Melody to the Brain: Impact of Music on Academic Performance of Junior High School

Students in St. Mary’s College of Meycauayan

Javian Noah Guliman, Gr.9 Student - St. Mary’s College of Meycauayan

Andre Jacob Bugarin, Gr.9 Student - St. Mary’s College of Meycauayan
Kerby Felix, Gr.9 Student - St. Mary’s College of Meycauayan
James Daniel Real, Gr.9 Student - St. Mary’s College of Meycauayan

Introduction
Music has a big impact on the mood, emotion, and behavior of individuals (Freedom,
n.d). In this modern era of technology, many students around the world listen to music while
studying (Kumar et al., 2016; Muslimah, 2020) because listening to music has become a
universal habit and as technology advances, more individuals are able to listen to their personal
choice of music on their cellphones, MP3 players, iPods and their own personal computers.
Today, listening to music has become a universal habit and as technology advances, more
individuals can easily get access to this and are able to listen to their personal choice of music
on their cellphones, personal computers, iPods, and other mediums of technology. This study
aims to analyze and investigate how listening to music can affect the academic performance of
the students in the Junior High School level while they engage in academic activities catered by
the school.

It is very common nowadays students learn with music turned on. Music has always
been an art form, through which it provides pleasure and entertainment, offering a soothing and
calming effect on the human brain (Sharma, 2019). This calming effect further stimulates the
cognition of our brain, by improving our memory, increasing our attention, providing inspiration
and motivation to facilitate a multisensory learning experience that affects the performance of
students in their academics. In St. Mary’s College of Meycauayan, if the implementation of
listening to music will be possible in certain areas of the school, such as in the library or adding
a room where in students are secluded to listen to music to focus or concentrate, then this can
have a possibility of enhancing one’s learning academically that will greatly lead to beneficial
growth of one’s academic performance.

Since St. Mary’s College of Meycauayan encourages their students to maximize their
potential to learn best, it is without a doubt that listening to music is a favorable option for
students to truly learn their best. More so, there are plenty of studies that have proven the
effectiveness of music as an important moderator for learning. Many have mixed results and
findings, some researchers say music alone does not entirely contribute to the good grades and
performance of Filipino students, since it can be a form of distraction. Meanwhile, other
researchers say music is a positive and influential way of learning experience to students that
other students must try as well, while others say that listening with music is a positive and
influential way of learning experience to students that other students must try as well. Despite
the varied perspectives, it is still clear that in our study for the students in the Junior High School
level of St. Mary’s College of Meycauayan, it is our intention as the researchers of this study to
encourage co-Ignacian Marians in exploring the effective approach of incorporating music into
the learning experience, in order to help and benefit the students in attaining academic success.

Literature Review
Academic gain and learning performance of students are affected by numerous factors
including the teaching faculty, student education, age, gender, social economic status, school
instruction medium, daily study time, and student’s residential area (Ali et al., 2013; Muslimah,
2020). These factors immensely affect one’s academic performance making it challenging for
students to consistently perform well in their academic endeavors. Music and academic
performance correlate to one another as they play an important role in one's concentration in
studying. The study of Maynes-Blanco, Nartea (2020), stated that students see music as their
“study buddy” because they see it as their partner, to increase their attention span while doing
academic work like reading a book or doing deep work of studying. This indicates that music is
a useful tool to such a degree that many students are using this tool to increase their
performance.

As technology advances and digitalization prospers, music is becoming easily an

accessible tool which is evident through the digital applications such as Spotify and YouTube. In
the Philippines, there is undoubtedly an abundance of Filipinos who instill music in their lives. In
fact, the Philippines is ranked the highest in terms of average daily music listening time
according to the “Filipino Listen to More Music Daily Than Anyone Else in the World” article of
Subido (2019). Therefore, music has been an integral part of the lifestyle of the Filipinos,
through which it has contributed to them as a medium of entertainment and as a medium to
keep their productivity and concentration at work, specifically the students.

