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Scholarship Paper-2
Scholarship Paper-2
Scholarship Paper-2
Research Question(s):
1. How can music teachers address and support mental health with young learners?
Rationale:
One of the reasons is that I believe that music can change peoples lives in the best way
possible. Mental health is very important to me and I love music as well so I thought I would talk
about how they correlate. I think the best way to teach, is by starting early with elementary aged
students so they have a basis of how to use music in their lives to support their mental health to
prepare for their adolescent phase, I think that creative thinking on music educator’s parts is
very important to education students in general music so that they can learn from it, so as they
get older they can use it to their advantage when it comes to mental health. I plan to research
how music can be used for mental health through a variety of ways. “I provided a place where
students “had voice” and shared their musical interests with the support of an educator who did
not judge those choices” (Abramo, 2015b, p. 2). This quote introduces what I also think is an
effective way to help kids with mental health by giving them their own opinions from the start
because that notion sometimes gets squashed with other areas of life. So, I think I can be an
educator who can give my students as much opportunity to be successful as possible. These
questions caught my attention and mean a great deal to me in the effect of music on mental
health: How can music teachers address and support mental health with young learners? This
Review of Literature:
Source one: The first source, even though it has little to do with mental health and music,
it still introduces the fact that young music learners when exposed to social justice, are motivated
to become participants in music programs. That, in turn gave me the idea that motivation is a big
part in helping with mental health. “I provided a place where students “had voice” and shared
their musical interests with the support of an educator who did not judge those choices”
(Abramo, 2015b, p. 582). This quote was used before but I feel it is important to explain that if
students “had voice” then they would have a sense of independency at a young age where they
could have room and opportunity to focus on music, which said in the next following 8 sources,
aides with mental health. The theme of this article is about social justice with music and giving
young students “a voice” and giving them opportunity to have their own choices and
independency. The takeaway is that if someone gives young learners choice, they will use that
which will in turn motivate them to participate in music. Which is one of many goals for present
Source two: This source is a study about arts-based therapies for Canadian youth with
mental illness. It talks about how mental illness can start very young and what therapies can help
with that. “Around 70% of mental illnesses are estimated to originate during childhood and
adolescence (Mental Health Commission of Canada, 2009; World Health Organization [WHO],
2003)” (Boekhoven, Bowker, Davidson, Cacciato & Gray, 2012, p. 164). The article then
proceeds to explain the characteristics of arts-based therapies and then the effectiveness of them.
“Positive results included mitigating the frequency and severity of clinical symptoms (Saunders
& Saunders, 2000); improvements in social and cognitive functioning (Fliegel, 2005; Wadeson,
Ailish Hall
MUED380: Music in Elementary Schools
December 6, 2018
Scholarship Portfolio Paper
2006); and greater personal insight and meaning through the exploration of disruptive emotions
(Frankl, 1967; Johnson, 1984; Moon, 1999)” (Boekhoven, Bowker, Davidson, Cacciato & Gray,
2012, p. 166). This source connects to music and mental health because music is a form of art
and therapy helps with mental illness. It does not specifically address music education but the
article does explain the effectiveness of it which can prove that using music to address and
Source three: This article explains the connection between musical expression and the
structure of the person playing. The article describes the psycho-somatic structure as “inner
growth.” “This framework not only enables the therapist to locate a client's limitations or
blockages, but also a means of understanding how to work on them, thus ultimately improving
their musicality and well-being” (Perret, 2004, p. 327). This quote is centered around therapy and
how music can help an individual which is different than music education but still can be used to
make connections to how music educators can use this study to help and further their students
education. “It is suggested in this paper that there exist intricate links between the quality of
spontaneous musical expression and the inner world of the person playing: specific areas of body
and brain, and corresponding patterns of emotions, thought, feelings and beliefs” (Perret, 2004,
p. 328). From learning about general music education this whole semester, we learned about a lot
of activities that involve these things in this quote and how to teach them. So, using what is said
in this article, music educators could use aspects of music therapy to help their students in the
public classroom which might actually be more beneficial in the long run because most people
Source four: This article is titled “Music for Relaxation: A Comparison Across Two Age
Groups.” Even though it touches on two age groups it focuses first on younger aged people and
the effects of MBM or “Meditative Binaural Music” on them. “The effect of listening to MBM
was comparable to listening to calm classical music. The changes in self-reported arousal were
more pronounced for the younger age group, for whom the MBM including binaural beats was
significantly more calming than listening to low-arousal classical music” (Lee-Harris, Timmers,
Humberstone, Blackburn 2018). The article explains the effects of MBM on younger then
adolescent people. Again, even though it is therapy based it can still be used in a music education
setting. Imagine using MBM in the general music classroom at an elementary school? I have
heard of relaxation techniques in high schools and at universities but rarely in an elementary
school. If the effects of MBM are correct, then it could start early positive effects on young
students rather than later and potentially prevent mental illness from happening later in their
lives.
