Could music help improve students’ ability to learn?
As students worldwide are having educational experiences that are a little or a lot different to their “normal”, teachers are looking for ways to maintain students’ engagement in a similar way to when they are attending “normal” school.
Remote or a combination of online and face to face learning is not standard, so maybe we are doing our students a disservice by thinking about this type of learning in the same siloed way we often look at school learning. In many cases, teachers have just taken their learning experience online and may not have considered how disjointed and un-“normal” this might feel in the home environment.
This study puts forward an interesting idea about how we could “implement this technique [of playing classical music in the background] in classrooms, or in online lectures while students complete their education at home due to COVID-19 social distancing measures, so we can help college students’ re-study’ their class materials during sleep.”
Could we think about the at-home learning experience as immersive? If yes, we as teachers would need to create the learning environment – how it sounds, feels and looks – for the students. Could the music teachers collaborate with subject teachers to suggest background music that would nuance learning and most importantly, memory? Could a school develop a short playlist or suggestions for parents to play at home to motivate, calm and enthral their children in their learning?
Music teachers – if what goes in their ears can impact their memory, test scores and general learning, what piece would you add to the playlist?
