Of Four Major Studies Relating to the Cognitive and Academic Benefits of Music to Children - Literature review Example

Academic Information Research Article Reviews (Benchmark Assignment) 2 Research Article Reviews (Benchmark Assignment) 2 The cognitive and academic benefits of music to children has gained serious research focus in the studies on learning in recent years and the research evidences prove the influence of music on the student achievement in varying degrees. Significantly, there has been mounting assumption about the potential cognitive and academic benefits of music for the development of children in the contemporary world, which has stirred great interest among parents, educators, and politicians alike. An analysis of the important researches on the topic leads to a recognition of the role of music in improving the performance by students in learning. This study involves a reflective literature review of four major studies relating to the cognitive and academic benefits of music to children and the scope of such an analytical study in the wider perspective of the learning theories is indubitable. The non-musical benefits of music have been studied by several researches and these benefits stem from various distinctive areas. According to Rudi Crncec, Sarah J. Wilson and Margot Prior, “Claims about the non-musical benefits of music do not stem from a single field of research, or from research domains with a coherent theoretical basis. Rather, such claims have emerged from at least three distinct, empirically-driven research areas that have examined the non-musical sequelae of: (1) focused listening to certain types of complex music (the Mozart effect); (2) music lessons; and (3) background classroom music.” (Crncec, Wilson, and Prior, 2006, p 579). Therefore, the non-musical benefits of music, especially with regard to cognitive and academic achievements of children, have been seriously investigated in several researches and this paper makes a reflective review of the literature published on the topic, focusing on four four journal articles on the subject, “The Cognitive and Academic Benefits of Music to Children: Facts and fiction,” “Cognitive load theory and music instruction,” “Human Resource Education: Does Listening to Music during Instruction Affect Jordanian Secondary Students Academic Achievement?”, and “Does Music Make You Smarter?” In the contemporary world of globalization, educational reforms, and new approaches to teaching and learning, there have been several attempts which aim improve the quality of education and the responsibility of better education is held by a number of stakeholders today, such as students, parents, legislators, and private and public organizations. In this context, there is growing demand for instruction via new teaching methods and means to ensure effective learning in schools. Music has been an important element of the daily life of humans for several centuries and it offers an effective approach to enhancing the classroom learning of students. It is an important component of learning as it can help students learn more effectively by improving students’ self-esteem and creativity. “Using music as a teaching tool has been shown to make learning easier, faster, and more enjoyable, enabling students to be more focused and alert during lectures. It has being concluded by many researchers that music should be an essential part of education. According to these researchers, music can help students remember information faster and easier, raise emotional involvement in learning, ignite inner creativity, and awaken consciousness and spiritual connections to the materials learned.” (Hailat, Khasawneh, Shargawi, Jawameh, and Al-Shudaifat, p 2). Therefore, there have been several research studies which look at the effectiveness of utilizing music in classroom instruction and the article by Hailat, Khasawneh, Shargawi, Jawameh, and Al-Shudaifat very well summarizes the major findings of these researches. Based on the findings of such studies, the authors of the article maintain that “incorporating music into instructional time has shown promising results in the area of education.” (Hailat, Khasawneh, Shargawi, Jawameh, and Al-Shudaifat, p 2). Owens and Sweller made an important contribution to the study of cognitive and academic benefits of music through their pertinent research article “Cognitive load theory and music instruction” which applied, in two experiments, the principles of cognitive load theory to the design of alternatives to conventional music instruction hypothesized to facilitate learning. According to the first experiment, the spatial integration of visual text and musical notation, in addition to dual-modal delivery of auditory text and musical notation, were superior to the spatially separated placement of the same visual materials, demonstrating the split-attention and modality effects respectively. In the second experiment, there were four conditions differentiated by the presence or absence of musical notation and the simultaneous or successive presentation of auditory music, written explanations, and musical notation. “Results indicated that the presence of music notation had no effects, but that the simultaneous presentation of either two or three information sources was superior to successive presentation. These results provide further empirical support for the need to consider cognitive load theory when designing instruction in any domain.” (Owens and Sweller, 2008, p 29). Thus, the authors provide additional support to the cognitive and academic utility of music in the process of learning and it is imperative to make use of cognitive load theory when designing instruction for students. Similarly, the discussion in the article “Does Music Make You Smarter?” by Demorest and Morrison explores some of the most important research studies that have indicated the connections between musical involvement and general intelligence. Although these authors feel that the profession of teaching may continue to benefit from the recent public perception that music makes people smarter, they maintain that it is important to be honest about the