Issues In Education

In recent Issues the Road Map for Arts Education was examined. Links between arts education and early childhood music education were considered. A case study of one private-public partnership school founded on arts education, starting at preschool was presented. This Issues will look at some of the research findings that highlight the importance of arts education, particularly music education, in learning. In the following Issues the proposed Botswana National School of the Arts will be considered.

It is asserted that people who do well in school in both arts and academic studies are gifted and thus the link claimed between music and arts is an artifact, that learning and cognitive functions may not have really been improved. The issues have been summarised by Jeffrey Lott in his article 'It's getting better all the time' (Swarthmore College Bulletin on-line). In 2008, the Dana Foundation supported research by seven universities into this topic-'Are smart people drawn to the arts, or does arts training make people smarter?' The findings of this study are fascinating as they support the second side of the question.

*People interested in the arts experience an enhanced state of motivation and the ability to sustain attention. Focussed attention is necessary in the arts and that capacity does transfer to other aspects of cognition and learning.

* Relationships were found between music education and the capacity to manipulate information in different parts of the brain (including long-term memory). It was found that this dimension extended beyond music to other areas of learning.

* Significant correlations were found between studying music, reading acquisition and sequence learning. 

* Phonological awareness was found to correlate with both music training and the development of specific brain pathways.

* Learning to dance where 'effective observation' was required was found to correlate to levels of achievement. It was found that 'neural substrates support the organisation of complex actions' and that effective observational learning may transfer to other cognitive skills.

Michael Gazzaniga, Director of the Sage Center for the Study of Mind at the University of California at Santa Barbara summarised this as follows: 'The preliminary conclusions we have reached may soon lead to trustworthy assumptions about the impact of arts study on the brain'. A majority of the report is concerned with brain functions, and new forms of neuro-scientific evidence of correlations between arts study and cognition.

Evidence from research studies can be non-existent, negligible, or significant ('weak' or 'strong'). That a correlation is found does not necessarily prove causation. Gazzaniga concludes that arts education, especially in music and dance, demonstrates a link with capacities such as geometric reasoning. Scientists now identify which pathways in the brain are at work and how they change as a result of music and dance education. Another improvement is in 'cognitive strategies' that help in problem-solving. They are not sure why early music education leads to better cognition, but suggest neural mechanism may be at work that they have not yet identified.

At the Chester School of the Arts (see the previous Issues), two teachers have a large, carpeted music room that allows for experimentation and learning. Science and music are consciously linked so that children learn the scientific method as they learn music.

An example of an integrative approach to science and music education is provided by Jeffrey Lott in his article 'It's getting better all the time'. Music teacher Helen Hagerty and Sara Posey went over with first grade pupils the science of hearing, sound, vibrations and shaped air, using instruments as the source of knowledge. The children then experimented with various instruments and learned about sound production. Music 'stations' were created.

The pupils had to record what they were observing on clipsheets. 'What kind of instrument was it? How was its sound produced? What vibrates? How can you change the sound?... Since Newton, this has been the scientific method: What do I sense? How did it happen? What does it mean?'

'To wrap the science unit up, the children made their own musical instruments. Cigar boxes, rubber bands, lentils and beans, cans, paper towel tubes, and other recycled materials were fashioned into homemade wind, string, and percussion instruments. At the CUSA spring concert, the first-grade scientists got to play their own instruments in the 'orchestra''.  It can be done.