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The Benefits of Music Education on Higher-Level Thinking Skills and Math

The Benefits of Music Education on Higher-Level Thinking Skills and Math. By James Lykins. Purpose Statement. The purpose of this paper is to share my experiences of how music instruction can influence higher level learning in other academic area, particularly math. .

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The Benefits of Music Education on Higher-Level Thinking Skills and Math

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  1. The Benefits of Music Education onHigher-Level Thinking Skills and Math By James Lykins

  2. Purpose Statement The purpose of this paper is to share my experiences of how music instruction can influence higher level learning in other academic area, particularly math.

  3. Music and Student Behaviors • Can music positively affect student behavior? • Standley (1996) Music is highly effective as a way of increasing desirable behavior or reducing undesirable behavior. • Can music create higher level social function? • Harrison & Narayan (2003) Participation in music, is associated with higher levels of psychosocial functioning and behavior.

  4. Music and Student Behaviors • Harrison & Narayan (2003) Students who are involved in extracurricular activities (such as Music) are significantly more likely to exercise, consume nutritious foods, like school, do homework, express positive attitudes about self, peers, teachers, and parents, and are less likely to skip school, get into fights, vandalize property, smoke cigarettes and marijuana, or binge drink.

  5. Music and the Brain • Can music strengthen your brain’s math abilities? • Gardner (1999). If you agree with the theory that the brain is a muscle and can be strengthened, then strengthening the brain in the area of music should have a carry over effect and strengthen the area in the brain that holds mathematics and spatial skills. • Can music increase spatial reasoning? • Leng and Shaw (1991) Exposure to music excites and enhances the cortical firing patterns used in spatial-temporal reasoning. Music training of young children, whose cortices are highly plastic, may produce long-term enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning.Spatial-temporal reasoning involves maintaining, transforming, and comparing mental images in space and time using symmetrical operations and has a crucial role in the thinking processes of mathematicians.

  6. Music, Math, and the Curriculum • Could music be used to increase math scores? • The USDE states that “Our nation must research the best way to teach math and science”. “Over the last decade, researchers have scientifically proven the best ways to teach reading. We must do the same in math. That means using only research-based teaching methods and rejecting unproven fads” (USDE, 2004, ¶ 7). • Research has shown that a link exists between mathematics and music, and the USDE is calling for increased academic achievement in mathematics by using teaching methods based on scientific research, so music could be used to improve math scores.

  7. What does the Government Think? The definition of “core academic subjects” for No Child left BehindNCLB defines “core academic subjects” as: English; reading; language arts; mathematics; science; history; geography; economics; civics and government; foreign languages; and the arts. [NCLB 9101(11)] “The Arts” are defined as: art, dance, music, theater (including public speaking) and drama.

  8. What Have I Noticed in My Classroom? • Out of 43 fifth-grade band members: • 9 advanced in math. • 17 taking advanced courses in Science, English and Gifted. • Total of 26 out of 43 students taking higher-level courses. • Nearly 75% of all students listed as high-level/advanced placement learners are involved, or have been involved, in some form of formal music group.

  9. What Have I Noticed in My Classroom? • When confronted with new or disruptive situations, my band members show mature decision making. I have very little discipline problems even when I have large-group instruction of 100 students, and I believe music is the catalyst for their maturity and higher-level decision-making skills.

  10. Music and Language Arts • Music and language arts share a similarity in language. In both we find related construction. • A poem with A, B, A, B, A, C, A construction is very closely related to a traditional song form; chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus. • Lyrics to songs are often considered poetry set to song. • Words set to music are easier to remember. • Vocal music teaches foreign language. • All musical terms are in a foreign language.

  11. Conjunction Junction, what's your function?Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.Conjunction Junction, how's that function?I got three favorite cars thatget most of my job done.Conjunction Junction, what's their function?I got "and", "but", and "or",They'll get you pretty far.

  12. A noun's a special kind of word,It's any name you ever heard.I find it quite interesting,A noun's a person, place or thing.A noun is a person, place or thing.

  13. Why are Music and Math Related? • Music is based on math. Music is divided into beats, and fractions are used to determine when and how long a note is played. • It also uses addition, subtraction, and multiplication. In order to perform music well, a performer needs to be fluent in basic math skills.

  14. Why are Music and Math Related?FRACTIONS Every musical composition has a time signature. This symbol indicates two important facts about the overall rhythm of the piece. The top number of the time signature indicates how many beats there are in each measure, The bottom number determines what type of note is worth one beat.

  15. When the bottom number changes, the type of note receiving one beat changes. This reinforces division.

  16. They must also figure out how long each note is held. This reinforces fractions! In 4/4 meter, it looks like this:

  17. Why are Music and Math Related?Percentage A whole note takes up one whole measure

  18. Music Promotes Lifelong Learning A college analysis of theTime Series of music. Mathematical patterns in sound waves A 6th grade study of mathematical patterns found in Johann Sebastian Bach’s music

  19. Why is Music so Important to Academics? Music is scienceIt is exact, specific, and demands exact acoustics. A Conductor's full score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once and with exact control of time.Music is mathematicalIt is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions which must be performed, not worked out on paper.

  20. Why is Music so Important to Academics? Music is foreign languageMost of the terms are in Italian, German, or French; and the notation is certainly not English - but a highly developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas. The semantics of music is the most complete and universal language. Music is historyMusic usually reflects the environment and times of its creations, often even the country and/ or racial feeling.

  21. Why is Music so Important to Academics? Music is physical educationIt requires coordination of finger, hands, arms, lip, cheek, and facial muscles, in addition to control of the diaphragm, back, stomach, and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.Music is artIt allows a human being to take all these dry, technically boring (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing science cannot duplicate: humanism, feeling, and emotion.

  22. References Gardner, H. (1999). The disciplined mind. New York: Simon & Schuster. Harrison, P. A., & Narayan, G. (2003). Differences in behavior, psychological factors, and environmental factors associated with participation in school sports and other activities in adolescence. The Journal of School Health, 73, 113-20. Leng, X., & Shaw, G. L. (1991). Toward a neural theory of higher brain function using music as a window. Concepts in Neuroscience 2, 229- 258 Standley, J. M. (1996). A meta-analysis on the effect of music as reinforcement for education/therapy objectives. Journal of Research in Music Education, 44, 105-33.United States Department of Education (2004). Proven Methods: The Facts About...Math Achievement. Retrieved October 15, 2005, from http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/math/math.html

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