Relationship of Music and Academic Performance

Many students have their preferred learning styles that promote adequate learning
opportunities and effective instructions, and listening to music is one of them. Furthermore, the
study describes academic performance as the overall achievement, grades, and success of the
Junior High School students in their academic endeavors. One of the major problems of
students’ in school is attaining bad academic performance due to several factors like
psychological, economical, family and environmental factors.

In addition, one of the main factors that affect the students’ academic performance is
having too many distractions that severely cause their concentration and attitude in studying
which leads to having a major impact in their studies. Because of this, students devised many
strategies to counter such factor which is listening to music. This has been one of the ways of
students to escape from the noisy surroundings, and separate themselves from the
focus-grabbing disturbances, just to focus on their academics (Maynes-Blanco, Nartea, 2020).

Researchers provided evidence that because of music, it has improved their way of
learning. For example, the study of Thinley, et.al (2023) deals with the overall academic
performance when using background music, mainly during the pandemic. The study finds out
that background music provides therapeutic effects helping students’ minds to focus leading to
better concentration, less distractions thus leading to an increase in academic performance. It
also shows that background music was able to help students bring positivity back into their lives
during the pandemic and also lessened loneliness from students, these effects not only led them
to better relationships, but to an increase in overall academic performance. Likewise, another
study of Maynes-Blanco, Nartea (2020), stated that music enhances their productivity and
fostering increased concentration on tasks by stating specific quantitative data, such as the
results of the indicated student-respondents that they moderately agree that music enhances
their productivity, with a weighted mean of 4.13, and 4.02 on how it stimulates and improves
task performance, therefore resulting to a 3.69 weighted mean indicating that music moderately
impacts academic performance.

Significance of Music to Cognitive Skills

Every student in a school environment engages in complex cognitive processing, this
includes studying for an exam, reading and writing, completing homeworks and many more
(Dolegui, 2013; Maynes-Blanco, et.al., 2020). According to Godkin (n.d), a professor in the
Department of Marriage and Family Sciences at National University, stated that music activates
both the left and right brain at the same time, and the activation of both hemispheres can
maximize learning and improve memory. Studies say that because of this cognitive
enhancement in connection with music, it has improved the memory, spatial-temporal
reasoning, and mathematical understanding of students (Jing, 2023).

Music plays a significant role in cognitive performance, since many studies state that it
enhances cognitive performance. Music is an independent variable to cognitive skills as it
provides a relationship between the two variables. The music could decide the level our
cognitive skills are at. If we often use music when learning or in general, we could have
enhanced cognitive skills from the average human.

There are multiple researches that back this claim up, including a study from Azmi, et.al
(2023), they focused on the possible effects of background music to our learning abilities and
outcomes and our attention and memory, an aspect that is crucial in developing cognitive skills.
They found out that music presents a significant impact on students’ cognitive abilities and that
it enhanced it drastically compared to a control group they set up. From an independent “t-test”
they produced, it showed that there were significant differences from the results including a
greater understanding and accuracy of answers. However, music's role in cognitive skills is still
ambiguous, because evidence from other research studies indicate that music serves as a
distraction to the cognitive skills of students. However, it is worth noting that with the plethora of
music genres available to music listeners, it is important to understand and figure out what
genre will exponentially increase the cognitive skills of students.

The Multitude of Musical Genres Affecting Academic Performance

Nowadays, there are a lot of musical genres that people thoroughly enjoy. This ranges from pop,
R&B, rock, rap, blues, classical, folk, house, and many more categories. Students have their
own preference on what genre they listen to and different genres of music likely have different
impacts on people (Chen, 2018). This variety of genres sparked an ongoing debate on which
music genre fits best when studying and which genre develops a students’ cognitive skills the
most. Many people have provided many opinions, and many researchers have provided us with
multiple researches with different to similar results.

The famous article about the “Mozart Effect” has surge the interest of many researchers,
because it has made a remarkable discovery about how music listening is essential in exhibiting
improved spatial ability (Jenkins, 2001; Chen, 2018). However, the observed advantages of this
effect is transient, since it provides benefits that only endure for approximately 10-15 minutes.
Nevertheless, it has sparked many students to benefit from this phenomenon that helped
improve their academic performance and productivity as a student. A study done by Rajab (n.d)
about the impact of music on the academic performance of students, included in the part of her
data gathering is to inquire among students what their favorite musical genre to listen to while
studying. Her study showed interesting results since classical music was the common choice
due to perhaps being indicative of their knowledge of the Mozart effect. Furthermore, classical
music is known to be both harmonious and peaceful, therefore making it one of the best
studying genres.

