Long-Term Impacts of Early Musical Abilities on Academic Achievement: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Numerous neurological, psychological, and transfer studies confirmed the role of learning music in cognitive development and education. However, exploring the long-term impacts of early musical abilities on academic achievement has gained relatively little attention thus far. In a seven-year longitudinal study, we examined the predictive role of musical abilities in future success in school. The sample consisted of 76 Hungarian students. The independent variables were mothers’ education and the tests administered to Grade-1 students, which included Raven’s Progressive Matrices and tests on word reading, mathematics, and musical abilities. The dependent variable was GPA in Grade 7. All tests demonstrated adequate reliability. In the regression model with the most significant predictive role, the independent variables explained 46% of GPA in Grade 7 when taken together. We established the long-term predictive role of musical abilities in later success in school. Rhythm perception and reproduction demonstrated the most significant explanatory power (11%) of variance for GPA. Mathematics and mothers’ education each explained 10% of the variance. The findings shed light on the positive impacts that early musical training may play in later academic achievement, even in the long run.

Özel Eğitim ve Müzik Eğitimi Öğretim Elemanlarının Müzik ve Oyun Dersine İlişkin Görüşleri

“…Modern eğitim sistemi içerisinde müzik öğrencilere disiplin ve sorumluluk kazandırarak derslere aktif bir şekilde katılmayı teşvik etmekte (Rusli, 2023), temel ve akademik (Campbell, 2021;Hallam, Creech, & McQueen, 2018;Janurik, & Józsa 2022) becerilerinin geliştirilmesine yardımcı olmaktadır. Akademisyen görüşleri kapsamında araştırma sonucunda yaygın gelişimsel bozuklukları olan öğrencilerin; müzik ve oyun etkinliklerinden çok keyif aldıkları, oyun ve müzik etkinliklerinde kazandıkları bilgi ve becerilerin öğrencileri sonraki hayatlarına hazırladığı, bu etkinliklerin öğrencilerin paylaşma duygusunu tetikleyerek ve beraber etkinlik yapmaya yönlendirerek sosyalleşmelerini sağladığı sonuçlarına ulaşılmıştır.…”

“…Eğitimin her boyutunda yer alan öğrenme alanlarından biri olan müzik eğitimi, normal gelişim gösteren çocuklar kadar yaygın gelişimsel bozukluğu olan ve özel eğitim gereksinimi olan çocukların eğitimini destekleyen nitelikler barındırmakta ve kişilik gelişiminde önemli bir yer tutmaktadır (ÖEHY, 2018). Müzik eğitimi aynı zamanda yeni bilgiler ve kavramların öğretilmesine (Archontopoulou & Vaiouli 2020;Lee & Lin, 2023;Campbell, 2021;Çadır, 2008;Hallam, Creech, & McQueen, 2018;Janurik, & Józsa 2022;Önal, 2010;Eren, Deniz & Düzkantar, 2013;Ünal, Ece & Yıkmış, 2016;Yıkmış, Terzioğlu, Kot & Aktaş, 2017Yılma & Uçan, 2014), çocuğun çevresi ile ilişki kurarak sosyalleşmesine (Kern, Woley & Aldridge, 2006;Kossyvaki, 2020;Saldana, 2016;Yılmaz, Topaloğlu, & Akyüzlüer, 2014;Yoon, 2021), problem davranışlarının azaltılmasına (Gökmen, 2010;Yükselsin & Berrakçay, 2010), psikomotor becerilerin artırılmasına (Nacakçı & Dalkıran, 2016;Kara, 2019)…”

The Relationship Between Participation in Different Music Programs and Academic Achievement

“…To further investigate how these experiences affect students, Márta Janurik and Kriaztián Józsa (2022) analyzed academic abilities, musical aptitude, and intelligence of students engaged in after-school music programs. They found that musical abilities were associated with cognitive benefits that proved to be key predictors of GPA (Janurik, 2022). This is because the development of music abilities is a complex activity that requires persistence, decoding of patterns, motor coordination, and familiarization with musical structures (Janurik, 2022).…”

“…They found that musical abilities were associated with cognitive benefits that proved to be key predictors of GPA (Janurik, 2022). This is because the development of music abilities is a complex activity that requires persistence, decoding of patterns, motor coordination, and familiarization with musical structures (Janurik, 2022). The nature of learning a new skill in a collaborative environment allows students to have increased cognitive benefits such as persistence and motivation that allow for increased AcaAchieve.…”

“…For instance, when Southgate and Roscigno (2009) studied the impact of music on adolescent achievement, participants were selected from all general music courses. This same selection was also used by Morrison (1994), Janurik and Józsa (2022), and various other research studies. The gap in this research is characterized as a "Knowledge Gap" because this type of gap pertains to research in which the findings have not been discovered and research does not yet exist on the correlations of specific music courses and student success (Miles, 2017, p. 5).…”