Motivational Constructs Influencing Undergraduate Students’ Choices to Become Classroom Music Teachers or Music Performers

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether any of the six motivational constructs in the expectancy-value model of motivation (i.e., expectancy, ability perceptions, intrinsic interest value, attainment value, social utility value, and cost) would predict whether students intended to have a career teaching classroom music or performing music. Participants included 270 undergraduate students enrolled in music programs at seven major U.S. universities who completed an online questionnaire. Using stepwise multiple regression, the authors documented that attainment value, intrinsic interest value, and expectancy predicted 74% of the variance in whether students intended to choose a career teaching music. They found that expectancy, attainment value, ability perceptions, and intrinsic interest value explained 65% of the variance in whether students intended to choose a career in music performance. Because of the importance of attainment value in predicting students’ intentions to teach and the importance of expectancies in predicting their intentions to have a performance career, these two constructs would be obvious choices for teachers and advisors to target if they want to encourage students to pursue these careers.