Welcome to my blog. Throughout this semester you're going to get to learn more about my journey of writing a senior thesis that meshes the fields of music and psychology. Doesn't that sound like fun?
In one of my research methods classes I began searching for previous research that had been done in this area and found a little bit of interest. I found a paper that described the effects of an experiment done to determine the use of music to help with children learning math. Other research I found had to do with music in therapy for adults suffering from such things as post traumatic stress disorder and didn't seem quite relevant to the topic I wish to pursue.
I know that the effects of music on child development is much too broad of a subject for a senior thesis, but I'm still unsure as to how to narrow it down enough. One area I have considered is in comparing test scores in basic subjects such as math and English with children's participation and performance in music classes. I would also be interested in seeing if there is a link between social problems and music classes. These still may be too broad, and I think I may need to be more specific still.
Even if these subjects are specific enough, I think I will need to do a search for previous studies and articles in this area to get a better base for what kind of information has been collected and studied already. What I would really like to do would involve testing and research that may be beyond my capacity for two semesters' time to work. I would like to study previous papers as well as talk to elementary school teachers about children's behavior and performance in their regular classes and music classes. I would also like to interview some of the children themselves to get a view of how they view music in their lives. However, I'm not sure how plausible this would be because of strict IRB regulations, especially where children are involved. As I said, I will need to do some more research on what has already been studied first.
Music with children. This should be interesting. How do you plan to do your research? I have disabled children both autistic and music has helped both. I would be willing to help you if needed.
ReplyDeleteI like this idea a lot. You also do a good job of pointing out its potential challenges.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, if this hasn't specifically been studied it would be hard for you to devise and carry out a long-term study that this issue might deserve. One possible short cut would be simply to interview parents about what music their children were exposed to at what ages and compare that to how the children performed in various topics in school (or something like that). It would probably be easier to get IRB approval to interview adults.
That said, I look forward to seeing how you plan to tackle this interesting (and potentially important) topic.
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteBoth Brenda and Chris raise helpful points. Brenda's comment points to the possibility of focusing on music therapy for learning-disabled children. Chris's suggests a way to sidestep the tricky problem of using children as subjects.
However you pursue this, your first challenge will be to winnow the possibilities via your literature review. Ideally, that's a project you should work on throughout the term--reading in the field whenever time permits, week by week, and updating your blog with your findings and thoughts.
I suspect that there is a sizable literature already out there on the topic of music as a form of cognitive therapy and/or pedagogical tool for learning-disabled children. And I'm quite sure that there has been some research looking into correlations between music education and other measures of academic accomplishment including test scores, university placements, and so forth. I recall that some of the latter studies have been cited by music educators fighting to prevent the cutting of funds to their programs.
But there are quite a few ways to slice your basic question: Does music help kids learn other subjects better? Look for the studies that really speak to what feels most interesting to you. Then pursue them down the rabbit hole as far as you can go.