Content Description
- Music Education in Adolescence- A Pathway to Entrepreneurial Ability?
- Cognitive and Academic Benefits of Instrumental Musical Training in Childhood and Adolescence
- Pleasurable Music Affects Reinforcement Learning and Reward-based Decision Making
- The Science of Music and Productivity
- Do Bad Students Really Make the Best Stars?
1. Working Hypothesis 1
With proven effects on development, productivity, and reinforcement learning in therapy and education, Music Education as a core curriculum subject is essential in positively influencing students’ academic success and psychological well-being.
1a. Working Hypothesis 2
Even with noteworthy benefits in regards to cognitive-ability, Music Education, and the arts in general, don’t receive enough support and funding in order to allow such programs to positively influence the academic success and psychological well-being of students.
“Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has condemned the removal of music education from schools as ‘child abuse’ – and he’s recalled how discovering his own love of music led him out of a life of ‘trouble.'”
Martinkielty. (2017, August 15). Flea compares cutting music education to ‘Child abuse’. Diffuser.fm.
Link: https://diffuser.fm/flea-music-education/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral
2. Five Academic Sources
1.)
Music education in adolescence – journals.sagepub.com.
Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09504222211042282
It seems counterintuitive that music education in childhood and adolescence can aid in “planting the seed” for entrepreneurial ability in adulthood. Although when looking at the “learning transfer” of music education to entrepreneurial education, there are clear similarities in how one develops an “entrepreneurial identity”.
Characteristics of an entrepreneurial identity include creativity, proactivity, flexibility, the ability to generate new ideas, and the competency to make them happen. Similarly, music education is know to develop adaptability and openness to new possibilities, among other entrepreneurial characteristics.
The creativity, sensory memory, and ability to work with others that music education develops also has a lot in common with the qualities of entrepreneurial individuals. Music education is an emotionally intensive activity while at the same time being focused on discipline, regular practice, and even accountability to peers. Similarly, any entrepreneurial project is very focused on being passion-driven while requiring time investments and a conscious commitment to the task at hand. The ability to create and work in teams is also a distinct characteristic of entrepreneurs.
Making music is, essentially, creating something that didn’t previously exist. Similarly, entrepreneurship is often defined as the “creation of something from nothing. There is a clear value of creation that unites them both.
“The study finds that both ME and EE received in adolescence are related to entrepreneurial identity in adulthood. However, it is the extra-curricular ME, taken in addition to the secondary school curriculum, that makes the difference and moderates the relationship between EE and identity. The findings contribute to expanding the identity development discourse in the entrepreneurship literature and bring novel insights to EE research by highlighting extra-curricular ME as a potential alternative pathway to entrepreneurial identity development.“
2.)
Román-Caballero, R., Vadillo, M. A., Trainor, L. J., & Lupiáñez, J. (2022, January 25). Please don’t stop the music: A meta-analysis of the cognitive and academic benefits of instrumental musical training in childhood and adolescence. Educational Research Review.
Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X22000057
It seems counterintuitive that learning to play a musical instrument can have a noteworthy impact on cognitive skills and academic achievements in childhood and adolescence. Multiple studies have proven that musical activities can enhance auditory and sensorimotor process. Although, weather or not musical training affects general cognitive ability is still debated.
Playing an instrument is a complex task that requires perceptual modalities, sensorimotor integration, and higher-order cognitive processes. Its an activity that requires effort, commitment, regular and motivated practice, learning progressively more difficult material, and adapting to different circumstances. This leads to the proposal that musical training is an optimal general cognitive training strategy that could have an impact beyond musical performance itself, in performance of daily life activities.
Initiating oneself in learning an instrument seems to reap the most benefits in regards to cognitive ability and academic performance. The findings of a study on children and adolescence that participated in a short-term musical program showed a “nature and nurture” approach to the relationship between instrumental training and cognitive skill. Basically meaning that the foundational skills learned in instrumental training transferred over small but significant benefits in cognitive skill.
Although, it could be said that high-functioning children with a higher musical aptitude, higher socioeconomic status, and more openness to new experiences may be more likely to become interested in music and take lessons. Or maybe some people are simply just better at committing to the continued effort that mastering an instrument requires. Ultimately, in the end, music traditions are strongly linked to other adaptive purposes like social bonding. Therefore it seems most reasonable to assume that the main functions and skills involved in musical activities are far from cognitive enhancement.