Source five: This article explains the effect of music on the “intellectual, personal and
social development of children” (Hallam, 2010, p. 269). The article describes numerous studies
that prove that music has a positive effect on these types of developments in young learners and
continues to show that some of these studies were used in music education settings. “It suggests
that the positive effects of engagement with music on personal and social development only
occur if it is an enjoyable and rewarding experience.This has implications for the quality of the
teaching” (Hallam, 2010, p. 269). The article has many different sections on what kind of
positive development music has on young students. An example would be: ‘For instance, Broh
(2002) showed that students who participated in musical activities talked more with parents and
Ailish Hall
MUED380: Music in Elementary Schools
December 6, 2018
Scholarship Portfolio Paper
teachers, and that their parents were more likely to talk with friends’ parents. She concluded that
these social benefits were likely to lead to higher self-esteem in the children in turn leading to
increased motivation and self-efficacy” (Hallam, 2010, p. 278). Higher self-esteem and
motivation are aspects of mental health, which shows that there is a direct correlation between
the two.
Source six: Again this source is about music therapy but the title of it is: “Where music
helps: community music therapy in action and reflection” (Higgins, 2012, p. 120). When I think
therapy I think “one-on-one” but this is reflecting off of community therapy which seems more
related to music education because at least in public schools, music educators teach a big group
or community as I like to think of it. This is a book review and gives insight to the people who
Source seven: This article is about how music education can “enhance the quality of
school life” (Eerola, 2014, p. 88). “The results showed that extended music education enhances
the QSL, particularly in areas related to general satisfaction about the school and a sense of
achievement and opportunity for students.” (Eerola, 2014, p. 88). QSL stands for “quality of
school life.” A sense of achievement and opportunity for students means that they are on the
right track towards positive mental health. If someone’s social aspect of school is positive they
have a better chance of having a better mental health. The study was also done on children ages 3
to 6 which is connected to my question of “How can music teachers address and support mental
Source eight: “Many years’ trial with music in mental cases has only furthered his
opinion. He said: “Music is responsible for cures among the insane and improvements of patients
Ailish Hall
MUED380: Music in Elementary Schools
December 6, 2018
Scholarship Portfolio Paper
seemingly in a hopeless condition that are little short of marvelous.” (Podolsky, 1953, p. 66) The
article focuses more on mentally ill patients with severe mental illnesses but nonetheless it
proves that music can help people with the most severe mental problems and help them improve.
If music can do that then it can help anyone as well as young learners.
Music educators can use source one to understand music education in social justice
issues which in turn can help students with mental health. “In these cases, my desire to
create a socially just space, where students and I challenged sexism, heteronormativity,
democratic impulse to provide students with “voice” through popular music.” (Abramo, 2015b,
p. 582). If music educators create a “socially just space” then the students will become more
look into socially just popular songs to introduce in the classroom early.
In article two, the big takeaway is arts-based therapies which means music therapy
included. Music educators should look into ways to use music therapy in their classroom.
“Therapists have used interactive approaches to support people with lived experience to find
meaning in their lives through individual choice and reflection, for example, logotherapy…”
(Boekhoven, Bowker, Davidson, Cacciato & Gray, 2012, p. 168). As said in this quote
interactive approaches are effective towards people with mental health issues, and general music
in the classroom is very interactive so there could be a link between teaching interactive general
music and music therapy. Related to article two is about meditative music which is used in music
Ailish Hall
MUED380: Music in Elementary Schools
December 6, 2018
Scholarship Portfolio Paper
therapy. One could use “Meditative Binaural Music” in the elementary music classroom. Usually
most teachers use meditative music later on, like in high school or in college but if it was used in
elementary schools it might calm them down and create healthier minds.
