Children Do Much Better in Math When Music is Added to the Lesson: New Study
A recent study examined the impact of music engagement on student achievement in mathematics, and the findings revealed a significant benefit.
Researchers believe that incorporating music into math education can enhance enjoyment, engagement, and reduce anxiety related to topics like fractions. Music can even inspire students to develop an appreciation for math and a desire to learn more.
A common approach to integrating music into math lessons for young children involves rhythmic clapping, using songs to learn numbers, and connecting fractions to musical notes.
This new meta-analysis, published in the journal Educational Studies, analyzed 55 studies conducted worldwide, involving nearly 78.000 students ranging from kindergarten to university level.
Three types of musical interventions were considered: standard music lessons encompassing singing, listening, and learning about composing music; instrumental instruction, either solo or as part of a band; and integrated interventions where music was incorporated into math lessons.
Students underwent math assessments before and after participating in the interventions, and their score changes were compared to those who did not receive any intervention.
The use of music, whether in separate lessons or as part of math classes, showed greater improvement in math performance over time.
Combining both music and math in integrated lessons had the most substantial impact, with approximately 73 percent of students who had integrated lessons achieving significantly better results compared to those without any musical intervention.
Moreover, 69 percent of students who learned to play instruments and 58 percent of students who received regular music lessons showed more improvement than their counterparts who did not receive musical intervention.
The results also indicated that music had a more significant impact on learning arithmetic compared to other areas of math, particularly benefiting younger students and those learning fundamental mathematical concepts.
Mathematics and music share common elements such as symbols and symmetry. Both subjects require abstract thinking and quantitative reasoning.
Arithmetic, in particular, lends itself well to being taught through music due to the overlapping concepts of fractions and ratios, which are fundamental to both disciplines.
Musical notes of varying lengths can be represented as fractions and combined to create multiple musical bars.
Integrated lessons prove to be especially effective as they enable students to establish connections between math and music, providing additional opportunities for exploration, interpretation, and comprehension of mathematical concepts.
"Encouraging collaboration between mathematics and music teachers could alleviate students' anxiety about mathematics while simultaneously boosting achievement," stated Dr. Ayça Akın from the Department of Software Engineering at Antalya Belek University, Turkey.
However, the study has its limitations, such as the relatively small number of conducted studies, which prevented an in-depth analysis of variables like gender, socioeconomic status, and duration of musical instruction on the results.