“Playing an instrument is a complex task involving several perceptual modalities, sensorimotor integration, and higher-order cognitive processes. Moreover, structured instrumental learning is an effortful activity that needs to be maintained across long periods of time; it requires regular and motivated practice, learning of new and progressively more difficult material, and adapting to new contexts. Those characteristics have led some to propose that musical training is an optimal general cognitive training strategy that might have an impact beyond music performance itself, benefiting performance in daily life activities (e.g., Bugos et al., 2007).”
“although all types of musical training aim to promote musical skills (e.g., rhythm, pitch and timbre discrimination, singing, basic music notation, etc.), learning to play an instrument seems to pose greater cognitive demands than other musical activities, as it requires particularly intensive practice entailing hand dexterity, bimanual coordination, and core cognitive functions such as working memory and attention. For that reason, far transfer might be more probable with instrumental learning.”
3.)
Gold, B. P., Frank, M. J., Bogert, B., & Brattico, E. (1AD, January 1). Pleasurable music affects reinforcement learning according to the listener. Frontiers.
Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00541/full
It seems counterintuitive that listening to pleasurable music, rather than neural music, can have many positive affects on reinforcement learning and reward-based decision making in music therapy and education.
Dopamine release plays a major role in the rewarding aspect of music. In certain studies, it has been shown that people with greater dopamine efficacy learn better to approach rewards. Those with lesser dopamine efficacy instead learn better to avoid punishments. In this specific study, it is also shown that accuracy and response-time is notably increased in a subject listening to pleasurable music rather than neural music.
Musical pleasure has the ability to influence task performance, which could have many implications within neuroscience, neuroaesthetics, learning, and musical therapy. It also offers an ecological and dynamic approach to investigating reward-based decision making in many practical applications in education and therapy. Parkinson’s disease represents a particularly promising avenue for future research on musical pleasure, as music therapy has already shown to improve motor and cognitive ability.
Music is intensely important and pleasurable to many people. With further investigation into how musical pleasure can affect reinforcement learning, its influence could lend itself to many applications in education and therapy.
4.)
Kemmis, S. (2019, April 11). The Science of Music and Productivity. Zapier.
Link: https://zapier.com/blog/music-and-productivity/
It seems counterintuitive that a shown increase in productivity when listening to music is simply “just because” music makes people happy. Music has been proven to aid cognitive performance and work productivity. Ultimately, putting on a good song for the moment can help anyone stay focused and productive.
Relating back to the previous article on musical pleasure, by associating a reward behavior like music with a desirable outcome like getting work done, you train your rain to associate positive behavior with hormonal reward (dopamine release). In this specific study, a significant increase in mood, quality of work, concentration, and productivity was shown while listening to music. Adversely, listening to music you already know or to what can be defined as “catchy pop music” is shown to decrease performance.
Counterintuitively, musicians are always analyzing what they’re hearing so rather than listening to music, ambient sound can be used to take away the distracting elements of music. Background noise is shown to have an increased effect on productivity when performing creative tasks. Nature sounds can reduce stress as well as increase productivity. Ultimately, listening to the right music at the right time can help you stay focused and productive
5.)
Cyber PR on 12/08/2015 in D.I.Y. | Permalink | Comments (0). (2015, December 8). Music education: Do bad students really make the best stars? Hypebot.
Link: https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2015/12/do-bad-students-really-make-the-best-stars.html
It seems counterintuitive that being loud, outspoken, and rebellious is what always seems make a successful artist when it’s also what makes an unsuccessful student. It seems to most aspiring artists that more success can come from breaking the law rather than sticking to it.
In reality though, education status doesn’t define or influence success. Schools don’t make successful people, they merely provide opportunities and it is the student’s decision to grab those opportunities. Once ambition meets those opportunities, many great things can happen.
Ultimately, someone’s journey to success can’t be defined by if they chose education or not. The person that decides not to move forward, stays in one place, and who’s experiences never change, is ultimately the lesser artist than the one who seeks opportunity. Education doesn’t make you a better artist, it just makes you different. Your art is only as strong as your experiences and how you decide to interpret and project those unique experiences.
“An obedient student with no ambition is almost as pointless as a dropout with no ambition.” (Hockley, 2018)
6.)
Link: https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/courses/1314F/FYSE/FYSE-111-1314F
7.)
Link: https://www.brainbalancecenters.com/blog/correlation-between-math-and-music-ability
8.)
9.)
10.)
Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3333636
11.)
12.)
Link: https://thevault.musicarts.com/benefits-music-education/
13.)
