Music in Education | Grace Carrasco | TEDxClassicalAcademyHS

Summary

Grace Carrasco discusses the profound impact of music in early education and questions why its integration wanes as students grow older. In her TEDx talk, she explores how music aids in memory, reduces stress, and enhances learning across various subjects. She emphasizes the Mozart and Vivaldi effects, which demonstrate music's ability to improve cognitive functions and boost concentration. Carrasco advocates for a renewed focus on music in education, highlighting its potential to make learning more engaging and effective at all levels.

Highlights

• Remember the ABC song? Music's power sticks with us from preschool and enhances learning! 🎶
• Why drop music as students get older? It's beneficial throughout the education journey. 🚀
• Music helps with memorization and mood, crucial for tackling high school stress! 😌
• Math and music are surprisingly related; both engage the left side of the brain. 🧠
• Language learning can be boosted with rhythm training, improving language skills. 🌍

Key Takeaways

• Music is a powerful tool for learning, enhancing memorization and improving cognitive skills. 🎵
• The Mozart Effect and Vivaldi Effect show that music can boost concentration and intelligence. 🎶
• Incorporating music in education can make subjects like math and language more engaging and effective. 🎼
• Music can reduce stress, boost moods, and create a more fun learning environment. 😊
• Using music as a background can help maintain student interest and well-being in the classroom. 📚

Overview

Grace Carrasco's TEDx talk spotlights the enduring influence of music from our childhood education and questions why it fades in later schooling years. Music's role in enhancing memory and cognitive abilities is emphasized with examples like the ABC song and the Mozart Effect. Carrasco passionately argues for the continuous inclusion of music in various subjects as students progress in their education journey.

In the detailed exploration, Carrasco notes the psychological benefits music offers, especially during stressful educational years. She references studies showing the positive effects of background music on attention and mood, highlighting how both the Mozart and Vivaldi effects have been supported by research to improve cognitive tasks and overall intelligence. By understanding these effects, educators can rethink how to use music beyond elementary levels.

