Abstract:

Musical experience actives imagination and creativity by building the foundation from which the processes of cognition work: perception, attention, memory, intelligence, thought and language [1,2]. Levitin [3] tested this theory by demonstrating that through Music our brain produces accelerated and meaningful learning. In this line, Skoe and Kraus [4] studied the effect, in adults, of the musical education received when they were children from the point of view of the neural changes (neuroplasticity), concluding that the neural modifications that music learning produces in the Childhood remain in adulthood. In 1993 at the University of Irving (California), Dr. Gordon Shaw, after examining a group of children when listening to music, showed that they developed the same brain circuits that we use to perform operations and reasoning Maths. On another note, Maths is considered one of the subjects with a worse school performance. However, it contributes to the development of logical thinking, exactitude and spatial perception.

Taking that into account both disciplines (Music and Maths), we must attend to the teaching-learning process of both subjects connectedly; therefore our research is based on finding out whether they are taught interdisciplinary during the earliest school years. In order to reach this aim, we have designed a questionnaire that was applied in the Galicia (Spain) and in Lisbon District (Portugal), to ascertain if there are any difference when it comes to interdisciplinary work between both countries. The sample consists of 452 teachers, of which 268 belong public, subsidized and private schools in the Galicia (Spain) and 184 teachers of public and private educational schools within the Province of Lisbon (Portugal).

The results show that most of teachers belong to public schools, do not interdisciplinary work, despite the fact that they give the same importance to both subjects they do not feel prepared to work in an interdisciplinary way.

References:
[1] S.A. An, M. Capraro, “Music-math integrated activities for elementary and middle school students”. Irvine, CA: Education for All. 2011.
[2] S.A. An, M. Capraro, D. Tillman, “Elementary Teachers Integrate Music Activities into Regula Mathematics Lessons: Effects on Students’ Mathematical Abilities”. Journal for Learning through the Arts: A Research Journal on Arts Integration in Schools and Communities, vol. 9, nº1, pp.1-19, 2013.
[3] D. Levitin, “Tu cerebro y la Música”. RBA, 2011.
[4] E. Skoe, N. Kraus, “A Little Goes a Long Way: How the Adult Brain Is Shaped by Musical Training in Childhood”. Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 32, pp. 11507–11510, 2012.

Keywords:

Music, Maths, interdisciplinary, Galicia, Lisbon.