According to an article posted by Newman (2023), the best five genres of music are
classical, tied tempos, instrumental ambient sounds, nature sounds, and modern electric. These
genres of music effectively improves students’ academic motivation and performance since
these genres are used to accomplish such academic activities. Classical music is without a
doubt one of the best, hence why students use this often. Furthermore, classical music is known
to be both harmonious and peaceful, therefore making it one of the best studying genres. Timed
tempos genre of music is another genre where it aids relaxation, enhancing cognitive functions
like thinking and creativity among students. Moreover, instrumental ambient music, nature, and
modern electronic music are used by students to concentrate, since they all promote a relaxed
ambience and meditation for students, therefore further increasing their focus on their academic
work. This article also used a survey conducted by College Rover (2023) where they listed the
Top 10 artists that students with GPAs of 3.5 to 4.0 listen to most when they study. According to
the survey, Taylor Swift is the top artist for students with a high GPA. College Rover also
provided a survey to tell if a music genre is distracting or productive, and according to the
results, Hip-Hop/Rap is the most distracting with 27%, although it is not the least productive
genre, because that genre would be Reggae with 7%. Instrumental is the most productive with
50% while also being tied with Lo-Fi and Classical for least distracting with 3%. In conclusion,
the influence of music on academic performance is truly profound, however we must understand
that the evidence of the research is still ambiguous since music impacts students differently.
With this, the relationship between academic performance and music emphasizes the need for
a nuanced understanding, as well as highlighting that achieving academic success is unique for
each student, as their cognitive skills, learning style, and preferences vary significantly.

Conceptual Framework
The paradigm below represents the relationship of the impact of music as the
independent variable, while academic performance is the dependent variable, indicating the
effect of music to an individual’s performance in terms of academics.

IV DV

Research Questions
This research study pursues to answer the following research questions:

1. Are there specific genres or forms of music that have a favorable or bad impact on the
academic performance of Junior High School Students?
2. Is there a significant difference between the growth/decline percentage between
students who listen to music compared to those who do not listen to music?
3. What are the factors causing music to influence the Junior High School Students’ study
habits or patterns on their academic performance?
4. Can you share a specific situation or experience that music helped influence your focus
or study pattern to which it has improved/worsened your performance academically?
II. Methodology

Research Design
The current study utilizes a mixed method approach, which is the process that involves
the intentional collection of both quantitative and qualitative data and the combination of the
strengths of each to answer research questions (Creswell et al., 2011). The mixed method
approach assists us researchers to gain a richness of conclusions and insights that occur due to
the convergence of both quantitative and qualitative data, therefore strengthening the validity of
these conclusions. Sequential explanatory design is the planned research design to guide the
mixed method approach, which relatively starts with quantitative data being collected and
analyzed, then qualitative data is collected and analyzed based on the quantitative results,
which further helps the qualitative data be used to explain the quantitative data (Creswell, J.W.
& Creswell, J.D., 2018).

Research Participants
Respondents and participants all came from the Junior High School level in St. Mary’s
College of Meycauayan. For the quantitative component of the study, Junior High School
students (n=200) are involved in responding in the surveys that the researchers will provide,
with students (n=50) ranging from each grade level in Junior High School. The respondents of
the study are selected via simple random sampling, where all of the students are invited to
participate in the conducted study, where their level of involvement will be determined by their
completion of the survey distributed by the researchers. Because of the quantitative data, the
researchers will grasp and understand further the significance of music to students, as well as
helping to lay a foundation to create a structured interview for the qualitative research part of the
study.

