Developing Cangzhou Laozi Folk Dance Course to Enhance Cultural Awareness of Senior High School Students

Abstract

This study designed, validated, and evaluated a 16-lesson Cangzhou Laozi folk dance course to enhance local cultural awareness among senior high school students. Grounded in the Cultural Iceberg Model and Multiple Intelligences Theory, the 8-week curriculum systematically guided students from surface cultural execution to deep cultural values. Five experts confirmed high content validity, yielding Index of Item-Objective Congruence (IOC) scores of 1.0 for curriculum design items and 0.8 to 1.0 for survey items. Pre- and post-test administrations of the 20-item Cangzhou Laozi Cultural Awareness Questionnaire demonstrated high reliability ($\alpha = 0.903$ and $0.902$). A quantitative evaluation involving 50 students from Cangzhou No.3 High School revealed significant improvements in overall cultural awareness, with total mean scores increasing from 2.93 ($SD = 0.79$) to 3.70 ($SD = 0.74$, $t(49) = 11.26, p < 0.001, d = 1.60$). Cultural cognition scores rose from 3.01 to 3.79 ($d = 1.54$), and cultural understanding scores grew from 2.84 to 3.60 ($d = 1.51$). The post-course correlation between cognition and understanding strengthened significantly ($r = 0.82, p < 0.001$), confirming synchronized learning growth. Post-intervention interviews with 12 students supported these findings: 100% reported a deepened understanding of folk culture, 83.3% connected dance movements to Cangzhou’s martial arts heritage, and 75% expressed intent to transmit local cultural traditions. Overall, the structured dance curriculum proved highly effective in fostering regional intangible cultural heritage awareness.