Mozart and Maths – a winning combination?
Playing Mozart to your pupils will increase their grades in
Maths. This seems to be the general tone of a number of articles that I have
read in books and the press over the years. The ‘Mozart effect’ even extended
to some companies producing CDs and videos that mothers could play and show
their babies with the suggestion that it would maximise the little ones
potential. Is it true? Can playing a piece of music make a youngster more
intelligent?
There have been many academic studies of the effects of playing
Mozart to students the effect of students performance when doing Maths. One of
the best articles that I have come across is by Judy M Taylor and Beverley J
Row ‘The Mozart effect and Mathematical connection’. This is well worth a read,
not a long article but provides a short and concise review of the literature.
Research
The original study only claimed a temporary effect in
students ability to perform spatial-temporal tasks. Since then there has been a
growing volume of research into the diverse use and effects of music, Mozart in
particular and its effect on cognitive function, priming and mood or arousal.
This expansion of research, from simple learning to a more complex educational
and therapeutic uses, has yielded different and often conflicting results.
Accelerated learning
In education it the ‘Mozart effect’ seems to fall under the
banner of accelerated learning, which is a collection of ideas and techniques
that purport to improve and enhance the classroom and learning experience. An
excellent book that covers most of these ideas is Accelerated Learning in Practise: Brain-based Methods for Accelerating Motivation and Achievement
well worth
investigating. Accept some of the ideas, reject others, but there is a wealth
of ideas that will challenge your practise.
My classroom
I decided to try out music in my classroom. I prepared a few
pieces of Mozart and Bach’ loaded them onto my laptop and experimented. As the
classes came in on the first day I had a fairly jaunty piece playing, some kids
questioned what was going on, others objected, most looked bemused or ignored
it. When everyone was seated, books out, I lowered the volume and the noise in
the class reduced, they had been trained by TV programmes that when the music
stops something else happens.
I did my ‘chalk and talk’, as we used to say, set the next
phase of the lesson in action, and gently raised the volume of the music so
that it was just audible. The lessons that day did not to my mind seem
significantly different. It is very easy to fool yourself that things had
changed so I tried to keep an open mind. I continued for several weeks to play
Mozart and Bach then one lesson I forgot to start the music. After I had given
my starter and main exposition I set the class to work, within a few seconds
several kids wanted to know where the music was, they had come to expect and like
the experience.
Does playing music make a difference? I do not know but I
feel that it alters the mood in my classroom, the pupils appear to me to be
calmer, less anxious and even happier. As for improvement in performance, again
I cannot say what affect it has as any views would be purely anecdotal but if
the atmosphere is better in the classroom then the conditions are right for
improvement.
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
One of my lessons had to be curtailed because of a school
event. Whilst packing away early on a girl complained that I hadn’t played her
favourite, she couldn’t tell me what it was but hummed a piece, it was ‘Eine
Kleine Nachtmusik’ by Mozart. A few others agreed that they liked that as well.
The next lesson I saved that piece for the end of the session, and said I was
going to play their favourite. Within seconds of starting the piece the whole
class was working and humming along to the music, what a fantastic experience,
one happy hard working class, one happy teacher.
Ten tips for learning the times tables are for use in the classroom or at home. They are simple and work.
