Beyond playing and reading musical notes:Incorporating music into the social sciences and sciences

Robyn Levine-Shapiro & Silvia Vong

November 28, 2011

Do you have a strong presence of musical intelligence?Do you...• Study better with music playing?

• Notice when a store isn’t playing music?• Notice the beats or pace of music?

• Gauge people’s emotions by the sound of their voice?

• Hear a song and remember a time or event in your life? Or know the lyrics even though it’s “been awhile” since you heard the song?• Play an instrument? Or sing?

(Schoen-Nazzaro, 1978); (Gardner, 1993); (Southgate & Roscigno, 2009)

Musical Intelligence:Theory & Research

Musical intelligence beyond playing and reading music• “Through musicking, social worlds, identities, bodies and situations are constructed” (Rawden & DeNora, 2005, p. 289).

• Musicians tend to read and judge human emotions better because of their ability to read pitch and observe expressions (Kraus & Chandrasekaran, 2010).

• Musicians showed better performance in language and math compared to non-musicians (Musacchia, Sams, Skoe, & Kraus, 2007).• In a marketing centred study, the use of music that matched the message, was able to increase brand recall (Kellaris, Cox, & Cox, 1993).

Music and Learning: Music Education

• Lewis (1999) discusses the use of country music lyrics that addresses history, themes of violence against women, poverty and more to add impact to topics discussed in class.

• Songs with prosocial lyrics had an impact on students’ empathy towards others and donate money (Greitemeyer, 2008).

• Paquette and Rieg (2008) suggest using music for ESL learners through music and illustration or music and story writing.

• Involvement in school music and socioeconomic statuses play a role in academic achievement (Southgate & Roscigno, 2009)

Music and Learning: Psychology

• Undergraduates had higher recall on words with the same song in the background, while inconsistent tempos (Jazz & Classical) had lower recall (Balch, Bowman, & Mohler, 1992).• College students were more likely to recall a list of names a week later if the names were sung versus spoken (Rainey & Larsen, 2002).

• Patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) varied in performance of memory and music, those who had progressed further into the disease had less success than those who had progressed less (Moore, Peterson, O’Shea, McIntosh, & Thaut, 2008). • Only familiar music can improve recall ( Purnell-Webb & Speelman, 2008).

• Background music has no effect on verbal learning (Jancke & Sandman, 2010)

Incorporating music in the classroom

Butterfly Music: http://ow.ly/7G04CFrog Music: http://ow.ly/7G0b6 Heart Rap: http://ow.ly/7G0bM

Incorporating music into the virtual classroom

• Icebreaker: My playlist

• Find Edutube or Youtube videos that addresses a science topic or social science topic

• Use a song to discuss lyrics and missing information

• Use songs during a time period to discuss political, economic and social conditions• Use background music to create a tone or atmosphere

(Dunlap & Lowenthal, 2010)

Example:

Discussion

In order to use music in learning to its fullest, should students develop musical literacy?

Can you think of any other way music can be used in different disciplines?

References

Balch, W. R., Bowman, K., & Mohler, L. A. (1992). Music-dependent memory in immediateand delayed word recall. Memory & Cognition, 20(1), 21-28.

Batt-Rawden, K., & Denora, T. (2005). Music and informal learning in everyday life. MusicEducation Research, 7(3), 289-304.

Dunlap, J. C., & Lowenthal, P. R. (2010). Hot for teacher: Using digital music to enhancestudents’ experience in online courses. TechTrends, 54(4), 58-73.

Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: BasicBooks.

Greitemeyer, T. (2009). Effects of songs with prosocial lyrics on prosocial thoughts,affect, and behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Pscyhology, 45, 186-190.

Jancke, L., & Sandmann, P. (2010). Music listening while you learn: No influence ofbackground music on verbal learning. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 6(3), 114.

Kellaris, J. J., Cox, A. D., & Cox, D. (1993). The effect of background music on adprocessing: A contingency explaination. Journal of Marketing, 57(4), 114-125.

Kraus, N., & Chandrasekaran, B. (2010). Music training for the development of auditoryskills. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11, 599-605.

Lewis, G. H. (1999). Traps, troubles, and social issues: Country music in the social science classroom. Popular Music and Society, 23(4), 61-82.

Moore, K. S., Peterson, D. A., O’Shea, G., McIntosh, G. C., & Thaut, M. H. (2008). Theeffectiveness of music as a mnemonic device on recognition memory for people with multiple sclerosis. Journal of Music Therapy, 45(3), 307-329.

Musacchia, G., Sam, M., Skoe, E., & Kraus, N. (2007). Musicians have enhancedsubcortical auditory and audiovisual processing of speech and music. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(40), 15894-15898.

Paquette, K. R., & Rieg, S. A. (2008). Using music to support the literacy development ofyoung English language learners. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36, 227-232.

Purnell-Webb, P., & Speelman, C. P. (2008). Effects of music on memory for text.Perceptual and Motor Skills, 106, 927-957.

Rainey, D. W., & Larsen, J. D. (2002). The effect of familiar melodies on initial learningand long-term memory for unconnected text. Music Perception, 20(2), 173-186.

Schoen-Nazzaro, M. B. (1978). Plato and Aristotle on the ends of music. LavalTheologique et Philosophique, 34(3), 261-273.

Southgate, D. E., & Roscigno, V. J. (2009). The impact of music on childhood andadolescent achievement. Social Science Quarterly, 90(1), 4-21.

Strean, W. B. (2011). Creating student engagement? HMM: Teaching and learning withhumour, music, and movement. Creative Education, 2(3), 189-192.