Abstract:

Education is moving towards the integration of the Arts into the curriculum to help students acquire academic skills in reading, language development and mathematics (Ruppert, 2006). Students struggle to appreciate mathematics and apply mathematical knowledge to real-life situations. However, art integration can spark students’ creativity, sharpen their focus in learning mathematics (Feland et al, 2016), and make connections to the real world. Those who experienced the beauty and utility of mathematics through integrating arts into mathematics lessons struggled less with more complex and abstract later mathematical concepts (Brezovnik, 2015). This action research study investigated how integrating music and visual arts into teaching arithmetic and geometric progressions to Grade 9 students (14 – 16 years), as an educational intervention, influenced their mathematics appreciation and performance. These students demonstrated little appreciation for mathematics and struggled with mathematical modelling and problem solving. Over eight 75-minute lessons, music and art were integrated into learning activities that targeted curriculum outcomes and highlighted their connections to arithmetic and geometric progressions. The sample comprised 28 female students at one school in Trinidad and Tobago. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design, using multiple methods to strengthen the robustness of the research findings. Data were collected using a Mathematics Appreciation Survey (pre- and post-intervention), student journals with prompts, teacher observation notes, and post-intervention summative assessment. Student journals and observation notes were thematically analysed, and surveys and summative assessments were analysed using descriptive statistics and paired sample t-tests. The paired sample t-test at a 5% significance level, revealed a significant increase in students’ mathematics appreciation from M = 98.07 (SD = 17.17) pre-intervention to M = 111.26 (SD = 10.88) post-intervention, t(26) = -9.2574, p < 0.05. The themes emerging from student journals were: awe about the link between Music, Art and Mathematics, appreciation for arts-based mathematics activities, enjoyment of learning and confidence in problem solving. Teacher observation notes supported the themes from student journals. A paired sample t-test, at a 5% significance level, compared students’ pre-intervention mathematics achievement scores to the post-intervention summative assessment scores. The t-test revealed a significant increase in mathematics achievement from M = 65.3 (SD = 15.8) pre-intervention to M = 77 (SD = 15.2) post-intervention, t(26) = -4.36, p < 0.05. Hence, it was concluded that the intervention positively influenced students’ mathematics appreciation and performance. These findings support those of other researchers who advocate for the gains students achieve through the integration of the arts into the teaching and learning of mathematics, which has been a challenge for teachers at the school involved in this study. Such findings also support the transition away from the prevailing STEM focus towards STEAM because doing so encourages creativity and design, and may boost interest in and enhance cognitive abilities required for STEM subjects. (Gardiner, 2015).

Keywords:

Music and Art integration, Mathematics Appreciation, Mathematics Performance, Students.