Cope with change: Motivating students to study music in senior secondary programmes

Hong Kong is launching the New Senior Secondary School Curriculum in Music in 2009. In view of this, an investigation on the major factors affecting students’ choices of studying music as an academic discipline in senior secondary schools could help to have an in-depth understanding of students’ need and thus able to set strategic policy in attracting them to study music. The study focus is on identifying the factors motivating Hong Kong students to pursue studying music. The two major research questions of this study are: First, what are the factors influencing students to study a music course which prepares them for the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE); and second, how are they influenced to study music as a major subject at the tertiary level. This study was conducted among 623 Hong Kong secondary students from S3-5 who were preparing to take the HKCEE in music, plus a focus group interview with eight tertiary music students who have taken the HKCEE before they study music in universities. The findings demonstrate that the major factors for the participants to study music at secondary and tertiary levels are the students’ personal interest in music, and their goal to become a professional musician. Furthermore, most of the participants agreed that their will to major in music at tertiary level motivates them to take a formal course in senior secondary education. The paper will further discuss the implication of these findings and possible strategies in attracting more students to study music in the future new senior secondary school curriculum. Copyright © 2009 University of Melbourne.