Hong Kong visual art education: Understanding junior secondary school students’ learning motivation

Art education is important for child and adolescent development as it provides a well-rounded education (Bolstad, 2011; Deasy, 2002; McCarthy et al., 2004; Roege & Kim, 2013). However, Hong Kong junior secondary school students showed low motivation in learning Visual Arts. Since there is less relevant research on the motivation of Hong Kong secondary school students to learn Visual Arts, the researcher is interested in exploring the factors that affect their learning motivation and how to design the Visual Arts curriculum to enhance students’ motivation and interested in learning Visual Arts.
The qualitative research methods are used to explore the views of teachers' and students' views. Through semi-structured interviews with Visual Arts teachers and junior secondary school students in my alma mater, the results of the findings show that teacher’s teaching attitude, allocation of teaching time, and sense of accomplishment to students are the factors that affect students' motivation in Visual Arts learning. Researcher reveals that teachers may enhance pupils’ learning motivation through immediate positive response and regular artwork display, and provide challenging and appropriate inquiry-based group activities with a fair scoring system. It is hoped that the teaching strategies and suggestions can be a reference for teachers to enhance junior secondary school students’ motivation in learning Art.