true benefits of musical involvement. The article indicates the positive press regarding the impact of music on general intellectual development and the slogan ‘Music makes you smarter’ best illustrates this. Two sets of studies done by a group of researchers at the University of California at Irvine were instrumental in making such conclusions. “The first series of studies documents a short-term increase in performance on a spatial reasoning task after listening to Mozart, often referred to as the ‘Mozart effect’. The second series concluded that piano instruction caused preschoolers to improve on a single test of spatial reasoning ability.” (Demorest and Morrison, 2000). Although these studies were originally intended to focus on a particularly narrow aspect of human intelligence and its potential relationship to musical structure, they came to be used to highlight the impression that any musical study benefits any academic undertaking. However, the authors make an important note that it would be imprudent to make such a broad generalization regarding the utility of music in expanding one’s ability in every area. “Future research may indeed strengthen the connection between music and other forms of intelligence, but musical intelligence and achievement is its own reward, as seen countless times in our students. Like other researchers in this area, we are optimistic about what science can do for music education, as long as the science in question takes into consideration music education theory or practice.” (Demorest and Morrison, 2000). Therefore, the article “Does Music Make You Smarter?” by Demorest and Morrison maintains that, unlike the general perception regarding the utility of music in expanding one’s ability in every area, it is imprudent to make such a broad generalization. However, there are other important studies which indicate the cognitive and academic benefits of music to children and it has been one of the major areas of researches concerning learning in order to realize the potential non-musical cognitive and academic benefits of music listening and instruction to children. According to Rudi Crncec, Sarah J. Wilson and Margot Prior, who summarized three lines of research relevant to this issue, namely, the effects of: (1) focused music listening on subsequent task performance (the Mozart effect); (2) music instruction; and (3) background music listening, there is great relevance for music in learning. “Research suggests that while Mozart effect studies have attracted considerable media attention, the effect cannot be reliably demonstrated in children. In contrast, music instruction confers consistent benefits for spatiotemporal reasoning skills; however, improvements in associated academic domains, such as arithmetic, have not been reliably shown. Finally, background music may calm and focus children with special education needs, thereby enhancing learning.” (Crncec, Wilson, and Prior, 2006, p 579). The basic argument of the authors is that evidence for the non-musical benefits of music listening and instruction is limited in general, and additional research is required to determine whether the effect is evident in normal populations. However, the authors are highly emphatic that the inherent value of music and music education cannot be overlooked by narrowly focusing on its cognitive and academic outcomes. In another important study under the title “Human Resource Education: Does Listening to Music during Instruction Affect Jordanian Secondary Students Academic Achievement?” Hailat, Khasawneh, Shargawi, Jawameh, and Al-Shudaifat maintained the importance of music in the academic achievement. The authors of this study aimed at identifying any differences in the academic achievement of 7th grade students who listened to music during instruction (experimental group) in comparison with those who received traditional instruction (no music during instruction—control group). “The Social Studies Test (SST) was administered pre- and post-test to measure differences between the two groups. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) on the post-test results of the SST with the pretest scores as a covariate indicated significant differences at the .05 alpha level on academic achievement for the experimental group. However, differences in academic achievement were not found based on gender or the interaction between the method of instruction and gender.” (Hailat, Khasawneh, Shargawi, Jawameh, and Al-Shudaifat, p 1). In the study, which offers a number of theoretical and practical implications for the field of research in realizing the potential non-musical cognitive and academic benefits of music, the authors come up with the review of crucial researches on the topic. In the study, the authors tested the efficiency of listening to music during instruction on the students’ academic achievement, and the results provide precious information to educators, practitioners, and policy makers with reference to the role of music in education. In conclusion, cognitive and academic benefits of music to children have been one of the most fundamental areas of research relating to effective learning and teaching strategy in the contemporary education sector. In fact, speculation about the benefits of musical training on broader academic achievement is not new and the literature reviewed in this paper establishes the important role of music in enhancing the cognitive and academic performance of the students. References Crncec, Rudi., Wilson, Sarah J., and Prior, Margot. (2006). “The Cognitive and Academic Benefits of Music to Children: Facts and fiction.” Educational Psychology. 26, (4). pp. 579–594. Demorest, Steven M., and Morrison, Steven J. (2000). “Does Music Make You Smarter?” Music Educators Journal. 87, (2). Hailat, Salah., Khasawneh, Samer., Shargawi, Subhi., Jawameh, Mohammad., and Al-Shudaifat, Sadeq. “Human Resource Education: Does Listening to Music during Instruction Affect Jordanian Secondary Students Academic Achievement?” IJAES. .2, (l). p.2. Owens, Paul and Sweller, John. “Cognitive load theory and music instruction.” Educational Psychology. 28, (1). pp 29–45. Read More