For the qualitative portion of the mixed method approach, the participants include those
students who often listen to music. In addition, we will be including achievers and remedial
students, as well as average students who usually listen to music as their hobby in their learning
process. The total participants that will contribute to the study are 4 students. The participants
will be selected through convenience sampling by each grade level, where the researchers will
choose one achiever who engages in music from the Grade 7 level, one average student who
engages in music from the Grade 8 level, one remedial student but listen to music often in the
Grade 9 level, and lastly one student who has a musical background or who engages in different
musical areas from the Grade 10 level. The included participants will be selected via convenient
sampling, where they are classmates or friends with the researchers of the ongoing study, in
order to have easy access to a practical and efficient data collection process.

Research Instruments
The researchers in this study have used two instruments to gather and analyze the data.
The study involves a survey that contains indicators to determine how listening to music
significantly affects the performance of students’ in terms of their academics, the demographic
profile, the research survey questions which will be answered by the respondents, as well as the
informed consent. More so, the survey will tackle the different factors that are aligned with the
impact of music to their academic performance including the music factors such as the genre of
music, the duration of listening to music, and the volume at which the music played.
Furthermore, the survey includes the student factors such as their current academic status, their
description or perception of music as a beneficial source for the academe, their work
environment, and much more. The study involves a one-on-one interview with the researcher
and the selected participant to contribute to the study. The participants will share their narratives
and insights how music can develop their academic performance, how it has benefited or
worsened their performance academically. Similarly, an informed consent will be first given out
to the participants before the interview proceeds to ensure that the responses of the participants
will be confidential and to inform that it will be solely used for the significance of the study.

Data Gathering Procedure

To formalize the process of the study, permission was first given to the principal of the
school. Afterwards, permission was given to the corresponding respondents and participants via
the use of informed consents. Informed consents were prepared in both instruments, by
ensuring the confidentiality of their responses to the questions given by the researchers, and
informing the respondents with the central objectives and purpose of the study. With the help of
student teachers and advisers, the researchers will pass out the link of the done online survey
questionnaires to the respective advisers of each class, and then the respondents will
thoroughly assess and properly accomplish the given survey within any time of the day.

The second part of the study is the undertaking of a prepared interview about their
insights and viewpoints about the impact of music on their academic performance. Similarly to
the quantitative process, the researchers formally asked for the consent of the participants to
volunteer in the study, as well as asking for their permission to record the meeting for
interpretation and analysis purposes. Each participant that was selected to be included in the
study will be joining an online conference in the Zoom application, which is a well-known video
conferencing platform to allow users to connect around the world via digital means. The Zoom
meeting will be used as a faster way of gathering data. The meeting will be held for at least 10
to 25 minutes, where the participants will be answering and sharing their thoughts on the
predetermined questions presented by the researchers. The achieved results from the interview
will be transcribed to be used for analysis.

Data Analysis
The quantitative part of the study used descriptive statistics including standard deviation
and mean. The survey is graded 1 to 1.75 as Disagree. Furthermore, it is graded 1.76 to 2.50 as
Somewhat Disagree. Then, it is graded 2.51 to 3.25 as Somewhat Agree. Lastly, it is graded
3.26 to 4.0 as Agree. Standard deviation is used in the study to identify the homogeneity or
heterogeneity of the answers of the respondents of the study. The qualitative component of the
study employed structured protocols in the interview proper, referring that the researchers will
be conducting the interview with predetermined questions for the goal of getting specific
answers and information related to the objectives of the study. The insights and narratives of the
participants will be evaluated and transcribed with the assistance of a transcription video
software called Happy Scribe.

Ethical Issues
The study ensured the privacy of both the participants and respondents. Before
conducting the research, the researchers will crucially give out informed consent to the
students, prioritizing respect for individuals' privacy to know if they are willing to volunteer, and
ensuring that participants are fully aware of the study's purpose and objectives. The researchers
deliberately discussed the benefits and risks that the participants will gain for their involvement
in the study for them to be informed. The participants are not forced to be involved in the study,
and they are informed that they can withdraw anytime even during the process if they had a
change of mind and choose to not be part of the completion progress of the study. The
confidentiality of their names and personal information such as age were also disclosed to
ensure their privacy and safety, and the respondents’ and participants’ names were merely
optional. In addition, the participants do not have to answer every question that the researchers
are asking. Furthermore, the time of the participants will be respected by informing them that the
meeting will be conducted for a short period of time.