Shiwei

  At the beginning of the lecture, I was shocked by the formal attire of Dr. Lina because I felt weird about why Dr. Lina would dress formally. Then, I realized that I had forgotten about the attendance of the guest speaker this week. What a poor memory I have. 

  Following that, Dr. Lina introduced the guest speaker Mr. Tamim who was a lecturer from the faculty of creative multimedia at the Multimedia University in Malaysia. He started the lecture with one question "while you listen to music when you are studying?". Personally speaking, I preferred to listen to music especially soft music or music with a steady rhythm and low tempo when I was studying. Nonetheless, nobody raised their hands. I was totally shocked by the circumstances. I also felt awkward because the atmosphere was a little weird (hhhhh😂😂). 

  Then, Mr. Tamin emphasized the benefits of listening to music such as motivation, concentration, and improved learning outcomes. He also explained the utilization of music to enhance these in detail. I used to think music could only be used to release stress, change mood, or something else. I could never imagined that music could be connected with teaching theories such as cognitive load theory, cognitive theory, and multimedia theory especially when it comes to language education (language acquisitions). For example, he highlighted creating songs to remember difficult information and the importance of creating songs for students as they could remember or learn from singing songs. Another example was analyzing pop songs. We could learn language or words or phrases from songs, right? My interest was totally aroused by his presentation, and I was encouraged to discover more about how music influences cognitive function, language teaching, and problem-solving. This was also interesting because I learned some basic knowledge about music and the application of it in teaching. 

  Following that, we had two activities including a Puzzle Speedrun Experiment and a Tune Transformation & Adaptation Method. The Puzzle Speedrun Experiment activity brought great enjoyment and liveness to our lecture because everyone proactively engaged in the class activity. We were divided into different groups and required to put together a whole paper from various pieces. Mr. Tamim recorded the time each group used and wrote them on the board. We had this activity twice. One was under the background music and another one was played without background music. 

  This experiment was used to demonstrate the utilization of background music to enhance concentration on learning and its effectiveness of learning. However, the time of the first group under two situations remained the same. For the second group (my group), we did use less time to finish the puzzle. 

  I was shocked by the consequences and I was curious about how this conclusion was drawn because I thought the conclusion was not rigorous. We used the same puzzle, right? Will this proficiency of this puzzle influence the conclusion? We also did not notice some students may be sensitive and good at this kind of game? What's more, we did not control the variable condition and we overlooked it. If we wanted to make the conclusion more rigorous, I thought we needed to have a random experiment. For example, we used different puzzles for each turn, or we regrouped these groups with different people. In addition, we could use different genres of music to explore the effects of background in learning. Most importantly, we need to set the control groups as a counterpart. To reduce bias, this experiment might be "double-blind", meaning neither the participants nor the researchers (Mr. Tamim and Dr. Lina) know which is the experimental group and which is the control group. All of these helped to make the conclusion robust. Incorporating randomization and a control group into the experiment which is called the random control trial (RCT) helps minimize biases, confounding variables, and alternative explanations for the observed effects, which makes the conclusion more robust. 

   After this lecture, I delved into the influence of music and approaches to applying it as a teaching tool in education. 

  Numerous studies have been conducted to demonstrate the influence of the incorporation of music in teaching (Mayer, 2005; Velasco & Hirumi, 2020; Dolegui, 2013). First, the incorporation of music in teaching enhances cognitive development in various aspects. One significant area is the enhancement of cognitive abilities, as supported by numerous research. For instance, the intelligence Quotient (IQ). In the study conducted by Schellenberg (2004), an investigation was undertaken to assess alterations in IQ test scores and standardized academic achievement after a musical activities program. The results indicated a marginal elevation in IQ among participants engaged in either keyboard or voice training in comparison to those involved in drama activities or assigned to control groups. In addition, according to the future study of Schellenberg (2006), the results indicate formal exposure to music during childhood is positively correlated with both IQ and academic performance through a quasi-experimental design, involving the comparison of groups and individuals with varying levels of music training. More importantly, these associations are modest effect sizes but are of broad and enduring properties. Besides this, other cognitive abilities such as spatial-temporal skills are enhanced as well. According to Holmes & Hallam (2017), they conducted a quasi-experimental design and it encompasses cohorts of children aged from 4 to 7 engaged in a music program that contains diverse musical activities and predominantly of a rhythmic nature. The comparison between the experimental group and the control group in mathematics, reading, writing, and spatial-temporal reasoning could draw the conclusion that the incorporation of music in teaching could enhance the development of spatial-temporal skills, which is crucial for the development of math skills as well. 