Carrasco suggests practical applications of music in subjects such as math, where rhythmic patterns mirror mathematical concepts, and in language learning, where rhythm aids in absorbing new syntax and phonetics. She calls for a creative approach to integrating music into higher education to boost learning efficiency and to foster an enjoyable, stress-reducing educational environment.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to the Role of Music in Early Education This chapter introduces the role of music in early education by recalling commonly known children's songs such as the 'ABC' song, multiplication table songs, and Barney's 'cleanup' song. It highlights how these songs, learned at a young age, have a lasting impact, staying with us even as other childhood memories fade, such as the appearance of kindergarten classrooms.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Benefits and Underutilization of Music in Later Education The chapter discusses the benefits and underutilization of music in later stages of education. It highlights how music aids learning by improving memorization and math skills. It questions why music, which is heavily utilized in early education, is not continued in middle, high school, or college education. Possible reasons such as older students' perceptions of being 'too cool' are considered.
• 01:00 - 01:30: The Cognitive Impact of Music on the Brain This chapter explores the Cognitive Impact of Music on the Brain, highlighting the ways in which music contributes to early education and influences learning. It questions the attitudes of older students towards learning through music and suggests that music is foundational, helping build core learning experiences. Additionally, the chapter touches on the benefits of listening to background music while engaging in activities like writing.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Music's Role in Enhancing Memory and Attention The chapter explores the beneficial role of music in learning and education. It questions why music's role diminishes as students age and examines ways to incorporate music in education for older students. It also considers the effects of music on the brain and its potential to enhance memory and attention, recognizing memory as a key indicator of intellect.
• 02:30 - 04:00: Scientific Effects of Music: Mozart and Vivaldi The chapter explores the impact of music, specifically Mozart and Vivaldi, on scientific aspects such as memory retention and cognitive enhancement. It emphasizes the role of repetition in memorization, arguing that repeated exposure to information strengthens neural connections, thus improving memory retention. The chapter also highlights the necessity of attention in this process.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Music in Elementary Education The chapter discusses the role of music in enhancing education for elementary students. It emphasizes that merely concentrating on study materials without proper attention span can be unproductive, especially when stress is involved. The chapter highlights how music can play a critical role in reducing stress, thereby increasing both attention and mood. This improvement in mood and attention makes it more likely for students to be willing to learn and absorb information effectively.
• 05:00 - 06:30: Incorporating Music into Math Education The chapter discusses the incorporation of music into math education, particularly focusing on the effects of classical music on cognitive abilities. It highlights two main phenomena: the Mozart Effect and the Vivaldi Effect. The Mozart Effect suggests that listening to Mozart can potentially enhance cognitive abilities, either directly or indirectly through task-solving improvements. The Vivaldi Effect, on the other hand, indicates that listening to Vivaldi's 'Spring', known for its happy and joyous movement, can significantly boost attention and memory. This demonstrates the positive impact that upbeat music can have on cognitive functions.
• 06:30 - 08:00: Music's Potential in Language Arts Elementary school educators often use music in instruction as it helps young children, who haven't yet developed learning skills, to learn effectively. Through repetition in music, kids can quickly grasp information like the ABCs. Additionally, music's uplifting nature enhances mood and creates an engaging learning environment. This section explores ways to integrate music into various educational subjects.
• 08:00 - 10:00: Rhythms in Learning Foreign Languages The chapter explores the connection between mathematics and music, emphasizing the inherent mathematical nature of music. It explains how rhythms, time signatures, tempos, pitches, and notes are mathematical proportions. Understanding music can enhance one's mathematical skills.
• 10:00 - 11:30: Emotional and Community Benefits of Music in Education The chapter discusses the cognitive and educational benefits of incorporating music into education. It highlights how music engages the left side of the brain, similar to math, and can help students develop problem-solving skills. While some students may find it challenging to read while listening to music, music can still be effectively integrated into language arts. For instance, songwriting can be used as an English assignment, helping students improve their creative writing and linguistic abilities. Overall, music in education can foster emotional and community benefits by enhancing cognitive pathways and offering creative outlets for expression.

