[lbo-talk] the Mozart Effect, and other textual extrapolations

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Sat Jun 18 13:10:52 PDT 2005



>[lbo-talk] the Mozart Effect, and other textual extrapolations
>Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
>Wed Jun 15 19:46:37 PDT 2005
<snip>
>Financial Times - June 15, 2005
>
>Mozart and management: why companies fall for myths
>By Michael Skapinker
<snip>
>Where did the classical music and babies story come from? In 1993,
>the journal Nature published a study which showed that college
>students (not babies) who listened to a Mozart sonata for 10
>minutes increased their performance on a subsequent spatial
>intelligence test. This became known as the "Mozart effect".
>
>Subsequent studies produced mixed results. In 1999, an analysis of
>16 such studies, published once again in Nature, concluded that the
>overall effect of playing music on spatial intelligence was
>negligible.

Here's an executive summary of meta-analyses:

<blockquote>REAP: Reviewing Education and the Arts Project Zero's project REAP (Reviewing Education and the Arts Project) was supported by The Bauman Foundation.

The Arts and Academic Achievement: What the Evidence Shows Executive Summary

Full Set of Articles Published in The Journal of Aesthetic Education University of Illinois Press Volume 34, nos. 3/4, Fall/Winter, 2000 Guest Editors: Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

REAP conducted a comprehensive search for all studies from 1950-1999 (published and unpublished, and appearing in English) that have tested the claim that studying the arts leads to some form of academic improvement. Searches turned up 11,467 articles, books, theses, conference presentations, technical reports, unpublished papers, and unpublished data. Irrelevant reports were then weeded out, along with advocacy pieces and program descriptions lacking an empirical test. One hundred eighty-eight reports investigating the relationship between one or more arts areas to one or more academic areas were retained.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Three areas were found in which a substantial number of studies have demonstrated a clear causal link between education in an art form and achievement in a non-arts, academic area. The effect sizes found in these three areas ranged from small to large. Although small or medium differences may seem trivial, they may in fact turn out to be of practical importance. For instance, the relationship between taking an aspirin a day and reduction of heart attack risk is only r = .03! Thus when judging the value of any intervention, we must attend not only to the size of the effect but also to the importance of the outcome compared to the cost of the intervention in effort and dollars. If a small effect size is due to scores on standardized tests of mathematics increasing an average of 3 points, that seems of little consequence. However, if a small effect size is due to even a few children staying in school as opposed to dropping out, that is of great consequence.

We found three areas in which clear causal links could be demonstrated. However, in seven other areas no reliable causal link was found. . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Three Areas Where Reliable Causal Links Were Found

Listening to Music and Spatial-Temporal Reasoning

Based on 26 reports (36 effect sizes), a medium-sized causal relationship was found between listening to music and temporary improvement in spatial-temporal reasoning. However, there was wide variation in the studies, with some showing the effect clearly and many not showing the effect at all. Moreover, the existing research does not reveal conclusively why listening to music affects spatial-temporal thinking. For education, such a finding has little importance, since it is temporary and not consistently found. Scientifically, however, this finding is of interest because it suggests that music and spatial reasoning are related psychologically and perhaps neurologically as well. Further research is needed to understand the mechanism by which certain types of music influence spatial skills.

Learning to Play Music and Spatial Reasoning

Based on 19 reports (29 effect sizes), a large causal relationship was found between learning to make music and spatial-temporal reasoning. The effect was greater when standard music notation was learned as well, but even without notation the effect was large. The value for education is greater here, since the effect works equally for both general and at risk populations, costs little since it is based on standard music curricula, and influences many students (69 of every 100, 3-to-12 year old students). Of course we must still determine the value of improved spatial skills for success in school. Spatial skills might or might not be of benefit to students, depending on how subjects are taught. For example, mathematics or geography might be taught spatially, and if they are, then students with strong spatial abilities should have an advantage in these subjects. Sadly, many schools offer few chances to apply spatial abilities.

Classroom Drama and Verbal Skills

Based on 80 reports (107 effect sizes), a causal link was found between classroom drama (enacting texts) and a variety of verbal areas. Most were of medium size (oral understanding/recall of stories, reading readiness, reading achievement, oral language, writing), one was large (written understanding/ recall of stories), and one was small and could not be generalized to new studies (vocabulary). In all cases, students who enacted texts were compared to students who read the same texts but did not enact them. Drama not only helped children's verbal skills with respect to the texts enacted; it also helped children's verbal skills when applied to new, non-enacted texts. Thus, drama helps to build verbal skills that transfer to new materials. Such an effect has great value for education: verbal skill is highly valued, adding such drama techniques costs little in terms of effort or expense, and a high proportion of students are influenced by such curricular changes.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Policy Implications

These mixed findings should make it clear that, even in cases where arts programs add value to non-arts academic outcomes, it is dangerous to justify arts education by secondary, non-arts effects. Doing so puts the arts in a weakened and vulnerable position. Arts educators must build justifications based on what is inherently valuable about the arts themselves, even when the arts contribute secondary benefits. Just as we do not (and could not) justify the teaching of history for its power to transfer to mathematics, we must not allow policy makers to justify (or reject) the arts based on their alleged power to transfer to academic subject matters.

A Better Justification for the Arts in Education

Let's stop requiring more of the arts than of other subjects. The arts are the only school subjects that have been challenged to demonstrate transfer as a justification for their usefulness. If we required physical education to demonstrate transfer to science, the results might be no better, and probably would be worse. So, it is notable that the arts can demonstrate any transfer at all. Perhaps with more attention to how the arts foster transfer, we can understand how to exploit that capacity further. But even when the relationships are understood, we still maintain that the justification for arts programs must be based on their inherent merit.

Let's stop justifying the arts instrumentally. This is a dangerous (and peculiarly American) practice. Anyone who looks closely, as we have done, will see that these claims do not hold up unequivocally. Those who live by instrumental claims risk dying by such claims.

The arts offer a way of thinking unavailable in other disciplines. The same might be said of athletics. Suppose coaches began to claim that playing baseball increased students' mathematical ability because of the complex score keeping involved. Then suppose researchers set out to test this and found that the claim did not hold up. Would school boards react by cutting the budget for baseball? Of course not. Because whatever positive academic side effects baseball might or might not have, schools believe sports are inherently good for kids. We should make the same argument for the arts: the arts are good for our children, irrespective of any non-arts benefits that the arts may in some cases have. Just as a well-rounded education requires education of the body through physical education, a balanced education requires study of the arts.

<http://www.pz.harvard.edu/Research/Reap/REAPExecSum.htm></blockquote> -- Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Monthly Review: <http://monthlyreview.org/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>



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