Need analysis on developing Students' higher order thinking skills one-to-one Western classical instrumental music lessons in higher education

One-to-one teaching remains significant in music teaching, however, this approach to Western Classical Instrumental Music (WCIM) teaching in higher education institutes prioritizes the technical aspect of music and tends to ignore its interpretive aspects and music institutions are often called to justify the need for such an expensive and resource-intensive approach to music education. The mastery of musical instruments requires a sensibility towards the music as well as a competency to interpret music, and manipulate the instruments. Therefore, there is a significant need to investigate the need for developing students' higher order thinking skills (HOTS) within this context. The present study adopts an exploratory sequential mixed approach to collect data by interviewing 15 teachers and surveying 538 students for Need Analysis in higher education. The findings revealed that teachers and students in one-to-one WCIM instruction have a strong Target Need for developing HOTS in Higher Education. Meanwhile, more practice on HOTS for students within the classroom is vital Route for Learning Needs, however, there is a challenge in stimulating different levels of students' motivation to explore independently. Furthermore, given the current obstacles faced by teachers, the present study implies the need for broader HOTS studies on WCIM teaching and learning, which will bring benefit to both students' lifelong learning and healthy development of WCIM education discipline. In addition, the study recommends the designing and developing of a more feasible framework for teachers as an urgent further study to improve the HOTS implementation.