Why You Should Teach with Music

If you are looking for ways to make your teaching more effective, consider the proven benefits of teaching with music. Music is a great way to gain a child’s attention. Teaching with music engages children and helps them to focus, making even the most mundane tasks seem fun. Music adds life to otherwise dull material while making it more memorable at the same time. We know that information recall is greatly enhanced when it is put to music in the form of a song. This is because music triggers neurological connections in the brain that create associations and make memories more durable and long-lasting. So music facilitates both the creation of new memories and the recall of existing memories.

Music also plays a role in healthy brain development. Musical exposure is beneficial for children’s brains because it strengthens centers of sound processing, language and communication. It is a catalyst for the formation of neural pathways connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and learning is maximized when left side rationality works in tandem with right side creativity. This may be especially helpful in teaching children with learning disabilities.

Moods, behaviors, and social development may also be positively impacted by the use of music in the classroom. Music has the ability to evoke both powerful emotional responses and rhythmic movement, which may be used to influence behavior and encourage positive conduct. Music also engages the areas of the brain responsible for decision-making, focusing attention, and inhibiting impulses. Music has been shown to enhance identity development and strengthen social bonds by impacting brain circuits involved in empathy, trust and cooperation. Appropriate use of music has also been shown to diminish undesirable emotional states that interfere with learning while improving mood and relieving stress, thus producing an emotional environment more conducive to learning.

Combining music with meaningful lyrics is especially powerful. In addition to teaching facts and conveying information, music with lyrics can give voice to feelings and experiences a child might not be able to express otherwise. Such emotional validation can be very empowering to a developing child. Best of all, you don’t have to be a “good singer” or a musician in order to use music effectively in the classroom. Let Music 4 Learning provide you with all the tools you need to to take your teaching skills to the next level!