This week the main area of focus was “Why Music Matters”. It would seem fairly straightforward to agree that of course music matters, as it forms an integral part of our daily lives – from advertising, to use in visual media and our own personal enjoyment. However, the surface enjoyment and engagement with music in this respect is only one part of how music plays an important role in our lives.

The aim of this session was to look at the importance of music in a deeper context, specifically related to education. There a number of studies which suggest a link between music education and a beneficial influence on learning in other curricular areas, in particular the area of literacy. There are some studies which also indicate a link between music and overall brain development.

In their 2006 study using neuroimaging to assess brain activity during set tasks, Bangert et al. set these tasks for a group of professional musicians vs a group of non musicians. To reduce the impact of other variables, such as age and gender, the groups were matched to these criteria, allowing the results found to be more reliable in terms of brain activation. This study found that the group of professional musicians showed increased levels of brain activation compared to their non-musician counterparts in a distributed cortical network, which when analysed indicated that the professional musicians had an area which had developed specifically within their brains, and which suggested higher levels of auditory-sensorimotor integration. While the tasks involved pressing keys, and may not initially appear all that sophisticated, the implications we can draw from this study are that music education can play a specific role in brain development.

Chan et al. (1998) hypothesised based on prior research that there was the possibility of a link between music education and verbal memory, and that musicians would have a better verbal memory than non-musicians would. They also hypothesised that there would be no great increase in their visual memory. They tested these hypotheses with a group of 60 students (30 musicians, and 30 non-musicians), and found that they were confirmed. While this too suggests a link between music and cognition, it is important to note that there were other potential variables in this study – age, gender, home background, educational background, etc. which were not controlled for, and so it is difficult to say whether or not there are other factors at work here.

I have chosen these studies to mention as they raised some interesting considerations on my part. Personally I do believe that there is a link between music and cognition, particularly as relates to language (i.e phonemic awareness, pitch, rhythm of language) based on personal experience and through reading. The work of Susan Hallam in her 2010 article “The Power of Music: Its Impact on the Intellectual, Social and Personal Development of children and young people” has also given me cause to believe in the inherent benefit of music in children’s education, as there is a varied selection of empirical evidence which suggests that there is. Throughout this module I have also tried to maintain an element of self-reflection and consideration of my own experiences in primary school. As I left primary school quite some time ago (going on 14 years) it is interesting to compare what I remember from school to more recent attitudes and approaches.

Because of this, reading the notes on Chan (1998) gave me some pause with regards to the other potential variables, which also ties into considerations I have given to the content in another module – Inter-Professional Working. In that module we look at how it is important to consider the whole child, not just whatever facet is presented to us in a given service or establishment.  Music education offers a great benefit to cognitive development, but I think it must also be accompanied by support in other subject areas and at home if possible. For example, in terms of literacy, reading with and being read to by parents/carers is beneficial, and opportunities to practice both literacy skills and musical skills can only stand to work in tandem to benefit the child.

We also briefly examined some of the statistics from Scottish Government reports with regards to attainment in different SIMD areas, finding that in numeracy, the gap between the highest scoring 20% and lowest 20% of students in affluent areas is 60%, while in more deprived areas, the gap is 26%, which suggests that in areas of multiple deprivation, attainment in school is lower overall. This has led to the development of the attainment children, within which there are a few schemes which aim to use music to help raise attainment. From what I understand, they have shown relatively good results so far with regards to behaviour and inclusion, and it will be interesting to see the results throughout their implementation.

Dance

This week was our introduction to dance, and from  a personal perspective I enjoyed it much more than I expected to. I think for teachers who are no dancers themselves, teaching dance can be quite a daunting prospect and can therefore impact on their teaching. Through this input however, it was demonstrated to us that you don’t have to be a dancer to teach dance, and by supporting the children in your class through different activities, you can still provide an engaging and effective lesson.

In his 2006 TED Talk: “Do Schools Kill Creativity?“, Ken Robinson speaks about Gillian Lynne, the choreographer for the long-running musicals Cats and Phantom of the Opera. She was taken to a doctor by her mother due her underperformance in school, and while speaking to her mother privately the doctor pointed out that she was a dancer, and encouraged the idea that she be sent to dance school. From there, she flourished and became an acclaimed dancer, choreographer and director in musical theatre and drama. For me this demonstrates the importance of providing experiences outwith academic subjects to children as much as possible, as it has the potential to allow them to find things that they enjoy and succeed in. It is important to stress to children that there are other opportunities for success outwith academia and that it is possible for them to find something which motivates and inspires them. Hopefully, I will be able to take this view with me into my teaching practice, and enable the children I teach to find areas of the curriculum which appeal to them and give them a greater sense of self esteem and confidence in their own abilities.

References

Bangert, M., Peschel, T., Schlaug, G., Rotte, M., Drescher, D., Hinrichs, H., Heinze, H. and Altenmüller, E. (2006). Shared networks for auditory and motor processing in professional pianists: Evidence from fMRI conjunction. NeuroImage, 30(3), pp.917-926.

Hallam, S. (2010). The power of music: Its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people. International Journal of Music Education, 28(3), pp.269-289.