Secondary choral music education in Hong Kong: Relations among motivation to music, meaning of the choral experience, and selected demographic variable

The purpose of the study was to examine Hong Kong secondary school students' perception of the meaning of secondary choral experience, students' attribution of success and failure in music, and magnitude of student motivation in music as a function of selected learner and school characteristics. Secondary choral students (N = 476) from 13 Hong Kong secondary schools responded to three affective measures that had been translated to Chinese: the Choral Meaning Survey (Hylton, 1980), the Asmus Motivation Factors measure (Asmus, 1986), and the Asmus Magnitude of Motivation measure (1989a). Demographic information of the participant and school or program characteristics were collected. Results of factor analyses confirmed Asmus' factors. Three of the Hylton's factors were confirmed and three additional factors emerged. Three higher order factors: broad social/psychological, background, and internal attributions/musical affect were found to be underlying dimensions for the set of affective measures used in this study. Results indicated that the participants attributed their success and failure in music to the internal factors of musical ability and effort, as well as affect. Achievement in singing was the most prominent factor in choral participation. Sex differences had no effect on music attributions, perception of choral meaning, or the second order factors among the participants. Significant differences were found in the classroom environment factor and the background factor due to the level of the participants. The classroom environment composite mean was significantly higher in middle school level students than high school level students, while the background composite mean was significantly higher for high school level students than for middle school level students. Results showed variability in perception of choral meaning differed only by level of the participants. The integrative factor and the social/psychological factors were found significantly different by level. The mean of the integrative factor was significantly higher for middle school grade levels than for high school levels while the mean of the social/psychological factor was significantly lower in middle school grade levels than high school levels. The results for the three second order factors did not differ by class level. A significant difference was found for the broad social/psychological dimension according to school academic bandings: Secondary choral participants from schools with lower academic achievement in this study perceived the broad social/psychological factor to be of greater importance in music motivation. Recommendations for future research and implications in music education are discussed.