Return to search

Chemistry to Music: Discovering How Music-Based Teaching Affects Academic Achievement and Student Motivation in an 8th Grade Science Class

Teachers should have access to new and innovative tools in order to engage and motivate their students in the classroom. This is especially important as many students view school as an antiquated and dull environment â which they must seemingly suffer through to advance. School need not be a dreaded environment. The use of music as a tool for learning can be employed by any teacher to create an engaging and exciting atmosphere where students actively participate and learn to value their classroom experience. Through this study, a product and process was developed that is now available for any 8th grade science teacher interested in using music to enhance their content. In this study 8th grade students (n=41) in a public school classroom actively interacted with modern songs created to enhance the teaching of chemistry. Data were collected and analyzed in order to determine the effects that the music treatment had on student achievement and motivation, compared to a control group (n=35). Current literature provides a foundation for the benefits for music listening and training, but academic research in the area of using music as a tool for teaching content was noticeably absent. This study identifies a new area of research called âMusic-based Teachingâ which results in increases in motivation for 8th grade students learning chemistry. The unintended results of the study are additionally significant as the teacher conducting the treatment experienced newfound enthusiasm, passion, and excitement for her profession.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-06122008-160544
Date01 August 2008
CreatorsMcCammon, William Lodge
ContributorsHiller Spires, Candy Beal, Carol Pope, Carl Young, Glenda Carter
PublisherNCSU
Source SetsNorth Carolina State University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-06122008-160544/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

Page generated in 0.0023 seconds