Search

Music1 and mathematics are two closely-related subjects as both enclose numbers, proportions, measurements, operations... Pythagoras was the first person to link them, and from that moment on, many questions have been asked and many research lines have been created in order to study how one affects the other. Also, music contributes many benefits for the cognitive development of the students, positively contributing to their integral education, as it plays a fundamental role in the acquisition and the strengthening of knowledge during the learning process. However, there are very few experiences and materials to work with it in an interdisciplinary manner within the school context, especially in Spain. In order to verify if music instruction or lessons benefit the study of mathematics, a research study was conducted on 68 4th-grade students enrolled in a Spanish primary school. A questionnaire, observations of many sessions and interviews given to three teachers were used for the gathering of data. The results gathered confirmed that musical training has a positive influence on academic performance of mathematics students.

The ICT are part of our everyday lives1. The teaching-learning processes must transform in order to adapt to our modern times. The education professionals should be experts in edu-communication to take advantage of the new possibilities that the ICT offer in the classroom to train competent citizens in the utilization of media, citizens that who are active, critical and true prosumers [1]. In the area of music education, there are few experiences and materials that can be used to work this subject an interdisciplinary manner within the school context, especially in Spain. This research work brings together the experiences with a group of 22 students from 6th grade of Primary School students from a public Spanish school, working with the subjects of Music and Culture and Digital Practice in an interdisciplinary manner through free music software and by using techniques of data gathering such as the questionnaire and observation of the participants. The results allow for the verification that the use of the ICT in the Music classroom has a positive influence on the development of motivation and academic performance in both subjects, as both the music and digital competencies were re-enforced.