Music and it's Relation to Learning

Music and learning is a relationship that I am curious about as a student and as a future educator. A lot of students in Class A that I am working with this semester contain a handful of students who enjoy listening to music while doing their work, but I’m interested in whether or not music is helpful or distractive. Many students as well as my classmates find music to be pleasurable when working, but some prefer instrumental while others like songs with lyrics. I also find that music helps students who are usually distractive or talkative to remain quiet and working. But does music help enhance students’ learning, or is it better for them to have a quiet environment? Yes, music may be pleasurable, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is helpful.

In an article titled “Does Music Help You Study?” Sheela Doraiswamy ran students through five different scenarios:

1.      A quiet environment

2.      With “steady state” speech. This means a single word (in this case, “three”) was  repeated for the duration of the test

3.      With “changing state” speech. This means a variety of words (in this case, random digits from 1-9) were played during the test

4.      With “liked” music, meaning a song of the students’ choice (such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna, or Arcade Fire). Students brought in their own music, the only requirement was that it had to have vocals

5.      With “disliked” music, which in this case was a metal song called “Thrashers” by Death Angel (all students in the study disliked metal) (1).

The results are as follows: “there were no significant difference between test scores with liked music, disliked music, and changing state speech. Scores were significantly higher for tests taken in a quiet environment or with steady-state speech” (Doraiswamy 1).

I find it especially interesting that there were no significant differences between liked music and disliked music. One would think that working while listening to disliked music would produce worse test scores, but Doraiswamy’s experiment proved different.

I wasn’t as surprised to find out that scores turned out to be significantly higher when students worked in a quiet environment, because music could be distracting and quietness would always be the most ideal for students. It is helpful to know this as a future educator as we often have the choice to allow students to listen to their music or let them know the truth about learning and music.

I would love to run this experiment with my students as well, because every student is different and have different needs. As mentioned before, I find that students who often had disruptive behaviors worked quietly and well when they were allowed to listen to music. Often time, students need these accommodations so that they could get their mind going, especially those who have so much experience in music.

Works Cited

Doraisamy, Sheela. "Does Music Help You Study?" Mind the Science Gap. 08 Oct. 2012. Web. 22 Sept. 2015. <http://www.mindthesciencegap.org/2012/10/08/does-music-help-you-study/>.