Proposing and piloting a criterion- and standard-based assessment framework in teaching Cantonese operatic singing in Guangdong, China

Teaching traditional art forms in schools and the community has proven an effective way of ensuring the transmission of traditional culture. But due to the lack of valid and normative assessment guidance, the assessments of Cantonese operatic singing are still developing, impairing the instructiveness in its teaching and learning and restraining the education and development of this traditional genre within contemporary society. Accordingly, to guide the design of a holistic assessment, the revised Bloom’s taxonomy was adopted to form a theoretical framework from which a criterion- and standard-based assessment framework with four domains has been proposed. Four teachers and 24 students of Cantonese opera institutions in Guangdong, China, were invited to pilot the assessment framework. Afterwards, semi-structured interviews were conducted from which two research questions were answered satisfactorily: 1) proposing a criteria- and standard-based assessment framework is necessary, for the traditional assessment practice is weak in guiding teaching and learning and 2) positive feedback supported the proposed assessment framework facilitates the teaching and learning of Cantonese operatic singing.