Theories Regarding the Effect of Music on Learning - Literature review Example

Psychology: Theories regarding music and learning Introduction Music refers to the art of systematically arranging sequences or sounds to produce a composition that is unified, continuous and evocative through harmony, melody timbre and rhythm. Music is a manifestation of the human spirit and has varying effects on different kinds of people. Different theories explain the effects of music on learning. This paper discusses these theories and evaluates the existing literature while comparing and contrasting different studies with existing theories. Theories regarding music’s effect on learning Learning theories are restricted to the ones that are identified as behavioral, cognitive and constructivist. Behavioral model has a linear connection between the stimuli that usually trigger responses. Cognitive models describe the learning behaviors rather internally and from a developmental perspective. Such theories usually stress description and examination of the appropriate internal stimuli on the preparedness of the new ones. They also seek to explain the way individuals negotiate new and old information in relation to each other. This approach requires study of learners as different individuals respond differently to specific tasks (Huron, 2006). Constructive models, on the other hand focus on describing critically the various relationships that connect learners to their internal and external environments. Environments consists of contacts and experiences with both the mental and the physical world of learners either individually or as group members (Gordon, 2007). In music education, learning theories contribute to an understanding of how learners process information and cause changes through corresponding instructional theories. Theories of intelligence and motivation to assist teachers to elicit student productivity while theories of child development tend to govern the construction of age-appropriate subject matter. Considering philosophical perspectives under these theories, varying degrees of emphasis on the theories shape the models that explain how the learning process takes place (Gordon, 2007). Learning theories The adaptation of these theories to explain the musical learning, serves music education well. This has been achieved through building a research base derived from general and educational psychology. Studies seek to answer complex questions whose answers are translated into the practice of music education. The general theories of behaviorism tend to adapt successfully and directly to the teaching of music. By drilling and also practicing cumulative, sequential pitch as well as rhythmic patterns learning occurs. This makes musical vocabularies integrate in the learner, the perceptual abilities get to grow, their vocabulary become richer, their ability to audit also becomes refined and their learning and music perception consequently gets enhanced (Feinstein, 2006). It is important to listen to music multiply to enable the listener to perceive it well. A listener’s perception would change after listening to a similar piece of music a second and a third time. Music learning is developmental. Musical learning and understanding is a perceptual problem solving. A child’s musical learning is also developmental and is usually dependent on one’s age and experience. Learning of music is a sensorimotor and a generative process (Gordon, 2007). Generative in that just like the language learning, music learning is a process that is active where individuals are able to organize time and sound phenomena just as they occur. Cognitive learning theories These theories focus on the efforts to map individuals’ learning processes when new information integrates with the knowledge they are already familiar with. They are viewed as antithesis of behavioral theories. They developed as reactions to and extensions of behaviorism. Critical to the cognitive theories in music, education becomes an understanding of the major constructs that are inherent in Gestalt psychology. The application of these theories to the study of learning music has been prevalent in using Gestalt psychology that explains the processing of musical information. The laws of proximity, similarity and closure are used to distinguish and describe the processes of music development, perception and cognition. Gestalt concepts are also implicit in the exposition of the concepts of hierarchical music (Runfola & Taggart, 2005). Many vital events, guided by psychologists, educators, researchers and theorists contribute to prevalence of learning theories as the roots of music practice and research. Administrators have been encouraged to prioritize music instructions as academic essentials. Maintaining and expanding the existing programs with specialists in music education would facilitate academic improvements in reading, proportional math as well as higher thinking skills (Feinstein, 2006). Music education methods such as Kodaly and kindermusik system emphasize singing and also include concrete body involvements in the teaching of rhythm, pitch and rhythmic patterns. These patterns tend to be the most effective in the building of language skills. Music therapists have come up with techniques that would assist with specific classroom and population challenges, offering unique strategies to facilitate reading as well as special education programs. Programs that demonstrate improvement on academic abilities through the study of music have incorporated music study more than one day in a week. Pre-school music instructions provide special benefits in the development of neural patterns. Music instruction has demonstrated benefits at all ages and teachers are on the move to embrace musical instructions to enhance teaching and learning (Feinstein, 2006). Behavioral theories Several music educators have embraced these theories arguing that music behavior forms, some part of the general human