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Importance of music in education
Music helps students to study in class and at home
Importance of music education
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Working Thesis: Music education improves children’s performance in school by increasing their intellectual capabilities therefore, all schools should offer music classes.
Exposer to music is crucial to young children’s brain development. Not only does it develop otherwise unused areas of the brain, like the auditory cortex, it increases children's future intellectual enjoyment level (Matter). Music at an early age enhances sensitivity to sound and pitch, which can lead to better phonological and reading skills (Moreira). Without a music program in schools students do not get the full exposure to music and music theory that is needed for brain development.
Neuroimaging studies have proven that the ability to formulate words into sentences and notes into a melodies involve the same parts of the brain. In music class children learn these important skills: complex auditory pattern-processing mechanisms, attention, memory storage and retrieval, motor programing, and sensory motor integration (Moreira). These skills support children in their education and help secure their academic success.
The Mozart Effect, a study done to show the effect of music education on middle school children, led the way to more followup research on this subject. The procedure included thirty-six college student’s split up into three groups. Each group
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did one of the following tasks for ten minuets. Listen to Mozart’s Sonta, sit in silence, or listen to relaxation tapes. The purpose was to see if listening to Mozart for ten minuets would increase IQ test scores. Directly after the ten minuets of the variable activities each student took an IQ test. The result was that the students who listened to Mozart had eight to nine point higher IQ scores. Though, this is a temporary effect that only lasted for approximately fifteen minuets (Gorman). Another study was later done to test the long term effects of music on children and the benefit it has on their academic success. One group of students received musical instruction for three years and the other received none. The group who was taking the music classes had to sacrifice time in their school day and sometimes miss other core classes. After three years the study showed that the students who had music education could keep in all the classes they missed and had increased language and verbal skills (Hopkins). Martin Gardiner from Brown University Center for the Study of Human Development says this about the relation of math and music: “In the case of singing on pitch, pitch has a pitch line of its own. ‘Do’ is less than ‘re’. And ‘re’ is less than ‘mi’. Developing skills such as those can help students understand mathematical concepts such as number lines.” Gardiner conducted multiple studies and discovered that musically educated children score higher on math tests than non-musically educated children. His reasoning is that math, like music, involves sequential skills development. Musics rhythm and pitch calculating is very much related to the calculation of numbers. Both require immense precision (Hopkins). It is well known that emotions affect performance.
Ramped emotions cause distraction and disturbance to cognitive abilities. If emotions affect cognition then what effects emotion? Emotion is affected by an infinite number of factors, one being sound. By this logic, music has an indirect effect on emotion (Gorman). Though short-term, listening to positive or intellectual music can affect the way students academic performance. Positive feelings will reflect in their work (Mattar). By simply having music lessons for a short period once a day, allowing children to find peaceful emotions, students will succeed further than expected
(Gorman). limbonic system - controls emotions emotional conection helps retention of info “Makes the hearts of men glad: so that on the ground alone we may assume that the young ought to be trained in it.” This quote from Aristotle helps us understand the importance of music in our lives. Music is just as prevalent as math, science, and literature. Not only does it improve brain development, but it also conveys important cultural knowledge. That imposes the question: Why is music not a core element of education like the rest (Mehr)?
Throughout history music has played an important role in society, whether it was Mozart moving people with his newest opera or the latest album from the Beatles. Where would society be today without music? With schools cutting their music programs, the next Mozart may not get his chance to discover his amazing talent. Music programs are essential to education. To fully understand this one must understand how music helps the human body, why schools have cut music programs, and why people should learn music.
There have been many studies done to find how music influences a child’s development. The College Entrance Examination Board discovered that students who took music appreciation classes had higher verbal and math scores than those who did not take the classes. (Stephens 2003) The U.S. Department of Education found that in 25,000 secondary schools, students who were highly involved in the music program did much better in math than any other students. (Stephens 2003) These studies and more have found that involvement in music increases chi...
This review aims to address the debate as to whether or not playing classical music enhances the cognitive development of infants. This question is raised in response to the claim made by music educator Don Campbell (1997), who states that ‘playing Mozart to babies makes them smarter’, by aiding their intellectual and creative development. It is important to determine if there is sufficient evidence behind this statement as people are paying money for their children to experience the claimed effects. This review will draw upon, analyse and interpret a range of empirical research studies involving school-aged children to adults exposed to different forms of music (including Mozart) to measure the effects. Campbell’s claim will be critically evaluated and proved otherwise that playing Mozart to babies does not improve overall intelligence. It will be argued that the empirical studies are based on children and young adults not infants, that the effects were found to be temporary and relative to specific measure on intelligence, and that other forms of music can influence spatial reasoning.
Before addressing the need for music instruction in our schools I would like to briefly examine the need for education of any kind. Education is a means of making sure our society has a given set of knowledge. The set of knowledge we perceive ourselves as needing changes based on our surroundings and the issues we are dealing with. In American education's early history we perceived ourselves as needing a set of knowledge that included a common language and common view of history, as well as knowledge of those things with which we would interact every day. In many ways early public education was more a means of social control than an altruistic endeavor. In today's climate we see ourselves as having more diverse needs in our education...
