Despite the increasing number of students in music education graduate programmes, attrition rates suggest a lack of success in retaining and assisting them to the completion of their degree. Based on the expectancy-value theory, the aim of this study was to examine students' motivations (values and competence beliefs) and their complex interaction with the social system. A questionnaire was sent to students from three graduate programmes in Mexico (two traditional, one distance learning), which examined both personal and environmental factors that have enhanced or undermined students' motivational beliefs. The results show gender differences; female students place higher value on graduate school, while male students hold higher expectations of success. Factors affecting motivation positively included perceptions of career development and income increase; the requirement to pursue an academic qualification as a part of an existing job; and interest in research. Factors affecting motivation negatively included the economic impact of study, time constraints and insufficient support and communication coupled with high expectations from advisers.

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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. Downloaded from 90 Research Studies in Music Education 33 (1) which examined students' motivation to study music as compared to other school subjects (e.g., art, mother tongue language, physical education (P.E.), mathematics, science). Readers should refer to the lead article in this series (McPherson & O'Neill, 2010) for a full explanation of the theoretical assumptions underpinning the study, reliability and validity of the questionnaire scales, and description of the methods used to gather and analyse data. Further information on the eight-country analysis can be obtained by contacting the research team leader (McPherson) or, in the case of this article, the lead author.The studies in this series draw on the expectancy-value theoretical framework (Eccles et al., 1983; Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998) to examine the competence beliefs, values, and perceptions of task difficulty of 24,143 students across the eight countries. Competence beliefs were defined as expectations for success or the belief about how well each student thought she or he could do in each subject or upcoming task. Subjective task values were conceptualized in terms of four major components: attainment value or importance, intrinsic value or interest, utility value or usefulness, and the cost of participating in the subject.Four key issues in the overall eight-country analysis as reported by McPherson and O'Neill (2010) were investigated: (a) whether competence beliefs and values declined across all eight countries; (b) whether perceptions of task difficulty increased across school levels; (c) differences in students' rating of competence beliefs, values and task difficulty for music as compared to other school subj...

This article reports the Mexican component of an international mapping exercise that examined students’ motivation to study music as compared to other school subjects, taking into consideration the particular context of each country. Based on an expectancy-value theoretical framework, questionnaires were used to examine students’ competence beliefs, values, and perceptions of task difficulty. A sample of 3613 students (grades 4—12) was drawn from three different school systems: state, federal and private. Mixed-design ANOVAs were used to examine students’ cumulative mean ratings of the motivational constructs, in order to determine differences across school levels and systems. Results of the study suggest students held low perceptions of the value of school music and low expectations for success in learning music across the three surveyed school systems and levels of schooling. However, students who were learning music showed more positive motivation not only in music but in all the other school subjects.

As a part of a larger international mapping exercise to examine students’ motivation to study music as compared to other school subjects, this article reports data drawn from a sample of 2257 Israeli students (primary to high school). Questionnaires were based on the expectancy-value theoretical framework by examining students’ perceptions of values, competence and task difficulty. Mixed-design ANOVAs were used to examine differences in students’ motivational beliefs across school levels, between music and non-music learners, and between girls and boys. Results of the analyses showed two major issues distinctive from the comparison of the eight-country analyses: (a) the lowest perceptions of task values and competence beliefs for any country among non-music learners in the upper level grades, and (b) a significant developmental increase in task difficulty for music as compared to other school subjects. In addition, the results of the Israeli data revealed that music learners attached higher values to music, art and science than non-music learners, and expressed significantly lower perceptions of difficulty for music, art and science than non-music learners. Furthermore, while music was one of the lowest-ranked subjects for in-school study, it was one of the highest-ranked subjects for out-of-school study. This suggests that music participation itself is not lacking in motivation or interest among students in Israel, but that the school system is not presently providing for the musical needs and interest of much of its youth population, in upper-level grades (middle and high school).