behavior. Theories seek to identify, explain and possibly get to predict musical behavior. Some constructs that used to describe non-musical behavior has also been accepted to be valid to be suitable descriptions of suitable human musical behavior. Behavioral theories are said to have emerged from an effort to divert from humanistic tradition that had analysis through interpretation and introspection. Observable behaviors led to laws of behavior. The goals of behaviorism realized the close relationship between an organism, environment and emphasized active learning. Several theoretical of behaviorism subsets include operant conditioning that influences music education researchers to develop some instructional theories that were derived from behaviorist models (Gordon, 2007). Literature and studies on music and learning Apart from these theories, different studies, literature and research have also come up with various explanations on how listening to music affects learning through the brain, body as well as emotions. The results of these studies have implied the positive effects of musical learning to students and children and how some kind of music solves major problems like fatigue, stress and anxiety among learners. There is a close relationship between the two among learners that evidence has shown is inevitable. The brain plays a major role in learning and also in the listening and processing of information from the outside sources. Music affects learning through the human brain (Scheneck et al, 2006) Some negative effects of music have also been established, evolving some debate on whether the effects are really a result of listening to some kind of music or are just mere assumptions. Some kind of music that propagates negative themes has been attributed to some disgusting behavior being exhibited by teens and adolescents. For instance, listening to music with negative of violence has led to caretakers of the victim teens and adolescents having a strong belief that the negative behavior is triggered by the music. Others have argued that the behavior by the teens is just a manifestation of what they really are and would still commit suicide even if they did not access any kind of music at all (Runfola & Taggart, 2005). Music Listening and the Brain Neuroscience has documented several physiologic changes in the brain and the body during the listening of music where the changes impact one’s attention, attitude and energy. Music acts as an effective tool for teaching and classroom management used for the gaining and holding students’ attention, motivating their participation, increasing their attention span, stimulating the students’ creativity, assisting in memory and recall as well as building classroom community. Teachers with and without musical training should play appropriate music that is recorded in order to enhance their students’ abilities to learn, create and remember (Feinstein, 2006). Listening to music has been attributed to the enhancement of learning in various ways. Brain imaging has shown that a certain type of music help students attains a brain and body state that is coherent thereby increasing focus on the learning task. Physicians have discovered that higher frequencies in the overtones of music usually provide an electrical stimulation to the brain’s heightening attention and have impacts all over the body. Some music such as Mozart selections activate a brain area that is used in working with the short-term memories resulting in enhanced recall or remembrance. It has also been discovered that music has the ability to stimulate firing in 4 Hertz low frequencies, a theta wave range that is essential for hippocampus’ memory encoding. Music listening does not have a similar degree of effect on the cortical patterns development of the spatial reasoning as attributed to participation of active music, but it strengthens neural networks as well as firing patterns (Feinstein, 2006). Usage of recorded music for the classroom management would require teachers to understand the effects of this music, the techniques of implementing such music in the learning environment as well as the suitable ways to select appropriate music to achieve the desired results. If played inappropriately and indiscriminately, recorded music, then becomes less than effective (Huron, 2006). In music therapy, basic physic laws are used to help in the understanding of how listening to music both live and recorded can affect the mind, emotions and body. Tempo, rhythm and feel of music bring the listeners to different moods and energy levels. Upbeat music can prompt changes in the body rhythms while engaging rhythmic entertainment that help students to re-energize and maintain focus. This effect can alter neuro-chemistry by releasing cortisol and adrenaline. The released hormones heighten the students’ attention levels in the body and brain where in appropriate amounts they enhance the learning tasks (Scheneck et al, 2006). Music that is slow and calming tends to increase the parasympathetic system activity entraining the listeners to a relaxed state. This kind of music can also lead to some hormonal release that is important in the formation of long term memory. It is found in high levels during sleep and in the afternoons. The levels of adrenaline and cortisol rise under stressful conditions where they can inhibit the student’s memory and learning including destruction of physical systems. Chronic stress is capable of destroying brain cells found in the hippocampus thus hampering explicit memory and causing deterioration of a declarative memory. Increased adrenaline levels on the other hand, inhibit activity in the left pre-frontal cortex, the area responsible for maintenance of positive feelings. This leads to a shut- down of results in the development of expectations that are negative and discourage learning. Listening to music cures this by lowering the levels of adrenaline and cortisol thus reducing the stress effects. Music listening