General attainment

General attainment

Most of the research examining the relationship between general achievement and active engagement with music has been based on correlations. Evidence from the USA has shown that students who participate in music education do better than their peers on many measures of academic achievement. Using data relating to over 13,000 students from the National Centre for Educational Statistics, Morrison (1994) reported that high school students who participated in music reported higher grades in English, math, history, and science than those who did not participate. Johnson and Memmott (2006) studied 4,739 elementary and middle school students in 4 regions of the USA and revealed a strong relationship between elementary (3rd and 4th grade) students’ academic achievement as measured by test scores and their participation in high-quality music programmes. Similar effects were found by Trent (1996) and Cararelli (2003), although Schneider and Klotz (2000) comparing enrolment in music performance classes or athletic extracurricular activities and academic achievement found that all groups were equivalent in the 5 th and 6th grade but during the 7th, 8th and 9th grades the musicians achieved significantly higher academic achievement scores than the athletes but not than the non-participant controls. Several literature reviews support the overall trend of these findings (see Arnett-Gary, 1998; Shobo, 2001; Yoon, 2000) and Hodges and O’Connell (2007) further point out that being excused from non-music classes to attend instrumental lessons does not adversely affect academic performance.

One of the difficulties with this research, however, is that participating in musical activities may be related to other factors which promote academic attainment, for instance, having supportive parents and a home environment conducive to studying. A recent study, adopting more complex and sensitive statistical modelling (Southgate and Roscigno, 2009) using national data sets was able to overcome the difficulties experienced by early correlational 15 studies. Three measures of music participation were used: in school, outside school and parental involvement in the form of concert attendance. Two nationally representative data sources ECLS-K (20,000 US kindergarten students) and NELS:88 (25,000 adolescents) were used. Music involvement was found to vary systematically by class and gender status, and such involvement had implications for both mathematics and reading achievement and for young children and adolescents. However, associations between music and achievement persisted even when prior achievement was taken into account. There was evidence of social class variation in within-school music involvement in adolescents but not in early childhood, while the effects of class on parental music involvement were strong and consistent in both samples. Southgate and Roscigno suggested that this was likely to be related to resource issues. As a mediator of educational outcomes music involvement was significant for both mathematics and reading achievement. It generally increased achievement levels although gains were not distributed equally among all students, a white student advantage existed. This may relate to the type of musical activity engaged in and the opportunities afforded the students for performance which may contribute to enhanced self-esteem and increased motivation.

Of the experimental studies that have been carried out on the effects of participation in music on general attainment, two indicated a positive effect (Barr et al., 2002; Hoffman, 1995), while Hines (2000), studying students with learning difficulties from kindergarten through to 9 th grade found neither reading or mathematics achievement were affected by type of music instruction, motoric or non-motoric. Legette (1993) also found no effect of music instruction. Overall academic attainment depends on the development of literacy and numeracy skills which have been discussed earlier. Motivation is also crucial in how well children perform at school. Motivation is closely linked to self-perceptions of ability, self-efficacy and aspirations (Hallam, 2005). If active engagement with music increases positive perceptions of self, this may transfer to other areas of study and increase motivation to persist. This may account for some of the conflicting evidence relating to general attainment and will be discussed later