Students’ motivation to study music: The South Korean context

Abstract

As part of an international mapping exercise to investigate students’ motivation to study music as compared to other school subjects, this study examined South Korean students’ perceptions of subject value, competence and task difficulty, based on the expectancy-value theoretical framework. A sample of 2671 students was drawn from 11 schools (grades 5—12). The results suggest a decline across school levels in students’ perceptions of the value of music, and an increase across school levels in perceptions of task difficulty and parental expectations of effort in test-driven school subjects (i.e., mathematics, Korean, science). These trends among South Korean student motivational profiles may demonstrate the impact of high-stakes college entrance examinations. Students reported high parental expectations for student success in rigorous academic subjects, which might have negatively influenced students’ values towards non-tested subjects such as music, art and physical education (P.E.). However, the high ranking of interest in music as a subject, along with relatively stable reported interest in music over time, suggests that South Korean students have a notable interest in music learning, but it is likely that the emphasis on examinations in South Korea may minimize the potential for exploration or expansion of this interest.