Students who are involved in music-related activities between grades 7-12 achieve notably higher scores on English, math, and science exams in high school than non-musical classmates, as a new large-scale study found. The research by Peter Gouzouasis and colleagues at the University of British Columbia (UBC) focused on 112,916 public school students in Canada. The findings (Guhn et al., 2019) were published on June 24 in the Journal of Educational Psychology.
The authors sum up the educational importance of their findings in the impact statement:
"This large-scale study identified evidence of positive relationships between school music participation and high school exam scores in English, mathematics, and science. The findings suggest that multiyear engagement in music, especially instrumental music, may benefit high school academic achievement. In light of this study (the largest of its kind to date), as well as supporting evidence suggesting music learning in childhood may foster competencies (e.g., executive functioning) that support academic achievement, educators may consider the potential positive influence of school music on students' high school achievement."
Intriguingly, the researchers discovered that the correlation between music education and higher academic achievement was most significant for students who practiced instrumental music. These findings suggest that the skill sets required to play a musical instrument transfers to other types of academic learning in high school.
When policymakers and school administrators have to cut budgets, the knee-jerk reaction is often to put courses related to art and music on the chopping block. The researchers are hoping that this large-scale study will put the spotlight on the value of music-related activities at a time when several school districts are laser-focused on improving numeracy/literacy while they put so-called "non-academic" areas of learning on the back burner.
The latest findings on the significant academic benefits of music participation from Gouzouasis and colleagues are adding to a growing body of evidence that under-funded school programs related to arts-integrated pedagogy (Hardiman et al., 2019), experiences with nature (Kuo et al., 2019), and access to robust physical activity and outdoor play (Esteban-Cornejo et al., 2017) might improve focus, motivation, and academic performance for K-12 students.
Martin Guhn, Scott D. Emerson, Peter Gouzouasis. "Population-Level Analysis of Associations Between School Music Participation and Academic Achievement." Journal of Educational Psychology (First published: June 24, 2019) DOI: 10.1037/edu0000376
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