3.1 Enrich Teaching Content with Diversified Resources
1. Break the limitation of a single music type, introduce multi-element materials such as classical music,
national music, and world music. At the same time, integrate local music cultural resources, such as local
operas and folk musical instruments, to enhance students' cultural identity.
2. Utilize new media resources to build an online music appreciation platform, recommending high-quality
music apps, live online concerts, music documentaries, etc. Guide students to independently expand their
appreciation scope after class, realizing the organic combination of classroom teaching and extracurricular
extension.
3.3.2 Analyze the Feasibility of Resource Integration in Different Contexts
1. For urban schools with sufficient funds and resources, strengthen inter-school cooperation and off-campus
practice, organize students to visit concert halls, participate in music club activities, and invite professional
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musicians to give lectures on campus. Let students improve their appreciation ability in a real musical
environment.
2. For rural and underfunded schools, focus on exploring low-cost and accessible resources. For example,
use free online music teaching platforms to make up for the shortage of offline resources; invite local folk
artists to enter the campus to teach folk music and folk musical instruments, reducing the demand for
expensive equipment; rely on local natural and cultural environments to carry out situational music
activities, which are low-cost and highly operable.
3.3.3 Case Studies of Urban and Rural Schools
1. Urban School Case: A key high school in Beijing integrates resources from local concert halls and art
galleries, cooperating with them to carry out "music appreciation + on-site experience" courses. Every
semester, students are organized to listen to 2-3 professional concerts, and musicians are invited to conduct
post-concert exchanges. With the support of sufficient funds and convenient transportation, this model has
significantly improved students' music appreciation ability and expanded their artistic horizons.
2. Rural School Case: A high school in a remote county in Guizhou uses local ethnic minority music
resources (such as Dong folk songs and Miao lusheng music) as the core of teaching content. Teachers
organize students to interview local folk artists, learn to sing folk songs and play simple folk musical
instruments. With the support of government educational poverty alleviation funds and social public
welfare projects, the school has purchased basic musical instruments and improved network conditions,
making it possible to use online resources for teaching. This model not only solves the problem of
insufficient resources but also inherits and promotes local culture, achieving good teaching results.
3.4 Optimize the Evaluation System and Focus on Process Feedback
3.4.1 Establish Clear Assessment Criteria (Rubrics)
Formulate a multi-dimensional assessment rubric for music appreciation ability, covering four core dimensions
with specific performance indicators and grading standards (see Table 1).
Assessment Dimensions
Performance Indicators
Grading Standards (Level 1-4)
Emotional Experience
Ability to perceive and
resonate with the
emotional connotation of
music works
4: Can deeply perceive the emotional connotation of
music, express unique emotional resonance, and
connect with personal life experience; 3: Can perceive
the main emotional connotation of music and express
basic emotional resonance; 2: Can initially perceive the
emotional tendency of music but cannot clearly express
it; 1: Cannot perceive the emotional connotation of
music
Theoretical Cognition
Mastery of basic music
knowledge and
understanding of musical
elements (rhythm, melody,
harmony, etc.)
4: Profoundly understands musical elements and can
accurately analyze their role in expressing emotions and
themes; 3: Master basic music knowledge and can simply
analyze musical elements; 2: Has a preliminary
understanding of basic music knowledge but cannot
apply it to appreciation; 1: Lacks basic music theoretical
knowledge
Expression Ability
Ability to express personal
understanding and views on
music works
4: Can clearly, comprehensively, and innovatively
express personal understanding and views, with strong
logicality; 3: Can clearly express personal basic
understanding and views; 2: Can simply express partial
understanding but lacks clarity; 1: Cannot effectively
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express personal views on music
Cultural Understanding
Understanding of the
cultural background and
artistic value of music works
4: Profoundly understands the cultural background and
artistic value of music works and can analyze their
connection with the times and society; 3: Understands the
basic cultural background and artistic value of music
works; 2: Has a preliminary understanding of the cultural
background of music works but lacks indepth
understanding; 1: Does not understand the cultural
background and artistic value of music works
3.4.2 Adopt a Diversified Evaluation Mechanism
1. Abandon the single examination evaluation mode, and incorporate students' classroom participation,
appreciation expression ability, independent learning achievements, and personalized aesthetic insights into
the evaluation scope.
2. Adopt a combination of process evaluation and summative evaluation. Through classroom observation
records, appreciation report comments, group mutual evaluation, self-evaluation, and teacher evaluation,
timely feedback students' learning situation, affirm progress, point out deficiencies, and guide students to
continuously improve their appreciation ability.
CONCLUSION
Improving senior high school students' music appreciation ability is an important measure to implement the
"Five Education Principles" and the core goal of senior high school music teaching reform. This process requires
the joint efforts of schools, teachers, and students, and needs to fully consider the differences in regional
educational resources and the actual needs of students.
By transforming teaching concepts based on cognitive and affective learning theories, innovating interactive
teaching methods, integrating diversified curriculum resources while considering the feasibility of regional
implementation, and establishing clear assessment criteria and a diversified evaluation system, the practical
difficulties in current teaching can be effectively solved. The case studies of urban and rural schools have proved
that as long as teaching strategies are adjusted according to local conditions, music appreciation teaching can
achieve good results regardless of the level of resource allocation.
Only when music teaching truly returns to the essence of "aesthetic education" can students be guided to enrich
their spiritual world, enhance their aesthetic literacy, and achieve all-round development of comprehensive
quality while feeling the charm of music. In the future, senior high school music teaching needs to continue to
absorb global advanced music pedagogy and aesthetic education research results, further optimize teaching
strategies in combination with the times development and students' needs, and make music appreciation an
important nourishment for students' growth.
