Impact of Music on Education of Primary Students in Colombo District

Abstract

Education is the process of transferring skills, knowledge and habits of people from one generation to the next. Education is obtained through the methods of learning and teaching, and by life experiences. As Oxford University defines music is, "Vocal or instrumental sounds combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion". One's learning which is done in order to obtain education is affected by his or her learning diversity. So, It is hypothesized that music can be used as a tool of learning diversity which will be reliable to make the education of a primary student, more effective and meaningful. Researches have been conducted about the application of 'music for education'. But they have not researched its effect on primary students using the concentration power of music for the achievements of education. The research was conducted as a quantitative research. Two sets of samples which each consist of 50 students of grade five were taken from Piliyandala Central College. It was decided to test the IQ of students in order to measure their performance. All of them were given an IQ paper which matches the IQ level of their age, of half an hour while one set is provided with a piece of pleasurable music throughout the paper while the other is not. Other than that, all the other factors which will affect their concentration and performance were kept equally to all the sets. This is a working paper. So, the same experiment will be conducted using the same samples twice a month for three months providing them different IQ papers After three months, the controlled group will be changed. Those who were kept as the controlled group will be given those pieces of music while they face tests in the rest of three months of the research. The other set will be then considered as the controlled sample and they will not be given the music. The tests will be conducted in the same manner, for the next three months and then the test papers will be collected and marked. The expected differences of the scores obtained by two classes were assumed as the reflection of music which stimulate leaning. Final statistical analysis using SPSS shows that the average marks obtained by the two groups; those who faced the test without any background music and those who did with a background music, does not have any significant difference. So the hypothesis is disapproved under the provided circumstances.