Japanese high school students' motivation in band as it relates to the gender of the band directors and the student

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine Japanese high school students' motivation in band as it relates to the gender of the band director and the student. A total of 790 band students from 20 Japanese high schools (10 male and 10 female band directors) completed a modified version of the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS). The scale is based on Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory and was modified from the original so it could be used with Japanese music students. It consists of 28 items describing why students play in a band. The students indicated a level of agreement for each reason according to 7-points on a Likert-type scale. Reasons were categorized into three types intrinsic motivation, three types of extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. The score of JAMSM was used as parametric data and analyzed using a two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to find any significant (p < .05) main effects or interactions among variables when compared by gender of the director and gender of the student. The results of the study showed that there were no significant differences (p < .05) by gender of band directors for all of the motivational types. This result indicates the female band directors are as effective as male band directors in terms of motivating students to play in a band. Additional findings include (1) male students seem to be more extrinsically motivated than are female students, (2) friend related reasons and fondness for music and/or instruments are important reasons for students to play in a band, (3) public school students seem to be more intrinsically motivated than private school students whereas private school students seem to be more extrinsically motivated than public school students. Implications for music education and further research are discussed.