Music As An Influential Factor In Learning

Abstract

Music and non-music skills are often traditionally and automatically related, even though conflicting attitudes recur cyclically. Thoughts about how music affects learning, or the academic skills of pupils and students, constitute a chapter of their own. This overview study tries to answer the following research questions: In what psychological context are music and learning currently being investigated?What school subjects (or abilities and skills) are related to music in current research studies and for what purpose? What musical activities (reception, interpretation, production) are frequently researched in relation to learning? The study's objective is to summarise the current results of research into the relationship between music and learning, including a discussion of further possible research topics that could be promising with regard to making the academic learning of pupils and students easier. In the overview study, topics are presented that connect relatively different areas, i.e. learning non-music-related knowledge, abilities or skills, and the various uses of music. There are studies on music as part of the learning environment, on using music to study foreign languages, and on music affecting a person's emotional or social component in order to make learning easier. With regard to the aforementioned, school is a suitable place to apply these findings. To teachers, music offers an interesting opportunity to involve it in their instruction methods; to pupils, it offers an opportunity to use it to increase the effectiveness of their own learning.