Based on an interdisciplinary perspective and a link between Cognitive Neurosciences and Educational Sciences, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between formal music education and possible cognitive benefits, in particular with regard to proficiency in mathematics in 9th grade students. The present study developed four studies that, on the one hand, sought to respond to the effectiveness of the direct and indirect effects resulting from the formal study of music in the performance of mathematics and, on the other hand, to identify the misunderstandings present in the educational communities of specialized education regarding the study of the brain related to music. The first study to be conducted was a systematic review of the literature with the objective of compiling and analyzing the studies published between 2007 and 2018 on the influence that the study of music can exert on cognitive and academic performance. Our results indicate that the studies carried out to date are still insufficient to demonstrate the clear relationship between musical education and mathematical skills, particularly as regards the benefits of the former over the latter. The need to find more robust research methods is reinforced in order to achieve consistent results and to enable them to be reliably incorporated into this scientific field. In the second study, we sought to analyze the perception about the neuromyths, and the scientific facts related specifically to brain study and music teaching in an educational community inserted SAEM. For this purpose, the sample was collected from teachers (n=42) aged between 24 and 65 years (M=41.21, SD=9.692), parents (n=109) aged between 36 and 54 years (M=45.40, SD=4.626) and students of the 3rd cycle and secondary education (n=89) aged between 12 and 18 years (M=14.24, DP= 1.877). The results confirmed a high prevalence of neuromyths related to music teaching in the entire educational community linked to SAEM, being consistent with patterns observed in studies in other countries. The conclusions suggest that there is a huge gap in knowledge involving the study of the brain and its possible transfer to classroom practice and the need for interdisciplinarity in the training of education professionals, in order to curb the circulation of these scientific distortions in the school context. The third study focused on the analysis of results obtained in the 9th grade Final Math Test (92) (IAVE, 2018) by music students compared to their peers, who had never attended formal music education, in order to verify the performance of the National Mathematics Exam. The sample was composed of 166 students, aged between 14 and 15 years, in which 74 are from the 9th grade of Regular Education (M = 14.65; SD = 0.481) and 90 attend the same year of schooling in SAEM schools (M = 14.53; SD = 0.502). The results showed that music students scored better in the final math test in all their domains, i.e., Numbers and Operations (NO), Geometry and Measurement (GM), Functions, Sequences and Successions (FSS), Algebra (ALG) and Organization and Data Processing (ODP), compared to their peers without specialized music curriculum. Finally, the fourth study sought to establish a list of the results obtained in the 9th grade Final Math Test (92) (IAVE, 2018) of SAEM students by controlling the following variables: i) number of years of learning music; ii) type of instrument in learning (Keys, Percussion, Wind or Strings); iii) average time of weekly study of instrument; iv) final classifications of 3rd period; v) frequency of extracurricular activities (e.g., dance, sport, theatre); vi) support of mathematics; and vii) number of weekly support hours or explanation of mathematics. Here the study focused only on students of the SAEM (n=92), between 14 and 15 years of age (M=14.53, DP=0.502). Of all the variables analyzed, the results revealed that only the support presented significant differences, in that the students who do not have extra support to mathematics are the ones who achieve the best results in the final exam. Having regard to the various studies as a whole, it is concluded that, in the long term, the formal study of music may contribute to a positive transfer effect on mathematical skills, further research is needed to control a range of variables in order to robustly verify a causal relationship regarding the type of teaching on academic performance. We also perceive through the study about the perception about the music-related neuromyths that are various beliefs and scientific extrapolations that are still present in the school context, especially in what is dedicated to artistic teaching. From the work developed here it is also important to build a bridge between the scientific field of neuroscience and the work of translating this knowledge into educational practice, for a better understanding of the practical issues and assumptions inherent to this area of study, taking into account the effective benefit that musical education can obtain through this interdisciplinary link.
| Date of Award | 20 Jul 2021 |
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| Original language | Portuguese |
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| Awarding Institution | - Universidade Católica Portuguesa
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| Supervisor | Joana Rodrigues Rato (Supervisor) |
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