Abstract:

Mathematics and music are all around us, part of our lives, directly or indirectly, whether we like it or not. Would it be a coincidence that most mathematicians knew music or how to compose music? Mathematics and music are associated with names that have brought us discoveries, research, scientific facts that have made them famous for centuries. Among others Pythagoras, Mersenne, Euler, Bolyai, and they will continue to do so for another centuries. Mathematics and music education are an essential part of pre-school activities. Mathematics and music, although belonging to completely different cultural fields, can have common goals. The main aim of mathematical education is to develop thinking, and this is also done within the framework of music education. Music education helps to develop the personality, as does mathematics education. Both areas affect the child's intellect and will.

In our qualitative research, we studied the lower grades (N=14) of a Hungarian minority school in Slovakia. The research process consisted of three parts: the children's individual performance on a test, a questionnaire for parents, where we investigated the children's and parents' attitudes towards mathematics and music, and an interview with the teacher working with the children. The survey items were developed based on the Difer-test, a diagnostic developmental testing system developed in Hungary. The Difer-test is a compulsory component of the Hungarian public education measurement and assessment system for assessing pupils' progress.

The aim of our work was to study the relationship between mathematics and music education in the educational practice of primary school children. Furthermore, to identify potential interfaces between the two subjects and to discuss possibilities for improvement.

An interesting result was that the majority of parents gave their child lower marks compared to the teacher - thus underestimating him/her. Further analysis shows that the relationship between maths and music is well observed in our sample. So a child who is skilled in mathematics also has a more skilled sense of rhythm.

Keywords:

Mathematics, teaching mathematics, music education, interdisciplinarity.