“Recent studies show that being involved in music classes makes it easier to learn other subjects and improve skills in other classrooms” (Brown, “The Benefits of Music Education”). A lot of people tend to overlook how much music education has an impact on the success of a student. Because of this, schools should be required to offer fine arts and music classes as electives for the students. Not only will this improve the students test scores, but it will also give the students a broader imagination and more creativity in and out of the classroom. In a lot of schools, fine arts and musical classes are the first to go when there are budget cuts. “Seventy-one percent of the nation’s fifteen thousand school districts have cut instructional hours spent on music and other subjects” (“State of the arts: should music and art classes be brushed aside”). Not only is it affecting the teachers who have specialized in the study of fine arts, it is affecting all of the students and parents who are actively involved in these programs. “Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy and associate dean of the School of Fine Arts at KU, found jumps of twenty-two percent in English test scores and twenty percent in math scores at elementary schools with superior music education” (Lynch “Music Boosts Test Scores”). With that being said, schools should be required to offer music and fine arts classes as an elective for their students.
Music is part of our daily life. We listen to music in our special event, when we are in our way to classes, and while we are taking our shower. We listened to music when we were kids, and we still enjoy this sensation of this magic waves that enter into our brains. However, we do not know what exactly happens to our brain when this waves attain our nerves. We cannot understand how we like a kind of music, and we dislike another one. We will be very surprised to know that music helps us in different field in our school road. This is why scientists exists to prove to us how amazing the brain is. This research paper will cover the past and the present researches made by scientists and experts in the brain field. Even VH1, a music channel for young did a study that proves the importance of music. The channel claims that music is important to builds and strengthens connections between brain cells. Besides it improves memory and the ability to differentiate sounds and speeches. ( VH1,2013)
The position that is being argued is that music should stay in schools. This author is making the claim that music makes children excel in their education. This author uses many different sources. The author relies mainly on studies to back up his argument. The article is recent.
We all believe that extracurricular activities in schools can be beneficial, right? In schools, we currently have optional extracurricular courses such as football, art, music, and more. We also have mandatory health and health science courses such as physical education and health and nutrition. Why is physical education a required course and music only an extra curricular activity? Research clearly shows that learning to play an instrument is greatly benefitting our students in the same way that physical education is having a positive impact on them. Why would we, by not requiring middle school students to take a music course, refrain from even more advancement, and withhold the help we could easily give. I propose that we make music
Schlaug, Gottfried, Andrea Norton, Kate Overy, and Ellen Winner. Effects of Music Training on the Child’s Brain. The Musician's Brain. New York Academy Of Sciences, 2005. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. .
Music elicits a very complicated response in the brain. From the fairly concrete physical process of hearing to the nebulous process of interpreting sound, melody, pitch etc. in the brain. This is still a developing field especially since the brain is not well understood yet. There are many intricacies in the brain that have to do with music and the processes by which music is heard, understood, and how the brain reacts. Music has a evermore known role in the brain. It has moved from something never mentioned in cognitive neuroscience to something that is regarded as an important component of the brain’s abilities. Music elicits a holistic response from the brain causing activity all over the brain and it is proving as an important tool in understanding the brain as medical technology advances and we gain better looks at the brain in work.
Music is a basic part of everyday life. What makes music unique is its ability to create an emotional response in a person. A music education program should develop the aesthetic experience of every student to its highest potential. Aesthetics is the study of the relationship of art to the human senses. Intelligence exists in several areas, which includes music. The concept of aesthetics allows us to see into ourselves, which in turn helps the development of the intelligences. Not only are these intelligences brought up greatly in music education, but they can be transferred to other areas as well, allowing students to grow more through their other subjects.
Even when children learn music they able to listen, sing, dance, create movement. Listening to music draw out emotions, and playing music can be just like communicating emotions. Some people find this a very powerful experience. “ Music enriches the lives of students and should be considered a necessary part of education.”
Music stimulates the brain, and according to Don Campbell, Director of the Institute for Music, Health, and Education, it "rhythmically and harmonically stimulates essential patterns of brain growth" (Yoon 5). From Yoon’s statement, it can be concluded that a brain stimulated by music is a more capable one. The same can be said for all parts of the brain, including the limbic system, the part of the brain responsible for emotion and mood. In the same way that music affects the brain in its developmental stages, music can significantly change the limbic system and, therefore, the mood of a person.
As a matter of fact, all of these other disciplines can be assimilated into music!” said Ariel Templeton, a music teacher from Greenfield Middle School. According to studies, previous exposure to music impacts areas of the cerebrum related to reasoning and language. When the left area of the brain is exposed to music, it is better developed and can make imprinting information to the brain much more efficiently. This successively exceedingly affects our vocabulary and memory.
Music is one of the specials in school that can be implemented in the classroom. In kindergarten through fifth grade, music can be used in the classroom to teach students the daily classroom curriculum. There are several ways that a teacher can implement music into their classroom lessons. Some of those ways are creating songs, or finding creative songs on YouTube or other music websites. As a future educator it is my job to use a variety of teaching methods, and one of those methods should be applying music in my lessons.