The following are extracts from American research findings correlating music
education training and success in other fields of academic endeavour. The importance of music instruction is highlighted, particularly at preschool level, in assisting in intellectual
development and development of learning skills.
Impacts on Performance at School
-A study of 237 second grade children used piano
keyboard training and newly designed math software to demonstrate improvement in math skills. The group scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than children that used only the
math software. — Graziano, Amy, Matthew Peterson, and Gordon Shaw, "Enhanced learning of proportional math through music training and spatial-temporal training." Neurological Research 21 (March
1999).
-In an analysis of U.S. Department of Education data
on more than 25,000 secondary school students (NELS:88, National Education Longitudinal Survey), researchers found that students who report consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music
over the middle and high school years show “significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12.” This observation holds regardless of students’ socio-economic status, and differences
in those who are involved with instrumental music vs. those who are not is more significant over time. — Catterall, James S., Richard Chapleau, and John Iwanaga. “Involvement in the Arts and Human
Development: General Involvement and Intensive Involvement in Music and Theater Arts.” Los Angeles, CA: The Imagination Project at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies,
1999.
-Students with coursework/experience in music
performance and music appreciation scored higher in academic assessments: students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music
appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts participation. — College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT Program Test
Takers. Princeton, NJ: The College Entrance Examination Board, 2001.
-Data from the National Education Longitudinal Study
of 1988 showed that music participants received more academic honors and awards than non-music students, and that the percentage of music participants receiving As, As/Bs, and Bs was higher than the
percentage of non- participants receiving those grades. — NELS:88 First Follow-up, 1990, National Center for Education Statistics, Washington DC
-Physician and biologist Lewis Thomas studied the
undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. He found that 66% of music majors who applied to medical school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group. 44% of biochemistry majors were
admitted. — As reported in "The Case for Music in the Schools," Phi Delta Kappan, February 1994
-Students who participated in arts programs in
selected elementary and middle schools in New York City showed significant increases in self-esteem and thinking skills. — National Arts Education Research Center, New York University,
1990
Impacts on Intellectual Development
A number of recently conducted, tightly-controlled behavioral studies and
groundbreaking neurological research that show how music study can actively contribute to brain development.
-Researchers in Leipzig found that brain scans of
musicians showed larger planum temporale (a brain region related to some reading skills) than those of non-musicians. They also found that the musicians had a thicker corpus callosum (the bundle of
nerve fibers that connects the two halves of the brain) than those of non-musicians, especially for those who had begun their training before the age of seven. — Schlaug, G., Jancke, L., Huang, Y.,
and Steinmetz, H. (1994). In vivo morphometry of interhem ispheric assymetry and connectivity in musicians. In I. Deliege (Ed.), Proceedings of the 3d international conference for music perception
and cognition (pp. 417-418). Liege, Belgium.
-In a study conducted by Dr. Timo Krings, pianists
and non-musicians of the same age and sex were required to perform complex sequences of finger movements. Their brains were scanned using a technique called “functional magnetic resource imaging”
(fMRI) which detects the activity levels of brain cells. The non-musicians were able to make the movements as correctly as the pianists, but less activity was detected in the pianists’ brains. Thus,
compared to non-musicians, the brains of pianists are more efficient at making skilled movements. These findings show that musical training can enhance brain function. — Weinberger, Norm. “The Impact
of Arts on Learning.” MuSICa Research Notes 7, no. 2 (Spring 2000). Reporting on Krings, Timo et al. “Cortical Activation Patterns during Complex Motor Tasks in Piano Players and Control Subjects. A
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.” Neuroscience Letters 278, no. 3 (2000): 189-93.
-“The musician is constantly adjusting decisions on
tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing, and feeling--training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once. Dedicated practice of this orchestration can
have a great payoff for lifelong attentional skills, intelligence, and an ability for self-knowledge and expression.” — Ratey John J., MD. A User’s Guide to the Brain. New York: Pantheon Books,
2001.
-A research team exploring the link between music and
intelligence reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children's abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science. —
Shaw, Rauscher, Levine, Wright, Dennis and Newcomb, "Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children's spatial-temporal reasoning," Neurological Research, Vol. 19, February
1997
-Students in two Rhode Island elementary schools who
were given an enriched, sequential, skill-building music program showed marked improvement in reading and maths skills. Students in the enriched program who had started out behind the control group
caught up to statistical equality in reading, and pulled ahead in math. — Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey and Knowles, as reported in Nature, May 23, 1996
-Researchers at the University of Montreal used
various brain imaging techniques to investigate brain activity during musical tasks and found that sight-reading musical scores and playing music both activate regions in all four of the cortex's
lobes; and that parts of the cerebellum are also activated during those tasks. — Sergent, J., Zuck, E., Tenial, S., and MacDonall, B. (1992). Distributed neural network underlying musical sight
reading and keyboard performance. Science, 257, 106-109.
-A University of California (Irvine) study showed
that after eight months of keyboard lessons, preschoolers showed a 46% boost in their spatial reasoning IQ. — Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Ky and Wright, "Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Causal
Relationship," University of California, Irvine, 1994
-Researchers found that children given piano lessons
significantly improved in their spatial- temporal IQ scores (important for some types of mathematical reasoning) compared to children who received computer lessons, casual singing, or no lessons. —
Rauscher, F.H., Shaw, G.L., Levine, L.J., Wright, E.L., Dennis, W.R., and Newcomb, R. (1997) Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children's spatial temporal reasoning.
Neurological Research, 19, 1-8
-A McGill University study found that pattern
recognition and mental representation scores improved significantly for students given piano instruction over a three-year period. They also found that self-esteem and musical skills measures
improved for the students given piano instruction. — Costa-Giomi, E. (1998, April). The McGill Piano Project: Effects of three years of piano instruction on children's cognitive abilities, academic
achievement, and self-esteem. Paper presented at the meeting of the Music Educators National Conference, Phoenix, AZ.
-Researchers found that lessons on songbells (a
standard classroom instrument) led to significant improvement of spatial-temporal scores for three- and four-year-olds. — Gromko, J.E., and Poorman, A.S. (1998) The effect of music training on
preschooler's spatial-temporal task performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 46, 173-181.
-In the Kindergarten classes of the school district
of Kettle Moraine, Wisconsin, children who were given music instruction scored 48 percent higher on spatial-temporal skill tests than those who did not receive music training. — Rauscher, F.H., and
Zupan, M.A. (1999). Classroom keyboard instruction improves kindergarten children's spatial-temporal performance: A field study. Manuscript in press, Early Childhood Research
Quarterly.
-An Auburn University study found significant
increases in overall self-concept of at-risk children participating in an arts program that included music, movement, dramatics and art, as measured by the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale.
— N.H. Barry, Project ARISE: Meeting the needs of disadvantaged students through the arts, Auburn University, 1992
The above information was derived from MENC—The National Association for Music
Education (a US organization) "Benefits of Music Education" Brochure, Spring 2002.
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