  In addition, there are also positive effects of utilizing music in teaching for the development of the brain related to cognitive development from a scientific view. According to one research conducted by Gojerac (2018), some parts of the brain such as planum temporale (an important component in language comprehension and sound signal processing in the early stage) and the corpus callosum (a neurological structure that facilitates interhemispheric communication) exhibit bigger in individuals with musical proficiency compared to others without music proficiency, which is particularly related to the incorporation of music in education. Only with music can we achieve the development of these parts of the brain and these developments are crucial for their future cognitive development. These research pieces of evidence highlight the positive influence of music on cognitive development and it makes a compelling case for its integration as a teaching tool to enhance students' cognitive abilities. 

  Secondly, the integration of music in teaching can foster academic achievement in various aspects. Yang et al. (2014) revealed a correlation between music education and academic performance especially in mathematics. Following that, Gardiner et al. (1996) observed that after seven months of additional music instruction, children exhibited improved scores on standardized mathematical assessments compared to control groups. A similar study conducted by Rauscher & Hinton (2011) examined children below 7 years old who underwent music instruction, the study determined that spatial-temporal (it is a crucial component for the future development of math) and numerical skills experienced a more pronounced enhancement in participants engaged in music training as opposed to the control group.  Likewise, the findings from one longitude research conducted by Janurik & Krisztian (2022) demonstrated early musical instruction may exert subsequent academic achievements, extending over an extended duration. Aside from this, language development is enhanced as well in music education. Based on the findings of Moreno et al. (2011), following six months of specialized music activities emphasizing intensive listening, discernible enhancements were observed in children's language comprehension and corresponding alterations in brain activation patterns. Another meta-analysis by Standley & Hughes (1997) reviewed multiple studies and concluded that music education has a positive effect on language development in young children. They also found that exposure to music and musical activities positively correlated with language acquisition and verbal proficiency. Therefore, it is important to utilize music as a teaching tool to improve children's language development. 

    Furthermore, music also has other positive effects such as regulating moods, reducing stress, and so on. It is widely acknowledged that music has a positive influence on regulating moods and reducing stress. According to the Behavioral Perspective theory, music has the capacity to prime listeners, including a predisposition through the associative process to experience either positive or negative emotions. Through listening to music, people can feel emotions from songs and effectively regulate their emotions. Additionally, Thoma et al. (2013) concluded that engaging with music has been shown to have a significant impact on emotional regulation, effectively modulating mood and mitigating stress. This study also revealed that listening to music with a preferred tempo and rhythm can lead to enhanced emotional well-being and a reduction in stress levels. What's more, research also indicated that the utilization of music could reduce anxiety regardless of whether students actively or passively listened to music, which helped them to enhance their concentration as well (Galas et al., 2021). It is also supported by the findings of Kiss & Linnell (2021) that preferred background music can enhance sustained attention span. Consequently, the incorporation of music not only is beneficial for our well-being but also helps us in various aspects, especially for regulating moods.  

  Lastly, music can enhance students' development in all aspects. When we capitalize on this, several things still need to be taken into consideration to better help students' development. For example, according to cognitive load theory, students' working memory capacity is limited. Lehmann & Seufert (2017) stated the incorporation of background music may impose an additional cognitive load on working memory, which potentially impedes the learning process. Additionally, the research conducted by Dobbs et al., (2011) through a comparative analysis demonstrated that performance in a silent environment yielded superior outcomes when compared to performance in background noise and music. This is because people have to divide their attention between study and background and it requires people to pay more attention to study with the background music, which increases their cognitive load and impeds their studying at the same time. Moreover, the performance is positively interrelated to the types of music. Hallman et al., (2002) conducted one study to assess student's performance in different situations. They tested the arithmetic and memory performance of children aged from 10 to 12 in the relaxing and calming music and results showed better performance when compared with no-music conditions. However, when compared with no-music or relaxing music, students in aggressive, unpleasant, and arousing music exhibited lower behaviors. Consequently, the type of music seriously influences the performance of students and it needs to be modified. We also need to take students' real circumstances into consideration when incorporating music into teaching. As a result, teachers are advised to consider various aspects such as subjects, the cognitive capability of students, students' behaviors, preferences for learning and teaching, and others before incorporating music in teaching. For instance, students mainly are visual learners and it is not appropriate to utilize music as the main teaching tool to teach them. 

