https://archive.aessweb.com/index.php/5052 Asian Economic and Social Society en-US Asian Journal of Contemporary Education 2617-1252 https://archive.aessweb.com/index.php/5052/article/view/5476 <p>The present study aims to explore the efficacy of an instructional method combining Task-Based Learning (TBL) and Blended Learning (BL) for developing sight-reading skills and musical instrument playing among undergraduate students of Chinese traditional instrumental music. A quasi-experimental design was employed with 50 second-year students from the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, who were allocated to experimental and control groups. The experimental group received a six-phase instructional intervention with TBL activities and blended materials in 20 sessions. Post-test findings revealed the experimental group's significant improvement in both sight-reading ability and musical instrument playing, with medium to large effect sizes. The approach successfully supported technical skill acquisition, artistic expression, and self-regulated learning. The synthesis of TBL and BL has been shown to be a highly effective pedagogical approach to enhancing the technical and expressive dimensions of musical education. The six-stage model exhibited high instructional coherence and flexibility, providing valuable guidelines for curricular change in performance-oriented music education.</p> Yalu Fu Supawadee Kanjanakate Nirat Jantharajit Copyright (c) 2025 2025-07-18 2025-07-18 9 2 131 142 10.55493/5052.v9i2.5476 https://archive.aessweb.com/index.php/5052/article/view/5511 <p>Although the Ghanaian mathematics curriculum emphasizes critical thinking as a core competence, students still appear to lack this skill. In this mixed-method study, the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy was used to assess senior high school students’ thinking levels in permutation and combination. A sample of 256 males and 104 females was randomly selected from three senior high schools for the study. The data were collected using tests and interviews, and analyzed descriptively and inferentially using Kruskal-Wallis tests. The results showed that while only one-fifth of the students reached the higher relational and extended abstract thinking levels, the majority (73.9%) remained at the lower levels of pre-structural, uni-structural, and multi-structural thinking. These students struggled to apply basic counting and multiplication principles in solving higher-order thinking problems. The Kruskal-Wallis H test further revealed statistically significant differences in thinking levels across the study programmes. General Science students demonstrated the highest thinking levels, followed by General Agriculture and Business students. The study concluded that students’ thinking levels in permutation and combination were low. It is recommended that teachers, textbook authors, and curriculum developers adopt representations and activity-based teaching strategies to help students develop a conceptual understanding of the topic.</p> Stephen Junior Appiah Emmanuel Kojo Amoah Emmanuel Antwi Adjei Peter Akayuure Copyright (c) 2025 2025-08-01 2025-08-01 9 2 143 155 10.55493/5052.v9i2.5511