Mozart and Classroom

Management

Action Research Project

By: Jill Zdenek

Grand Valley State University

https://pixabay.com/en/music-note-music-note-musical-notes-1967480/

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 I am currently student teaching in a first-grade classroom at Palmer Elementary School

in the Grand Rapids Public Schools district. Every morning the first-graders are expected to

come into school, take off their coats, backpacks, etc., then come into the classroom and start a

“morning work” worksheet. The worksheet includes math, reading, and writing. The students

are often talkative during the fifteen minutes, 8:30-8:45am, in which they should complete

their work. After the fifteen minutes, they have to complete the morning work, we go over the

morning work as a class. At times, it is difficult to get the students to settle down and work on

their morning work. They seem to be talk a lot or appear to be off-task in other ways. I wanted

to see if I could find a way to get the classroom chatter down, to a minimum, during morning

routine, and create more productivity with the students.

I decided to do my research on classical music and student productivity because I heard

about the effects that classical music has on concentration. I heard that playing classical music,

when working, in various settings, can increase concentration and brain stimulation. I wanted

to see if playing classical music in a first-grade classroom would decrease the number of

students talking, during their completion of morning work, and if it would create greater

productivity. Would students talk less and complete more of their morning work, if I played

Mozart during the fifteen minutes of work time? Research has shown that playing Mozart can

help with classroom management (Linsin, 2009). Perhaps playing Mozart could help noise

control and productivity with the first graders at Palmer Elementary. One educator notes that

students may feel intimidated to walk into a classroom every morning. Walking into a

classroom in which Mozart, or another classical artist reverberates off of the walls, can create a

welcoming and relaxing atmosphere (Linsin, 2009). If students walk into a classroom in which

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they feel relaxed and comforted, they may be more inclined to do their morning routine and

talk less with their peers.

A similar Action Research Project was conducted at Logan Elementary School, Columbia,

SC, in Ms. Kingsley’s fourth-grade classroom. Students in the classroom were exhibiting

negative behaviors and were frequently off-task throughout the day (White, 2007). A study

was performed in an attempt to increase positive behavior and keep students on-task. Ten of

Ms. Kingsley’s students competed in the study. The study was conducted over a three-week

period. Classical music played in the morning when students entered the classroom, during

independent work, during small-group work, and when the students came in from lunch/recess

(White, 2007). Research was conducted by recording classroom observations of the ten

students competing in the study. The ten students were also asked informal questions about

their opinions on playing background music and how they think it impacted their ability to learn

and be productive (White, 2007). The researcher found that playing classical music in Ms.

Kingsley’s classroom was correlated to greater student productivity and an increase in positive

behaviors (White, 2007). Ms. Kinglsey’s students, who competed in the survey, experienced

the positive effects of playing classical music in a classroom.

In order for my action research project to be successful in Palmer’s first-grade

classroom, I made sure that I consistently played Mozart every morning that I conducted the

research. Educators say that consistency is important when analyzing the impact that classical

music has on classroom management (Vasicek, 2011). In my project, that meant I needed to

play Mozart every morning, during the two-week research period. I played Mozart for a two-

week period from, March 12th-26th, at 8:30-8:45am. Educators also say that it is important to

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have a purpose for playing music in your classroom (Vasicek, 2011). Before I conducted my

research, I informed the students that I would be playing classical music, for ten consecutive

school days, from 8:30-8:45am. I told them that I was hoping to see if they would talk less and

complete more of their morning work. I wanted to make sure that they were well aware of

why I decided to play Mozart. Throughout the research period, every day I counted the number

of students that were present in the classroom from 8:30-8:45am during the two-week period.

I wrote down the number of students that were present, each day, and then played Mozart for

the fifteen-minute period. For two minutes, during each fifteen-minute period, I analyzed the

number of students that were not talking and/or working on their morning work. I decided to

record and analyze my data, during a two-minute period, within the fifteen-minute period

because some students often left to go receive English Language Learner (ELL) support. I

usually gathered data, within a two-minute period, anytime in-between 8:39-8:45am, as most

students were already in the classroom, or had already left to receive ELL support. I then

counted the number of students, who were either talking about the morning work or who were

quietly doing their morning work. Students who were talking out loud, to help them complete

the morning work, were included in the number of students who were actively working on their

morning work. If students were not looking at their morning work i.e. spacing out, dozing, or

talking to a peer, about non-morning work, where not included in the number of students who

were being on-task and quiet. It is important that I did not only record students who were not

talking because the first-grade students often help each other or think out-loud, during morning

work. Therefore, I did include students who were helping each other with the morning work. I

wrote the number of on-task students down, out of the number of students that were present

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that day. After the two-minute analysis period, I also took note of which students had at least

completed the math portions of the morning work. I surveyed the students’ work and wrote

down the number of students that completed the math sections, or more of the morning work,

out of the total number of students present within the fifteen-minute time period.

My findings conclude that when I played Mozart, during a fifteen-minute period, for two

consecutive school weeks, at least seventy-five percent of the first-graders were quiet or where

on-task during the morning routine, every day. Therefore, there is a correlation between

classroom management and playing Mozart in the classroom. Three quarters of the present

students were quiet or were focusing on their morning work. It seems that playing Mozart

may help the first graders be quieter and more productive. An interesting side note is that at

other times, during the school day, the students would ask me if they could listen to music as

well. This reflects their willingness to listen to music while working and the possibility of them

even enjoying the music. In the future, I would like to replicate the project again, but also

survey students about their willingness to listen Mozart throughout the day. I want to ask them

if they enjoyed listening to the music, if they think they talked less while listening to it, and if

they think they completed more work while listening to Mozart.

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 References

Linsin, M. (2009, August 27). Classical Music and Classroom Management. Retrieved March 22,

2018, from https://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2009/08/27/classical-music-and-

classroom-management/

Vasicek, B. (2011, January 5). Music to Manage Your Classroom. Retrieved March 22, 2018,

from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/brent-vasicek/music-to-manage-your-

classroom/

White, K.N. (2007). The Effects of Background Music in the Classroom on Productivity,

Motivation, and Behavior of Fourth Grade Students. Columbia College, Columbia, SC.

Retrieved March 22, 2018, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED522618.pdf