Music activities as a meaningful context for teaching elementary students mathematics: a quasi-experiment time series design with random assigned control group

Abstract

The purpose of the current research was to examine the effects of a sequence of classroom activities that integrated mathematics content with music elements aimed atproviding teachers an alternative approach for teaching mathematics. Two classes ofthird grade students (n=56) from an elementary school in the west coast of the United States participated in the research. A random assignment pretest-posttest controlgroup design was used to examine students' changes in mathematical ability betweenthe two groups. A quasi-experiment time series design with multiple pretests, midtests and posttests was utilized for investigating the effects of music-mathematics lessonson students' mathematics process ability level. The results demonstrated that theintervention of music-mathematics integrated lessons had statistically significantimprovement on the music group students' mathematical abilities.