The Potential Impact of Background Music on Creative Thinking in the General Elementary Classroom
Session Title
Mental Health and Education
College
College of Education
Department
Curriculum & Pedagogy
Abstract
Music has been known to enhance cognitive abilities in the classroom and this study is investigating to see whether there is a similar connection between music and creative thinking in the classroom. Creative thinking is like creativity, which is defined as the ability to produce something that is both useful and novel. Creativity is not just about the arts; it is also a large part of critical thinking and problem solving. This study looks at two elementary school classrooms where approximately 45 students complete a creative thinking activity, based on portions of the Torrance Test for Creative Thinking (TTCT). The students will spend ten minutes drawing one picture which will be directly followed by ten additional minutes spent drawing ten different pictures. One classroom will be playing calm, non-lyrical background music, while the other classroom will be playing no music. After the test is over, the students will be given a short survey to see how they feel about music playing or no music playing and whether it impacted their ability to creatively think on the activity. The activity will be scored based on the originality and elaboration of the drawings, two key components to creativity. The hope for this study is to highlight whether background music is helpful while producing creative thinking in the everyday activities in the general elementary school classroom.
Honors Thesis Committee
Sarah Marie Catalana, Ph.D.; David Vawter, Ph.D.; and Bettie Parsons Barger, Ph.D.
Start Date
24-4-2020 12:00 AM
The Potential Impact of Background Music on Creative Thinking in the General Elementary Classroom
Music has been known to enhance cognitive abilities in the classroom and this study is investigating to see whether there is a similar connection between music and creative thinking in the classroom. Creative thinking is like creativity, which is defined as the ability to produce something that is both useful and novel. Creativity is not just about the arts; it is also a large part of critical thinking and problem solving. This study looks at two elementary school classrooms where approximately 45 students complete a creative thinking activity, based on portions of the Torrance Test for Creative Thinking (TTCT). The students will spend ten minutes drawing one picture which will be directly followed by ten additional minutes spent drawing ten different pictures. One classroom will be playing calm, non-lyrical background music, while the other classroom will be playing no music. After the test is over, the students will be given a short survey to see how they feel about music playing or no music playing and whether it impacted their ability to creatively think on the activity. The activity will be scored based on the originality and elaboration of the drawings, two key components to creativity. The hope for this study is to highlight whether background music is helpful while producing creative thinking in the everyday activities in the general elementary school classroom.
