Developing the professional competence of choral conductors and chorus masters in China’s music teacher education system

Abstract

The study reveals systemic causes of professional competence deficits among choral conductors and chorus masters in China’s music teacher education amid the rapid growth of the choral movement, setting the aim of identifying competence components and the pedagogical conditions for their effective formation, and proposing recommendations for curriculum modernisation. The materials include an analysis of more than 150 scholarly sources, a comparative study of standards and curricula in China, Russia and the EU, and an empirical base for 2023-2025: three conservatories and two teacher-training universities, 250 students, 80 teachers and 30 experts; methods comprise questionnaires, interviews, content analysis, expert evaluations and statistical processing (descritpive, correlational and factor analyses; SPSS 26.0). A critical imbalance was identified: the technical – performance block accounts for an average of 46,45% of time, while the psycho-pedagogical and organisational blocks account for only 8,82%, with a strong negative association between these shares (r=-0.87, p 0.01), which is mirrored in the disproportionate growth of students’ self-assessments: the largest gains in technique (+5,33 points) and minimal shifts in group psychology and process organisation (+2,06 and +2,09 points). Employers’ ratings register the largest competence gaps in communication and leadership (-5,70 points), management (-5,36) and methodology of vocal work (-3,17), with minimal gaps in technique and theory (up to -0.68), confirming a mismatch between training structure and practice needs. International comparison shows an excess of the technical – performance component in the Chinese model (+15,95 percentage points) and a shortfall in the psycho-pedagogical component (-13,18 percentage points), whereas practice-oriented blocks in foreign programmes reach 47,5%. The regression model indicates that each additional percentage point of instructional time in the psycho-pedagogical and organisational blocks reduces the overall competence gap by an average of 0,42 points (p 0.001), justifying a reallocation of workload in favour of choral pedagogy, educational psychology, arts management, project-based work and conflict management. The originality lies in the quantitatively substantiated link between programme structure and professional outcomes; the practical significance lies in the applicability of the results to updating standards and curricula, which may narrow the academy – practice gap and enhance the sustainable development of choral art.