shifts negative moods to positive ones that usually promote learning. Some students ranked music as the third in twenty-one mood regulators of anxiety, an indication that they intuitively seek to manage stress with music (Colwell et al, 2002). For teachers to be able to gain and hold students’ attention, they require proper lesson planning, considering their daily minds and body rhythms. Playing music when students are entering their classrooms, for project work, to cue transitions and during breaks sets the moods for the positive stress free environment and also reduces the negative effects of stress. After long periods of academic focus and during low-energy times of the day, upbeat music should be played to re-energize the mind and body in order to facilitate the learning process. Change and novelty are classified as important elements of regulating attention. Some short snippets of music could be used the transitions of classrooms to cue students on time to begin classes, leave, take a break or other tasks in their learning. For instance, playing the pink panther movie theme may signify the students to line up for lunch while playing background music as they read extends their attention span (Colwell & Richardson, 2002). Habituation principle has an important role in the use of effective classroom music. The brain gets to determine whether if a certain stimulus is necessary for survival and whether it deserves attention. Over-use and playing of music continuously trigger habituation where the brain decrees the sound insignificant and eliminates it. Music should be used purposefully at periodic intervals where it gets more effective than the constant sound. Successful techniques of using music to assist teachers in the course information originated from the Accelerated Learning Model (Feinstein, 2006). Negative effects of music on learning The modern music is said to be filled with negative content that include suicidal themes and violence. This kind of music has negative impact on teenagers and youths and eventually affects their education. Numerous studies and research have shown a clear correlation between students’ bad behavior and music. A study was conducted whereby students were made to listen to seven violent songs and others to eight non -violent songs. They were then given psychological tasks in order to ascertain their levels of aggressiveness as a result of listening to the music (Hallam, Price & Katsarou, 2002). A list of incomplete words was given to them where they were required to complete them. Those that listened to violent music spelt out words that were more violent such as a kill. Further research has proven that teens with the tendency of listening to rap music that often demean women result in having a demeaning attitude towards women (Runfola & Taggart, 2005). Research has also shown that time spent by teens listening to music on a weekly basis is astounding. Teens and adolescent who are also students’ access music in almost every place they go. A good percentage of them also listen to music as they perform other tasks. They also access music in places they visit such as restaurants, shopping malls, as well as amusement parks. This makes the number of hours that students spend on listening to music even higher (Jaušovec, Jaušovec & Gerlič, 2006). With such a large number of teens listening to music, it has become inevitable that the majority of them listen to music that has negative themes in large amounts (Feinstein, 2006). A lot of people deem music as the root cause of negative teen behavior such as suicide, violence and other negative forms of behavior. Teens involved in such negative acts have been found to be fans of music that has negative themes. Many people, therefore, believe that listening to negative music is the cause of such kind of behavior (Parbery-Clark, Skoe & Kraus, 2009). However, no tangible evidence has been tabled to prove that music causes this behavior despite the relationships. There have only been some suggestions that teens exhibit these behaviors from other sources such as bullying, home life and traumatic experiences. Affected teens end up performing poorly in their studies where others drop out of school (Colwell et al, 2002). Comparison of studies and literature to theories Research has shown that studies, literature as well as theories agree that music has effects on learning. Listening to music for students has been seen as a tool that enhances learning by way of increasing the attention span, reducing stress and motivating students in their learning processes (Gordon, 2003). Music has assisted teachers to gain and also hold the attention of students leading to improved grades and good performances. From a cognitive perspective on the instructional design, the background has been considered as redundant information that may distract students from learning. Investigation on the influence of background music can also be considered as a design element of motivation (Feinstein, 2006). Theories, studies, research and literature have a mutual conclusion that appropriate music at the right times increases, productivity and intelligence among students. Soothing music relaxes both the body and the soul while background music can increase the attention span of a student when reading (Merriam, 2002). However, some studies have linked music with negative themes to the negative behavior that students may exhibit. This relationship does not fully blame music on these bad behaviors, but evaluates the close relationship between them. For instance, listening to music that demeans women would lead to a negative attitude of the listener towards women (Scheneck et al, 2006). In other cases, listening to music that contains negative themes has led to some people believing that it leads to violent actions by teens that even include committing suicide. However, most of these studies have ruled out this kind of reasoning and argued that it is used by the society as an escape goat. The