Dr Michelle Dickenson: nanotechnologist on new research showing music helps students learn maths better

This week, we are talking maths and music. Want to help your child to be better at maths at school? New research out this week suggests all you need to do is add a little music.  Published in the journal Educational Studies, the researchers analysed almost 50 years of past research which covered 55 different studies involving almost 78,000 students.  They looked at three different ways that musical intervention had been used in maths lessons.  The first was where the lesson was musical itself – students would sing as well as listen to and compose music.  The second used musical instruments in the class where students learned how to play different musical instruments either as individuals or as part of a band.  The third used a music-maths intervention where music was integrated into the maths lesson.  Lastly, a music-maths intervention, in which music was integrated into maths lessons.  To measure the effectiveness of the different approaches, the students took maths tests before and after the intervention and their test scores were compared to students who hadn’t taken part in an intervention.  All three of the interventions resulted in better maths performance of the students over time.  The integrated maths and music lesson has the largest effect with 73 percent of these students doing significantly better than students who had no musical intervention.  69 percent of the students who learned to play a musical instrument improved in their maths abilities compared to students who didn’t learn one.  The study found that the music effect was especially beneficial on younger children who were learning basic arithmetic.  Music is highly mathematical and the researchers hypothesised that adding music to a maths lesson makes the subject more enjoyable, helps to keep the students engaged for longer and can help to reduce any anxiety they have around the subject.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.