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Introduction As a comprehensive school science teacher, I have, for a number of years, had experience of teaching science to pupils with special educational needs. Although these pupils have always been stimulating to teach, a group arriving at the school during the mid 1990s presented me with a particular challenge. Of the thirteen pupils, ten, in addition to experiencing learning difficulties, demonstrated emotional, environmental and physical co-ordination problems, which led to behaviour which was extremely difficult to deal with in the classroom. The children were also very different from each other While they all exhibited disturbing behaviour, this manifested itself in different ways according to the child, the day, the time and the place. Table 1 illustrates the range of difficulties experienced by the children. The reading age of each pupil is used as an indication of their academic progress. Their chronological age was that of first year secondary pupils, i.e. between 11 and 12 years of age. Table 1. Pupil characteristics
a = poor eyesight; b = poor hearing; c = asthma; d = epilepsy; e = other The behaviour of these
children in the classroom was extremely difficult. They were
making little It has been suggested that the behaviour exhibited by some pupils with special educational needs may, in part, result from frustration due to lack of physical co-ordination and the consequent inability to perform manual tasks effectively and efficiently. This was certainly borne out by my observations of this class. In one practical lesson they were required to burn a peanut and work out how much energy was produced. In order to do this, they had to put the peanut on a spoon and heat it in the flame of a Bunsen burner. Pupil 2, made 19 attempts at putting the peanut on the spoon. He never achieved it, due to a lack of co-ordination, but his resulting behaviour was uncontrollable. It seemed that if a means could be found of improving co-ordination much of the frustration and the resulting behaviour patterns exhibited by the pupils might be reduced. Chance observation of a TV programme revealed that some researchers believe that if the co-ordination system of the brain of special educational needs pupils is not fully developed during the first two years of development in an otherwise normally developed brain, the resulting co-ordination skills may remain under-developed. But, the co-ordination centre of the brain may be stimulated, at any age, by bombarding the individual with sounds of a particular frequency. These ideas prompted me to consider whether aural stimulation at high frequencies might help the children I was teaching. Further investigation revealed that Mozart composed music which makes use of these high frequencies far more than many other composers. I therefore decided to introduce Mozart into the classroom to see whether there would be any affect on the behaviour of the pupils. The action research Classical music (usually Mozart) was played during daily science lessons over a period of five months. Each lesson lasted for 1 hour 10 minutes. In each session the pupils were taught practical science within the framework of the National Curriculum. The music was switched on before the pupils entered the room and although the volume was adjusted at various points during the lesson it was not switched off until the end of the session after the pupils had left the room. Diary observations were made of the sessions when the music was being played. Extracts from the diary are given below. The response to the music was marked. The pupils became calm and co-operative within minutes of entering the room in which the music was playing. The effect lasted for the duration of the lesson and was repeated every session for the whole of the five-month trial period. All pupils completed each lesson task to the best of their ability and in the required time. Extracts from teacher/researchers diary Lesson 1 - Introduction to the lesson which involved a writing exercise only (i.e. no practical work) took approximately ten minutes. The pupils then began the exercises and the music was switched on. Result - amazing. No one spoke, quarrelled, asked to borrow anything, wanted to go to the toilet for the whole lesson. Everyone completed the task including M (pupil 1). In all cases the task was done to the best of their ability. SM, MLD and WW (members of staff) came in at various stages - the pupils took no notice of them and continued working. I have not had such a relaxed lesson with 7D - ever. Is this a "one-off"? This lesson served as a preparation for tomorrow's practical - where the music will no longer be a "new factor' in the lesson. Final comment by K (pupil 5):- "That's the quickest science lesson we've ever had in' it, Miss?". Lesson 2 - Another very productive calm lesson. Pupils worked efficiently and quietly especially M (pupil 1). W (pupil 3) was slow to settle down but became increasingly calm as the lesson proceeded. C (pupil 6) did not speak for the whole lesson! Although it was a practical lesson, movement around the class was minimal and quiet. All pupils competed the task in the required time and even had time to write it up. Lesson in the following week Very successful smoky flame practical -what can I say? K again (pupil 5):- "I've done my very best writing - look" M (pupil 1):- " I had a headache at dinner time but it's gone now". C (pupil 6):- "I've
got a spare pencil if you need one K" (co-operative behaviour
of this kind was W (pupil 3) was preoccupied but very quiet. The lesson was completed
and written up by all pupils. Comment by another member of staff It seems that it works but I don't know why. Physiological measures As the effects on the childrens' behaviour were so marked, I wondered if they were physiological in nature. I decided to investigate. As part of a practical project, the pupils themselves were taught to measure their blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration rate and body temperature. These measures were then taken and recorded on two occasions, when Mozart was being played in the lesson and where there was no background music. Three measurements were made, when the pupils began the science lesson, 20 minutes into the lesson, and one hour after the session had ended. The measurement process was repeated in similar practical lessons where there was no background music. Physiological evidence The observed changes in behaviour were supported by the physiological measures. Table 2 gives the means for each measure before, during and after the science lessons with and without the music. Repeated measures of analysis of variance were undertaken to examine whether these effects were statistically significant. In the sessions where the music intervention was adopted there were significant drops in all the physiological measures during the lessons where the background music was being used. Systolic blood pressure dropped from 115 before the lesson, to 99 in the lesson returning to 116 afterwards (F= 51.28, df= 2, p=<0.001). Similar significant effects were noted for diastolic blood pressure, the level changing from 73 to 62 and returning to 74 after the lesson (F= 33.86, df= 2, p = <0.001); pulse rate, reducing from 84 to 70 returning to 82 after (F= 7.04, df= 2, p =<0.006); and temperature which dropped by 0.1 (F=4.71, df= 2 p=<0.023). No significant changes were noted when there was no background music except in the case of temperature, where there was a significant increase in temperature during the lesson which was maintained afterwards. Temperature rose from an average of 36.8 prior to the lesson to 36.9 during and after (F = 6.18, df = 2, p = <0.009). These findings indicate a significant lowering of physiological responses in the pupils when background music was is present as compared with its absence. Table 2. Means of physiological responses with and without background music before, during and after lessons.
Discussion While there may be a number of possible explanations of these findings, as a physiologist and biochemist my interpretation is that the co-ordination centre of the brain may be stimulated, by certain sound frequencies, to produce a chemical (probably an endorphin) which lowers blood pressure. The effect of lowering blood pressure results in decreasing amounts of chemicals such as adrenalin and corticosteroids in the blood. By decreasing these chemicals, the whole body metabolism is lowered resulting in the calming effects on the pupils described above, Figure 1 describes a possible pathway. Further research is required to substantiate these findings. However, given the clearly observable effects on behaviour, whatever the exact causes, it would seem that certain kinds of background music can lead to an improvement in the behaviour of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank the staff and pupils of Aberdare Boys School, Mid Glamorgan for their co-operation and also Miss Dinah Pye, whose generous donation made the research for this paper possible. Anne Savan is a PhD student at the University of Reading. Figure 1. Suggested mechanism for improved co-ordination by high frequency sound
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