Music Research and Scientific Evidence

Music Education Research

The Music Trust is a program of the Australian Arts Trust, a non-profit charitable trust founded in 2013. The Music Trust has been set up to offer a flexible, creative, energetic response to the situation of music in Australia, with commitment to the best ideas for fostering excellence, innovation, and access. Datasonics is not affiliated with The Music Trust in any way. The Music Trust conducted research into Music Education in Australia. musictrust.com.au/music-education/research/some-interesting-music-education-research-outcomes

Here is a summary of the outcomes from this research.

1. Nearly two out of three Australian primary schools offer no classroom music.
2. Australian primary school classroom teachers receive on average only 17 hours of music education in their undergraduate degree, and only 10 hours if qualifying through a postgraduate degree.
3. The top foreign countries in the PISA rankings of countries' education systems in 2009 gave their primary school teachers far better music education than did Australia who ranked 9th in 2009 and 19th in 2012. Has music education played a part in that?
4. A large percentage of the population favours provision of music education in schools. 87% of Australians aged 12 or more agree (51% totally agree, 36% mostly agree) that music education should be mandated by the states to ensure that every child has an opportunity to study music in school.
5. Effects of music education on brain development. Music education activates many locations in the brain that are identified also with other types of activity. Music activity has an integrative effect on the brain. It causes brain development that benefits the whole person. A two-year Swiss study involved 1,200 children in 50 schools. They were taken from regular classes for three one-hour music classes per week. At the end of the experiment, these students were better at languages, learned to read more easily, had better social relations, demonstrated more enjoyment in school, and had a lower stress level than those who remained in regular classes.

Scientific Evidence Supporting Music Tuition

There is lots of scientific evidence that indicates music tuition has a positive effect on brain development. Music tuition activates many locations in the brain that are identified also with other types of activity. Music activity has an integrative effect on the brain. It causes brain development that benefits the whole person.