Students’ motivation to study music: The United States of America

Abstract

ArticleResearch Studies in Music Education 32(2) 201-213 AbstractAs a part of a larger international mapping exercise to examine students' motivation to study music as compared to other school subjects, this article draws upon data from a sample of 3037 students in the USA to observe perceptions of values, competence and interest in music study (in school versus outside of school) among music learners and non-music learners. Students were grouped into three grade levels: (a) 6, (b) 7-9, and (c) 10-12. Music learners in the USA had significantly higher motivational profiles for music and some other school subjects as compared to non-music learners. Music interest inside of school was ranked significantly lower than for any other subject, while music interest outside of school was ranked second highest for any subject in grades 6 and 7-9, and highest of all subjects in grades 10-12. This article addresses cultural and contextual issues in the USA to consider how music advocates might better demonstrate the importance and usefulness of music study as an academic course. Practical recommendations include encouraging a broader emphasis beyond performance and competition, and promoting opportunities for autonomous music learning within the school setting. and the USA), which examined students' motivation to study music as compared to other school subjects (e.g., art, mother tongue language, physical education (PE), mathematics, science). Readers should refer to the lead article in this series (McPherson & O'Neill, this issue), for a full explanation of the theoretical assumptions underpinning the study, reliability and validity of the questionnaire scales, and description of the methods used to gather and analyse data. Further information 202Research Studies in Music Education 32 (2) on the eight-country analysis can be obtained by contacting the research team leader (McPherson). The studies in this series draw on the expectancy-value theoretical framework (Eccles et al., 1983; Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998) in order to examine the competence beliefs, values and perceptions of task difficulty of 24,143 students across the eight countries. Competence beliefs were defined as expectations for success or the belief about how well each student thought she or he could do in each subject or upcoming task. Subjective task values were conceptualized in terms of four major components: attainment value or importance, intrinsic value or interest, utility value or usefulness, and the cost of participating in the subject.Four key issues in the overall eight-country analysis as reported by McPherson and O'Neill (this issue) were investigated: (a) whether competence beliefs and values declined across all eight countries; (b) whether perceptions of task difficulty increased across school levels; (c) differences in students' rating of competence beliefs, values and task difficulty for music as compared to other school subjects; and (d) differences among boys and girls, and those students who were or were not learning an instrumen...

Competitive comparison in music: influences upon self-efficacy beliefs by gender

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“…However, recent scholars have suggested that an overemphasis on competition in music may in fact limit the attractiveness and accessibility of music to youth (Isbell & Stanley, 2011;McPherson & Hendricks, 2010;Radocy, 2001). …”

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