Music in Education | Grace Carrasco | TEDxClassicalAcademyHS Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] how many of you here remember the abc song what about the tunes for the multiplication tables or even the cleanup song from barney all of these songs we learned at a young age and they still stick with us today even if we don't remember what our kindergarten classrooms look like their
• 00:30 - 01:00 purpose being to help us learn these new things and begin our education in preschool and younger elementary school we learn through songs and rhythms the songs i mentioned being a prime example of this music has a ton of benefits to the human brain and learning including memorization and improved math skills so why don't we continue to use music as a way of learning in later years of education is it because middle and high schoolers or even college students think they're too cool to listen about to songs about the phases of mitosis
• 01:00 - 01:30 or the first 25 presidents i don't think so because if you were in my seventh grade spanish class you'd remember how cool senior wooly or bosho and friends were is it because of this idea that older kids think they're too cool to learn via songs which then discourages people from creating them in the first place and while it's more common even listening to background music has its benefits i was listening to music while writing this music is fundamental to our core early education it created our base for us to build our learning upon
• 01:30 - 02:00 why is music so beneficial to how we learn and why don't we continue to use it more as we get older instead of less and in the same way how can we continue to incorporate music into education as students get older and sing song abcs isn't that captivating anymore well to answer this we have to understand how one learns in general and how music can help with that let's go over the effect music has on our brains in education someone's memory is a large indicator of their intellect how much you can remember from the test whether
• 02:00 - 02:30 you actually retain that information after class is over etcetera memory memorization is best achieved through repetition the information you're taking in is transformed into electrical impulses that travel through the synapses brains and synapses in the brain's neurons the more you repeat the information the more likely it is that it'll stick in your brain as you strengthen those connections between neurons in order to do this however you have to have a high level of attention but there's a difference between attention
• 02:30 - 03:00 and concentration staring and concentrating on your page of notes for an hour isn't going to help you if you don't have any attention span to absorb it when you're stressed as the majority of high schoolers are your brain is disconcerted and distracted and it's more difficult to reach that level of attention needed this is where music comes in depending on the kind of music listening to it can not only decrease stress by not boost not only boosting your attention but also by boosting your mood which makes you more likely to want to learn and absorb that information
• 03:00 - 03:30 there's two effects that have been proven to tested to prove this phenomenon the mozart effect and the vivaldi effect the mozart effect has proven that listening to mozart can improve a subject's ability to solve a task or have no effect at all but still enhance cognitive abilities in the vivaldi effect it was found that spring the most happy and joyous movement in the four seasons also had the most success in boosting attention and memory showing the benefit that upbeat music can have on cognitive
• 03:30 - 04:00 abilities this also explains why elementary school teachers incorporate so much music into learning younger kids don't know how to learn per se and through the repetition that can come through music they can learn things like their abcs much much quicker in addition they get to listen to a fun upbeat song that boosts their mood and creates a more fun atmosphere that makes them want to continue learning so now that we have a base of how music benefits our learning how can we incorporate music into certain subjects
• 04:00 - 04:30 let's start with math there is a well-known correlation between math and music that's because music fundamentally is math and physics but that's that's a lot more complicated think about it there are rhythms and time signatures and tempos and even pitches and notes themselves are all proportions to each other for example two eighth notes plus two eighth notes is a half note a base understanding of music can greatly benefit a base of math now as students get older they already
• 04:30 - 05:00 have their base of math but the two are similar both are correlated with the left side of your brain so while a student listens to music they're working that side of the brain and it could help them create more pathways and see patterns and more complicated math problems what about language arts and reading personally i can't listen to music while trying to read and comprehend what a text is saying at the same time but there's many other ways music can be incorporated in the subject for example songwriting as an english assignment can not only boost students
• 05:00 - 05:30 excitement about a project but also incorporate and develop their creativity while practicing concepts like rhyming or what if you were to use a song as a writing prompt and have students take the mood or lyrics as a starting point for a quick write or you can use songs as a form of literary analysis whether that be through actually looking through lyrics as poetry or by listening and looking through the lyrics of a specific song for the elements of analysis the possibilities are endless finally what about foreign languages if
• 05:30 - 06:00 you've ever heard someone speak another language you notice how they speak in a fundamentally different way than you do for example native spanish speakers speak in a much faster rhythm and tempo than the typical san diegan casual hey how are you doing today there's a rhythm associated with every language and in the same sense if a student studies a new language with a certain rhythm in mind or practices speaking another language to a metronome which is this beautiful box that clicks at a constant tempo they're much more likely to learn and
• 06:00 - 06:30 absorb it much better by learning the rhythm associated with a certain language it helps set a base from which you can recognize patterns within the language quicker helping further process new information this was seen in a study by northwestern university where high school students were asked to tap along to a metronome while they measured the brain response to a syllable at the same time the results found that the more accurate the beat tapping was the more consistent the syllable response was showing consistency that's linked to improved language skills in other words rhythms
• 06:30 - 07:00 can help with consistency and further understanding of a new language it's well known that music can impact our moods when we're sad we listen to sad music to make us more sad or how listening to upbeat happy music makes us feel good but needless to say all kinds of music have different effects on us and by incorporating it into a upper school setting it can not only impact learning but also help create a better atmosphere and build community through these connections while incorporating music into how we
• 07:00 - 07:30 actually learn and into our curriculum can be rather daunting just using it as a backtrack whether that be while students are working or as they come into class is a step in that direction and can be built on from there we should continue to consider the benefits of incorporating music more into learning and perhaps one day we can have more than just background music thank you