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Academic music: music instruction to engage third-grade students in learning basic fraction concepts

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Abstract

This study examined the effects of an academic music intervention on conceptual understanding of music notation, fraction symbols, fraction size, and equivalency of third graders from a multicultural, mixed socio-economic public school setting. Students (N = 67) were assigned by class to their general education mathematics program or to receive academic music instruction two times/week, 45 min/session, for 6 weeks. Academic music students used their conceptual understanding of music and fraction concepts to inform their solutions to fraction computation problems. Linear regression and t tests revealed statistically significant differences between experimental and comparison students’ music and fraction concepts, and fraction computation at posttest with large effect sizes. Students who came to instruction with less fraction knowledge responded well to instruction and produced posttest scores similar to their higher achieving peers.

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Notes

  1. The Kodaly method originated in Hungary and stresses that music instruction should begin at an early age when children naturally love music and are freely able to absorb the inherent rhythm and timing. The Kodaly method incorporates a rhythm syllables system in which note values are assigned specific syllables, which literally express their durations. For example, quarter notes are expressed by the syllable “ta” while eighth note pairs are expressed using the naturally shorter syllables “ti-ti.” Larger note values are expressed by extending ta to become ta-a for the half note and ta-a-a-a for the whole note (see Wheeler, 1985).

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  1. San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Susan Joan Courey, Endre Balogh, Jody Rebecca Siker & Jae Paik

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  1. Susan Joan Courey
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Correspondence to Susan Joan Courey.

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Courey, S.J., Balogh, E., Siker, J.R. et al. Academic music: music instruction to engage third-grade students in learning basic fraction concepts. Educ Stud Math 81, 251–278 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-012-9395-9

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