My name is Jordan McAlpine. As I have learned from my short time in Vancouver, I am considered to be originally from ‘back east’, coming from a small town in Central Ontario. Growing up in Fenelon Falls, I experienced a community centric approach to both my schooling and sports that I was involved in. It seemed that from a young age, music was an integral part of my preparation for both academics and my extracurriculars, which is in part why I want to explore an inquiry question that intertwines music and performance/enjoyment within the classroom.
After high school I attended Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario where I obtained my BBA while playing varsity football. Throughout my undergrad, studying and independent work was almost always done while listening to music. It is also safe to say that my preparation for football relied heavily on the influence of music and it’s ability, or perceived ability to influence performance. From this inquiry project I hope to gain a deeper understanding of this perceived notion, while learning if and how music can be used within classrooms to elevate engagement and achievement.
My inquiry question deals with finding new ways to engage students and increase productivity and enjoyment during individual or group work time. Specifically, “How can teachers integrate music into the classroom to increase productivity, engagement and/or enjoyment of students during individual and group learning activities?” All of my life, music has played an important role in keeping me motivated and influencing my mood, which in turn I believe increased my ability to perform both in an educational setting and in extracurriculars. In high school, while doing homework, assignments and projects I always had music playing in the background. The same was true for all of the sports I was involved in. Before practices, games, and during training, music was the one thing that was able to transcend thoughts and feelings, elevate my motivation, and in the end I believe improve my performance. Throughout my inquiry, I will follow a process that allows me to explore multiple ideas surrounding, and avenues of music within the classroom.
Background Information
In one study looking at how two different study modalities (deep, and surface level) alongside stimuli, in this case music, affected attention and academic performance, the author hypothesized, “Students who listen to self-selected music while studying will show greater elevation from resting baseline (Increased CBFV) during both the deep and surface-level study tasks” (Widerman). Further, the author believed at the outset that “Students who listen to self-selected music will perform better overall on academic tasks than those students who did not listen to self-selected music” (Widerman). Basically, it was believed that students who listen to self-selected music would show greater attention and perform better than those who study in silence, whether the studying is surface-level or deeper.
However, this particular study discovered that, “there were no significant differences in the amount of sustained attention exhibited between those who listened to music while studying and those who did not, for either deep or surface-level study modalities” (Widerman) and “There were also no differences in the amount of correct responses between those who listened to music while studying and those who did not, for either deep or surface-level studying” (Widerman). Although limitations were discovered such as the immediate recall of information expected from participants, perhaps suggesting that short-term memory played a larger role than actual retention of information, this study seems to suggest that there is no correlation between studying with self-selected music and attention/academic performance. Something I found interesting was that in this study, “participants specified “instrumental” music even though classical was a choice, suggesting that the use of non-vocal music can be more diverse than conventional classical music” (Widerman). Personally, this struck a chord because I often study to instrumental music as I find knowing lyrics to songs can be distracting. Finally, the study showed that, “Music with a medium tempo was listened to most often, followed by slow tempo music, and then fast tempo music” (Widerman). These findings are indirectly supported in another study which states, “the null hypothesis stating that there is no change in concentration levels when background music is used within a classroom setting has to be supported” (Sigman).
In another study, it was found that “Extroverts performed significantly better during the completion of the test in the presence of music, but poorer in silence, compared to the Introverts who performed better in silence than in the presence of music” (Mistry, 1). Clearly, different authors have come to conflicting conclusions, but this in particular I found interesting as the author was able to distinguish that extroverts actually excelled during test taking with music, with the opposite found for introverts. A further study looked at cross-cultural beliefs about listening to music while studying. This study found that “The Greek students tended to listen to music the most, the Japanese the least. The UK and US students, in most cases, fell between these two extremes and shared similar listening habits and uses of music in studying, although there were some exceptions” (Kotsopoulou). Further, students from the US believed that music helped them concentrate the most while studying, followed by those from the UK, then Greece, and finally Japan (Kotsopoulou). Although these beliefs were not linked to any findings, it is possible that there exists a placebo effect of performance in relation to studying while listening to music.
While exploring another avenue, the Mozart Effect, which “relates specifically to the Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky (1993, 1995) neuropsychology research that reported temporary increases in college students’ ability to perform spatial-temporal tasks as evidenced by increased IQ scores after passively listening to 10 minutes of Mozart’s sonata K. 448 (Taylor), I was again conflicted in music’s ability to increase performance. This study indicates that, “the Mozart Effect does impact the demonstration of learning in mathematics…Of most importance to educators is that the Mozart Effect is not merely a lab experience, but has potential to assist students in performing their best on mathematical assessments (Taylor). From this as well as the research mentioned previously, it seems as though studying with music in general does not increase academic performance, but specific music for specific tasks can have beneficial effects and even increase test scores.
As I explored background studies, and became aware that my initial thought that studying with music would definitely produce increased performance was incorrect, I began to shift my inquiry more towards Social Emotional Learning in the classroom. During my exploration into the potential benefits of music in the classroom apart from simply academic performance, I found a study that discovered, “a meta-analysis of a wide range of studies suggests that the use of ‘contingent music’ strategies can provide overwhelming positive reinforcement value for behaviour in classrooms” (Standley) Further, Standley found, “several striking indications of positive effects-on students’ academic performance and motivation”. This is extremely interesting, as creating a positive classroom experience for children in and of itself can improve performance and foster a better educational experience.