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. 2024 Mar 9;10(6):e27702.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27702. eCollection 2024 Mar 30.

The effect of music training on students' mathematics and physics development at middle schools in China: A longitudinal study

Yanan Zhou  1 , Jian Lian  2
Affiliations

The effect of music training on students' mathematics and physics development at middle schools in China: A longitudinal study

Yanan Zhou et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

As a descriptive-inferential study, this research aimed at revealing the relationship between music training and academic development with the Chinese middle school students' academic performance of mathematics and physics skills. The participants of this study consisted of the students from two different middle schools located at two cities in Shandong province, China. From each school 250 students were selected, and the statistics was used to analyze both the academic performance of the students and the data obtained from the scale designed by the authors. The research results show that the non-music students outperformed music students on both mathematics and physics development. In addition, music training did not contribute to the academic achievement independently but rather integrated with several factors like parents' education and out-of-school engagement. The findings suggest the positive influence on non-musical cognitive learning, and it has potential implications for the Chinese middle school education.

Keywords: ANCOVA; Mathematics; Middle school; Music training; Physics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The students' mathematics development in Jinan and Qingdao. Independent t-test unveiled that the students in Jinan marginally outperformed students in Qingdao at all of the semesters (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the two school districts.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The students' physics development in Jinan and Qingdao. Independent t-test unveiled that the students in Jinan marginally outperformed students in Qingdao at all of the semesters (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the two school districts.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The students' mathematics development. Independent t-test unveiled that the non-music students outperformed music students at semesters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 (p < 0.05). And there was a significant difference between music and non-music students at semester 1.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The students' physics development. Independent t-test unveiled that the non-music students outperformed music students at semesters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 (p < 0.05). The music students' physics score was marginally better than non-music students at semester 1.
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