According to a recent study, incorporating music into math lessons can improve children’s academic performance. Researchers in Turkey found that listening to music while learning math enhances enjoyment and student engagement and reduces anxiety related to the subject.
Music can motivate students to learn math
This approach may increase motivation and foster a greater student appreciation for the subject. The study suggests several methods to integrate music into math lessons, such as clapping to rhythms when teaching and using math concepts to create musical instruments.
During their research, scholars reviewed academic databases comprehensively to identify relevant studies on the topic. They analyzed 55 studies conducted worldwide between 1975 and 2022, involving approximately 78,000 participants. The age range of the participants spanned from young children in kindergarten to university students.
A study analyzed three types of music interventions: standardized music interventions, instrumental musical interventions, and music-math integrated interventions. The interventions involved activities such as singing, listening to music, composing music, learning to play instruments individually or in a band, and integrating music into math lessons. Students were tested on their math skills before and after the interventions. The study discovered that using music independently in lessons or integrating it into math classes resulted in a greater improvement in math performance.
Integrating music in math lessons enhances performance
Integrated lessons significantly impacted student performance, with 73% of participants showing better results compared to those with no musical intervention. Learning to play instruments and taking regular music lessons also improved, with 69% and 58% of students, respectively, showing progress. Music was found to be particularly beneficial for learning arithmetic, especially for younger students and those focusing on fundamental math concepts.
Math and music share common elements, such as symbols, symmetry, abstract thinking, and quantitative reasoning. Teaching arithmetic through music is advantageous because concepts like fractions and ratios are fundamental to both disciplines. Musical notes of different lengths can be represented as fractions and combined to create multiple bars of music. Integrating math and music lessons can be highly effective as it enables students to establish connections between the two subjects.