studies claim that no evidence shows that no teen would be violent or would commit suicide if they never listened to music. Measures should therefore be established to deal with teen and adolescent problems such as trauma, stress and depression to be able to regulate the teens’ bad behavior (Scheneck et al, 2006). The effects of listening to music and those of musical education have been of great significance. With music studies, emotional expressions, memorizing and learning about the intervals and chords has been motivating to the Intelligent Quotient (IQ) effect. As a result of these theories and studies, music has been proven to be a powerful source in the human society (Hirschfeld & Gelman, 1994). Listening to music has indicated improved moods, high productivity, encouraged intellectual growth, whereas music education has shown an even greater effect. Music is a strong cornerstone of the human culture, acting as a learning tool, a way of life, a method of communication and should thus be treated with total respect (Feinstein, 2006). Ideas for further research We have found out from theories, literature and studies that most people relate negative music to negative behavior that are commonly exhibited by teens and adolescents in the society. Others argue that this is used as an excuse and an escape goat by people who are unable to detect and deal with problems affecting their younger generation (Colwell et al, 2002).As a result of this, the future research should focus more and research deeper into the main causes of teens and adolescents bad behavior. The research should be able to identify the causes that would drive a teenage to behave violently or even commit suicide. Many researchers having out ruled the possible cause of bad behavior by negative music, they should elaborate and explain the coincidental acts of committing suicide and behaving violently by teens and adolescents who have a passion in listening to music with such themes. Solutions on how to control the effects of music with these themes should be provided to the caretakers and parents to save the teens from these behaviors. The researchers should also be in a position to identify and explain why, sweet, soothing music would cause students to perform better, increase productivity, manage stress and cause the body and brain to relax, but music with negative themes does not cause any form of bad behavior (Helmholtz, 2009). With no evidence showing that some kind of music would trigger negative behavior, they should then come up with reasonable effects of music with negative themes to their listeners (Runfola & Taggart, 2005). The results of the effects of both good music and negative music should be distinguished without making assumptions that have no supporting evidence. With this, parents and the society will be able to have a clear understanding of why a teen who listens to music with violent themes is more likely to commit suicide than the one who listens to worship music by Don Moen. This will help them to deal with the teens and adolescents who exhibit these behaviors since the root course will be known. The research should also advice on the kind of music that certain age brackets should listen to for positive influence. Conclusion Music has been proven to be a strong, powerful and inevitable element of our lives. Music itself is a way of life meant to bring joy to the society. Listening to music has had multiple impacts on humans that include effects on learning. Listening to some kind of music leads to students increased productivity, prolonged attention span, increased memory and motivation in their learning processes. Music has also been described as a solution to problems such as stress, fatigue and anxiety among students therefore enhancing their learning. However, music has also had its negative side where some kind of it is partly blamed for causing bad behavior among teens and adolescents. No solid evidence has proven the involvement of music to this behavior that some claim is triggered by other causes. Further research is there important to clarify on the negative effects of music. References Colwell, R., Richardson, C. P., & Music Educators National Conference (U.S.). (2002). The new handbook of research on music teaching and learning: A project of the Music Educators National Conference. New York: Oxford University Press. Feinstein, S. (2006). The Praeger handbook of learning and the brain. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Gordon, E. (2003). A music learning theory for newborn and young children. Gia Publications. Gordon, E. (2007). Learning sequences in music: A contemporary music learning theory. Chicago: GIA Publications. Hallam, S., Price, J., & Katsarou, G. (2002). The effects of background music on primary school pupils task performance. Educational studies, 28(2), 111-122. Helmholtz, H. L. (2009). On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music. Cambridge University Press. Hirschfeld, L. A., & Gelman, S. A. (Eds.). (1994). Mapping the mind: Domain specificity in cognition and culture. Cambridge University Press. Huron, D. B. (2006). Sweet anticipation: Music and the psychology of expectation. MIT press. Jaušovec, N., Jaušovec, K., & Gerlič, I. (2006). The influence of Mozart’s music on brain activity in the process of learning. Clinical Neurophysiology,117(12), 2703-2714. Merriam, S. B. (2002). Qualitative research in practice: Examples for discussion and analysis. Jossey-Bass Inc Pub. Parbery-Clark, A., Skoe, E., & Kraus, N. (2009). Musical experience limits the degradative effects of background noise on the neural processing of sound. The Journal of Neuroscience, 29(45), 14100-14107. Runfola, M., & Taggart, C. C. (2005). The Development and practical application of music learning theory. Chicago: GIA Publications. Schneck, D. J., Berger, D. S., & Rowland, G. (2006). The music effect: Music physiology and clinical applications. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Read More