The United States pays a lot of attention to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and in order to remain competitive in a globalized economy, local educational institutions are constantly looking for new ways to improve the effectiveness of teaching science to students.
Researchers Katie Davis and Greg Crowther of the University of Washington believe that music can help some students master new topics. They studied how music videos help students develop an understanding of science, writes PhysOrg. The work of scientists will be presented on April 4 at the annual conference of the American Research and Teaching Association.
Davis and Crowther view music not only as a mnemonic device that helps to remember large amounts of information. Previous studies have shown that music contributes to stress relief and enhances student participation in the learning process. This gave scholars the basis for suggesting that music videos could help some students better assimilate information.
We should not teach all children with the same brush; we must apply an individual approach. It is necessary to provide several initial points of training for all subjects. Music also opens the door to science, says Davis, a senior lecturer at the School of Information Technology at Washington University.
Crowther is a biologist by training, but his passion for music has grown into something more. 10 years ago he created a website with songs that are related to science and mathematics. To date, his collection has more than 7,000 songs (many of them are not accompanied by video). Anyone can find there music related to the subjects studied at school.
The study involved people from 3 to 76 years. The average age of the subjects was 12 years. Before each of them they installed a laptop and offered to watch a funny colorful video on the chosen scientific topic. Previously, they were asked a few questions on the topic and one control, not related to the video, and then asked to assess the confidence in their answers. The same was done after watching the training videos.
As a result, the maximum number of correct answers was given by 2/3 of the subjects (10 out of 15 people). Participants improved their scores not only on issues based on facts, but also on far more complex issues that require an understanding of the topic. This proves that thematic videos help to understand the scientific material, and not just to memorize it.
The study proves that students learn better if they use an individual approach to learning, tied to the visual and sound perception of information. Scientists also note that emotions affect memory. Since music has an emotional impact on a person, it helps improve memory.
We do not claim that this is the only method of study, it is just another. But we hope that it will help students improve their scientific knowledge, ”Davis concluded.
In recent years, more and more American schools are introducing standards involving the use of tablets with educational programs. This is because interactive mobile apps really help students learn better.
The article is based on materials .
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