Impact of music education and issues stopping its implementation

Research Proposal: Impact of Music Education and Issues Stopping its Implementation Music educationhas fascinated both the parents and teachers. There are numerous researches and studies that have proved that music has a positive impact on academic learning as well as brain functioning. But even with this support and interest in the field, not much has happened practically and on a ground root level. That is, we don’t see music being taught in all academic institutions. Music education has not received the recognition that it was supposed to receive.
Through this research I propose to address this issue. The topic of my research will be:
“ Impact of Music Education and Issues Stopping its Implementation”
The main idea for me to conduct this research is that I believe that music has a positive effect on brain functioning, academics and the overall development of the brain. But for unknown reasons, music education has not been taken up seriously by the educators and these reasons must be identified and dealt with. Therefore, through this research I would like to find the answers for the following two questions:
1. What are the effects of music on overall development of the brain including academics?
2. Why is music education not taken seriously by educators and what are the reasons withholding them from implementing music education permanently?
To answer the first question, there is a lot of secondary research available. Many experts and researchers in the field have already addressed the issue. Some researchers have conducted studies that show that there is a link between music and brain functioning. “ Mozart effect” is a result of one such study. Studies have been conducted to identify specific effects such as effects of music on learning, reading skills, standardised tests, grade-point averages, etc. Therefore to answer this and prove my thesis that music has positive effects, I will depend primarily on secondary research. The sources that I will use are mentioned in bibliography. This is based on initial research and new resources will be added as after detailed research.
To address the second part, there isn’t much secondary research available. Therefore I will concentrate more on primary research. This will involve conducting surveys and interviews of scholars in the field, both from music and education. The administration in educational institutions will be contacted and requested to take part and assist in the research so as to get to the bottom of the issue. If necessary, the participant’s privacy will be respected and their identity will be kept anonymous.
I believe this research will be of great value as the findings of this research can be used to effectively incorporate music education into the education system. This would help in improving the overall quality of education.
Bibliography
Chipongian, L. (2000). Can Music Education Really Enhance Brain Functioning and Academic Learning?. Web. Available at: http://brainconnection. positscience. com/topics/? main= fa/music-education. Accessed on 27 January, 2012.
Hodges, D. A. & O’Connel, D. S. (n. d.). The Impact of Music Education
On Academic Achievement. Web. Available at: http://www. issaquah. wednet. edu/documents/highschool/Schedule/Arts/Achievement. pdf. Accessed on 27 January, 2012.
Levy, Y. (n. d.). The Effects of Background Music on Learning: A Review of Recent Literature. Web. Available at: http://edweb. sdsu. edu/Courses/Ed690DR/Examples/LitRev/Levy. htm. Accessed on 27 January, 2012.
Lu, D. T. (n. d.). Music Education Beyond the Mozart Effect. Web. Available at: http://faculty. washington. edu/chudler/dl. html. Accessed on 27 January, 2012.
Mark, M. L. & Madura, P. (2009). Music education in your hands: an introduction for future teachers. Print. NY: Routledge.
NAFME (2012). Why Music Education? 2007. Web. Available at: http://www. menc. org/resources/view/why-music-education-2007. National Association for Music Education. Accessed on 27 January, 2012.
Olson, K. D. (1996). The Effects of Music on the Mind: Beyond Soothing the Savage Beast. Web. Available at: http://www. reversespins. com/effectsofmusic. html. Accessed on 27 January, 2012.
SAGE Publications/Psychology of Music. ” Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills.” ScienceDaily, 16 Mar. 2009. Web. 28 Jan. 2012.