Design and Validation of an Experiential Learning Music Module for Grade 5 Students in Chinese Private Primary Schools

Chinese primary school music classrooms remain dominated by teacher-directed demonstration and imitation, even as national curriculum reforms call for active, student-centred instruction. Prior literature offers little empirical guidance on what a locally grounded experiential learning module should contain or how it can be validated before reaching students. This paper reports the needs analysis and expert-consensus phases of a three-phase design and development research project that produced an Experiential Learning Music Activities Module for Grade 5 classrooms in Henan Province, China. Semi-structured interviews with seven music teachers and systematic observation of three Grade 5 classes across two private primary schools identified five converging needs: broader musical content, a shift from transmission to facilitation, better use of available resources, sustained professional development, and assessment that extends beyond performance accuracy. These needs were translated into a design framework and submitted to a three-round Delphi consultation with fifteen music-education experts (authority coefficient Cr = .923), which retained 59 of 65 candidate items with strengthening coordination (Kendall's W rising from .532 to .602, both p < .001). The study offers a replicable, evidence-based model for grounding music-curriculum innovation in classroom realities before implementation is attempted.