  One takeaway message from this week is I will incorporate music in future teaching to enhance students' overall development. As a pre-service teacher, I will also learn approaches to incorporating music in teaching and techniques to make full use of this teaching tool. Most importantly, I will take students' real circumstances and needs into consideration before utilizing music as a teaching tool because everything has two side effects. In some situations, I will employ this more frequently. For example, I will play soft music before class to let students calm down and relax. What's more, if some difficult things need to be remembered or recited, I will try to make a song for students to listen to and memorize, which reduces their cognitive load. Additionally, I will also teach my students how to create their own songs to help them study and learn with enjoyment, which is also my educational philosophy. 

  This is the end of our blog journey. 

  I sincerely hope that everyone has a good holiday and break. 

  Let's see each other in the next semester. 

Reference 

Dolegui, A. S. (2013). The Impact of Listening to Music on Cognitive Performance. Inquiries Journal. 5,(09). 

De la Mora Velasco, E., & Hirumi, A. (2020). The effects of background music on learning: A systematic review of literature to guide future research and practice. Educational Technology Research and Development, 68, 2817-2837. 

Dobbs, S., Furnham, A., & McClelland, A. (2011). The Effect of Background Music and Noise on the Cognitive Test Performance of  Introverts and Extraverts. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25(2), 307-313. 

Gojmerac, I. (2018). Importance of music in the education system. New trends and challenges in today's Europe, 178. 

Gardiner, M. F., Fox, A., Knowles, F. & Jeffrey, D. (1996). 'Learning improved by arts training'. Nature, 381,284. 

Galal, S., Vyas, D., Hackett, R. K., Rogan, E., & Nguyen, C. (2021). Effectiveness of Music interventions to reduce Test Anxiety in Pharmacy Students. Pharmacy, 9(1), 10. 

Holmes, S., & Hallam, S. (2017). The impact of participation in music on learning mathematics. London Review of Education, 15(3), 425-438.

Hallam, S., Price, J., & Katsarou, G. (2002). The Effects of Background Music on Primary School Pupils' Task Performance. Educational Studies, 28(2), 111-122. 

Janurik, M., & Krisztian, K. (2022). Long-Term Impacts of Early Musical Abilities on Academic Achievement: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of Intelligence, 10(3), 36. 

Kiss, L., & Linnell, K. J. (2021). The effect of preferred background music on task-focus in sustained attention. Psychol Res. 85(6), 2313-2325. 

Lehmann, J. A. M., & Seufert, T. (2017). The Influence of Background Music on Learning in the Light of Different Theoretical Perspectives and the Role of Working Memory Capacity. Educational Psychology, 8. 

Mayer, R. E. (2005). Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. Cambridge University Press. 

Moreno, S., Bialystok, E., Barac, R., Schellenberg, E. G., Cepeda, N. J., & Chau, T. (2011). Short-term music training enhances verbal intelligence and executive function. Psychological science, 22(11), 1425-1433. 

Rauscher, F. H. & Hinton, S. C. (2011). Music instruction and its diverse extra-musical benefits. Music Perception, 29(2), 215-226. 

Schellenberg, E. G. (2004). Music Lessons Enhance IQ. Psychological Science, 15(8), 511-514. 

Schellenberg, E. G. (2006). Long-Term Positive Associations Between Music Lessons and IQ. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(2), 457-468. 

Standley, J. M., & Hughes, J. E. (1997). Evaluation of an early intervention music curriculum for enhancing prereading/writing skills. Music Therapy Perspectives, 15(2), 79-85. 

Yang, H., Ma, W., Gong, D., Hu, J., & Yao, D. (2014). 'A longitudinal study on children's music training experience and academic development'. Scientific Reports, 4(5854), 1-7.