Pairing songs with lectures to increase academic performance through small group and cross-age tutor intervention strategies

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate if learning could be accelerated by teaching with "academic songs" through various types of intervention. Eighty kindergartners, five and six years-old, from a primary school served as subjects. Each subject was randomly assigned to one of seven groups: Female instructor song/lecture group (8); female instructor, lecture-only group; male instructor, song/lecture group (8); male instructor, lecture-only group (8); one to one , song/lecture group (15); one to one lecture-only group (15); and a no contact control group (18). Two music therapy majors served as adult instructors for 32 subjects and 15 fourth and fifth grade males assigned to a special education classroom served as cross-age tutors to 30 subjects. Following a pretest, intervention took place two afternoons a week over a period of four weeks. Each ten minute session was divided into two five minute segments of song and lecture, or lecture and lecture, depending upon the group. A posttest was conducted three weeks following the last intervention. Analyses not only indicated significant gains in the experimental groups' scores over the control groups' scores, but that learning was significantly enhanced by the "academic songs" when taught by the adult instructors. Additionally, Likert-type assessments of the daily sessions revealed that the songs created a more enjoyable environment for all of the teaching interactions.

Keyword(s): Songs, lecture, academic-achievement, children.

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