“It is suggested in this paper that there exist intricate links between the quality of
spontaneous musical expression and the inner world of the person playing: specific areas of body
and brain, and corresponding patterns of emotions, thought, feelings and beliefs” (Perret, 2004,
p. 328). When learning about how to teach general music in the classroom we did a lot of hands
on activities that are expressed in this article. Looking into the article more a music educator
could figure out what activities to use and use that in their classroom to help people with mental
In Higgins’ book review he critiques community music therapy and says; “This notion
gives significance to both a contextual and ecological understanding of music and provides the
authors with a conceptual platform to argue that music, and thus music therapy, should be
considered as a sociocultural phenomenon that invites social action.” (Higgins, 2012, p. 121) If
music educators took this opinion into account and took social action, by looking into
community music therapy, they would see that there is a connection between music and mental
health and that not only music therapists can go into this but also music educators if exposed to
Now moving on to the other side of music and mental health: the effects of music on
people. In the Eerola’s 2014 article: Extended music education enhances the quality of school
life, Music Education Research. It talks about what exactly is in the title. The results for quality
of school life were positive when exposed to music. This article can prove that teaching music
Ailish Hall
MUED380: Music in Elementary Schools
December 6, 2018
Scholarship Portfolio Paper
can help with someone’s quality of life in general music classrooms. So all someone has to do is
teach extended music classes, because that was the other part of the article was teaching extended
music classes on top of general music classes during school. The next article that talks about the
effects of music on people is: The power of music: Its impact on the intellectual, social and
personal development of children and young people. Music educators can use this article to
prove how music can help the minds of children and can make transfers to other aspects of life.
“Many years’ trial with music in mental cases has only furthered his opinion. He said: “Music is
responsible for cures among the insane and improvements of patients seemingly in a hopeless
condition that are little short of marvelous.” (Podolsky, 1953, p. 66). This is a short article on a
newspaper where it explains music and mental health and again music educators can use this to
help people with mental health issues through teaching and them using aspects of music
For further research, I would look into some of the longer articles in the music education
journals as well as music therapy journals. “If this occurs early in development the alterations in
brain development may become hard-wired and produce permanent changes in the way
information is processed (e.g., Schlaug, Jancke, Huang, & Steinmetz, 1995a, 1995b).” (Hallam,
2010, p. 270). This quote can be helpful if someone wanted to look more into the neurological
effects of music on the brain and the health benefits it has as well. They could just look at the
references at the bottom as well. Another good place to find sources that are peer-reviewed is the
“ulrichsweb” website and they have many music therapy, mental health, and music education
research journals that are authentic. They have many research journals that are from many
Ailish Hall
MUED380: Music in Elementary Schools
December 6, 2018
Scholarship Portfolio Paper
different countries around the world who have done studies like. Extended music education
enhances the quality of school life, Music Education Research: the psychological studies were
In conclusion this paper address the question: “How can music teachers address and
support mental health with young learners?” You can look on both sides of the question and look
at the mental health side, or the music side and how they affect each other. These articles can
help music teachers/educators to support mental health and they even show them how to use
various methods in mental health and music to help young learners in their journey to
References
Abramo, J. (2015b). Negotiating gender, popular culture, and social justice in music education.
In, C. Benedict, P. Schmidt, G. Spruce, & P. Woodford (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of
Social Justice in Music Education (pp. 582-597). New York: Oxford University Press.
Belinda Boekhoven, Anne Bowker, Simon Davidson, Angelina Cacciato & Barb Gray (2012)
Review of arts-based therapies for Canadian youth with lived experience of mental
illness, Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 7:2, 164-173, DOI:
10.1080/17450128.2012.661890
Daniel Perret (2004) Roots of musicality: On neuro-musical thresholds and new evidence for
bridges between musical expression and 'inner growth', Music Education Research, 6:3,
327-342,DOI: 10.1080/1461380042000281767
George Lee-Harris, Renee Timmers, Nigel Humberstone, Daniel Blackburn (2018); Music for
Relaxation: A Comparison Across Two Age Groups, Journal of Music Therapy, , thy016,
https://doi.org/10.1093/jmt/thy016
Hallam, S. (2010). The power of music: Its impact on the intellectual, social and personal
development of children and young people. International Journal of Music
Education,28(3), 269-289. doi:10.1177/0255761410370658
Lee Higgins (2012) Where music helps: community music therapy in action and reflection,
Music Education Research, 14:1, 120-122, DOI: 10.1080/14613808.2012.667943
Päivi-Sisko Eerola & Tuomas Eerola (2014) Extended music education enhances the quality of
school life, Music Education Research, 16:1, 88-104, DOI:
10.1080/14613808.2013.829428
Podolsky, E. (1953). Music and mental health. Music Educators Journal,40(2), 66.
doi:10.2307/3387922