Link: https://doi.org/10.2979/pme.2008.16.1.61
3. Topics for Smaller Papers
(Definition/Classification Argument)
Explain How a Term or Category is Understood or Misunderstood, Used or Misused, how Related things differ, or how Unrelated things are similar
The similarities between music and entrepreneurship, in regards to the value of creativity and ‘creating something out of nothing’, gives effective reason for why music education should be given during childhood and adolescence.
Link: (PS#1) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09504222211042282
“Abstract
This study examines the relationship of music education (ME) and entrepreneurship education (EE) received during adolescence with the entrepreneurial identities of university students. Researching adolescent ME alongside EE as a potential enabler of entrepreneurial identity is crucial to understanding the complementarities between ME and EE and so developing knowledge of what kinds of education may contribute to entrepreneurial identity formation. It might also be useful to consider these research insights when developing educational interventions for adolescents. The analysis is based on a sample of 190 Bachelor’s-level students from different study backgrounds (business, arts and humanities, etc.) surveyed in one European country. The study finds that both ME and EE received in adolescence are related to entrepreneurial identity in adulthood. However, it is the extra-curricular ME, taken in addition to the secondary school curriculum, that makes the difference and moderates the relationship between EE and identity. The findings contribute to expanding the identity development discourse in the entrepreneurship literature and bring novel insights to EE research by highlighting extra-curricular ME as a potential alternative pathway to entrepreneurial identity development. On a more general level, the study provides an input into the adolescent education literature and learning transfer in education research.“
(Cause/Effect Argument)
Explore a Causal Relationship Essential to your research
The causal role of musical education on cognitive ability and academic performance.
Link: (PS#1) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09504222211042282
“The results of the regression models find positive, significant marginal effects of ME on the strength of entrepreneurial identity, confirmed by the robustness checks against other types of activities like sports and performing arts, thus suggesting a likely causal relationship.”
(Rebuttal Argument)
Reveal a Counterargument to be flawed
“Music is just NOISE”
4. Current State of the Research Paper
Looking at the short arguments that I have done so far, I feel quite confident that I have a strong research paper ahead of me. Combining elements of all of these short arguments covers aspects of the topic of music education thoroughly from multiple perspectives.
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Counterintuitive Fall 2022 
1. I like that clever similarity between creating music and entrepreneurship.
2. For the time, I’m going to question the logic of this causal claim, but it’s worth pursuing: “This leads to the proposal that musical training is an optimal general cognitive training strategy that could have an impact beyond musical performance itself, in performance of daily life activities.” It might be just as likely that those with the skill and concentration to learn a musical instrument are just naturally ALSO suited to other pursuits that require the same attributes.
3. Need to know more about the causal mechanics of this theory too. I get that music appreciation can release dopamine, but does that mean that studying WHILE listening to music is enhanced because the body is already being rewarded by the LISTENING not by the LEARNING? Not sure I understand what the data show.
4. It seems 4 may be an answer to my question about 3. Does it make sense to you?
5. I don’t know. I’d like to agree that “Education doesn’t make you a better artist, it just makes you different,” but so much of education appears to be an attempt to make students the same.
Be grateful that the areas of study you’re investigating are still being debated, OhSo. If everything had been reduced to “common knowledge,” you might not have the chance to help shape the conversation.
2. That’s the sort of argument I’m trying to make with this source. Although, the claim does focus more broadly on the general impact of playing an instrument and how the skills can transfer to other aspects of learning. The distinction between how the effects of someone who willingly chooses to play an instrument versus unwillingly is still quite unclear to me through my research though. It is clear that someone who decides to learn music for themselves is more likely to be naturally suited in other aspects of learning and cognitive function.
3&4. 4 is the answer to 3, put simply. The reward aspects of listening to music are in fact at play only while actively listening. The study of article 3 focuses on how actively listening affects learning and brain function. The reward doesn’t come from the learning, but intertwining the listening and learning can aid in making a connection between the enjoyment of listening to music thus affecting the approach and enjoyment of the learning.
I’m still questioning if all of this could just be boiled down to “common knowledge”. It’s evident that many of these topics are up for debate but it seems so cliche to say, when put in broad terms, that “music makes you ‘better'”.
What intrigues me most about what you’ve said so far is the side comment about those who “decide to learn music for themselves.” I wonder if a claim could be made that for students not innately drawn to the study of music or at least close, active listening, music education as part of the curriculum could be a big waste of time, BUT THAT for those who show an aptitude and desire (for whom practicing, say, is a pleasure), denying them access to music education and curricular support is child abuse or at least neglect. Especially if, as you suggest, learning of non-music subjects is enhanced by actively listening while studying, every effort should be made to nurture that aspect of the student’s learning that produces the best results.