Education Resource

Peri Witny asked:


Another possible scenario is Aston Villa’s resurgence. The team has now occupied the third spot after they dislodged Arsenal in fourth place and Chelsea’s slip from third. Surprisingly, the team is doing it quietly, minus the pomp and buzz. If they continue to hold on to third place, then it means that Arsenal and Chelsea now have to fight for fourth place for a chance to play in the Champions League. Such is the importance of the Gunners’ match against Tottenham Hotspur.

In the first football result of Sunday, Tottenham missed the opportunity to pick up three precious points when it failed to win its match against Arsenal despite the Gunners being reduced to 10 men and had to settle to a 0-0 draw. Emmanuel Eboue was given the red card after he picked up two unnecessary yellow cards all in the first half. Arsenal fans then watched their senior striker Emmanuel Adebayor be taken out in what the Gunners suspect as a serious hamstring injury.

New Arsenal recruit Andrey Arshavin was not used in the match even if he was present at the substitutes’ bench as Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger still has doubts on Arshavin’s match fitness. The Russian playmaker has not played competitive football since the close of the Russian League for its winter break.

Robbie Keane made his first appearance for the club after a forgettable transfer move to Liverpool which saw him struggle for a place in the first team squad. He partnered Roman Pavlyuchenko in attack and seemed to be working quite well. They were unfortunate though to find the net for the impotant goals that could have placed the team further away from the relegation zone.

For Arsenal though, the draw has pleased the side no end as they know that with what happened on the pitch, things could have been worse and they might have suffered a loss. But the draw didn’t help their cause of entering the top four slots either.

Adebayor’s hamstring injury means that the striker shall be out for three weeks. In that span, he shall means the Gunners’ league games against Sunderland and Fulham, the FA Cup replay against Cardiff and the Champions League game against Roma. He joins the team’s long list of injured players among them Cesc Fabregas (knee), Thomas Rosicky (hamstring tendon), Mikael Silvestre (thigh), Abou Diaby (thigh) and Theo Walcott (shoulder).

Croatian striker Eduardo, who broke his leg almost a year ago, returned to the side and sat at the substitutes’ bench. He along with young Mexican striker Carlos Vela can cover for Adebayor’s absence at the forward position. Robin Van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner appear to be Wenger’s preferred attacking duo at the moment.

With Tottenham, manager Harry Redknapp is hoping that the cash splurge that he shelled out to buy players Keane and Jermaine Defoe shall jumpstart his team’s bid to escape relegation.

See all the soccer scores and the (EPL) English livescore at ScoresPro.com



Todd

Duane Shinn asked:


The idea that studying music improves the social development of a child is not a new one, but at last there is incontrovertible evidence from a study conducted out of the University of Toronto.

The study, published in the August issue of Psychological Science was led by Dr. E. Glenn Schellenberg, and examined the effect of extra-curricular activities on the intellectual and social development of six-year-old children. A group of 144 children were recruited through an ad in a local newspaper and assigned randomly to one of four activities: piano lessons, voice lessons, drama lessons, or no lessons.

Two types of music lessons were offered in order to be able to generalize the results, while the groups receiving drama lessons or no lessons were considered control groups in order to test the effect of music lessons over other art lessons requiring similar skill sets and nothing at all. The activities were provided for one year.

The participating children were given IQ tests before and after the lessons. The results of this study revealed that increases in IQ from pre- to post-test were larger in the music groups than in the two others. Generally these increases occurred across IQ subtests, index scores, and academic achievement.

While music teachers across the country greeted the new research enthusiastically, in fact, many other studies have previously shown a correlation between music study and academic achievement.

In 1997, well known music researchers Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and their team at the University of California (Irvine) reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science. A group led by the same two scientists had earlier showed that after eight months of piano lessons, preschoolers showed a 46 percent boost in their spatial reasoning IQ.

The March 1999 issue of Neurological Research published a report by another group of researchers, also at the University of California (Irvine), who found that second-grade students given four months of piano keyboard training, as well as time playing newly designed computer software, scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than other children.

Students with coursework and experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT, according to a Profile of Program Test Takers released by the Princeton, NJ, College Entrance Examination Board in 2001. This report stated that students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts participation.

Another part of this same study shows that longer music study means higher SAT scores. For example, students participating in the arts for two years averaged 29 points higher on the verbal portion and 18 points higher on the math portion of the SAT than students with no coursework or experience in the arts. Students with four or more years in the arts scored 57 points higher and 39 points higher on the verbal and math portions respectively than students with no arts coursework.

Another study also found support for a relationship between math achievement and participation in instrumental music instruction. The researchers found that students who participated in instrumental music instruction in high school took on the average 2.9 more advanced math courses then did students who did not participate.

In fact, various studies over the last 10 years suggest teaching kids music can heighten their aptitude for math, reading, and engineering. (One explanation for improved ability in mathematics is that music theory is based on mathematical truths. Rhythms are divided into fractions – half notes, quarter notes and eighth notes. Scales have eight tones, and the steps between them follow an equation.)

A McGill University study in 1998 found that pattern recognition and mental representation scores improved significantly for students given piano instruction over a three-year period. The researchers also found that self-esteem and musical skills measures improved for the students given piano instruction.

And data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 revealed music participants received more academic honors and awards than non-music students, and that the percentage of music participants receiving As, As/Bs, and Bs was higher than the percentage of non- participants receiving those grades.

In 1994, a report entitled “The Case For Music Study In Schools” was printed in Phi Delta Kappan, the professional print journal for education. It included details of research conducted by physician and biologist Lewis Thomas, who studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. Thomas found that 66 percent of music majors who applied to medical school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group.

The same report asserted that the very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry were, almost without exception, practicing musicians.

The world’s top academic countries also place a high value on music education. In a study of the ability of fourteen year-old science students in seventeen countries, the top three countries were Hungary, the Netherlands, and Japan. All three include music throughout the curriculum from kindergarten through high school.

St. Augustine Bronx elementary school, about to fail in 1984, implemented an intensive music program, and today 90 percent of the school’s students are reading at or above grade level. And a ten-year study at UCLA tracked more than 25,000 students, and showed that music making improves test scores. Regardless of socio-economic background, music-making students get higher marks in standardized tests than those who had no music involvement. The test scores studied were not only standardized tests, such as the SAT, but also in reading proficiency exams.

Music training helps under-achievers as well, according to research published in Nature magazine in May 1996. In Rhode Island, researchers studied eight public school first grade classes. Half of the classes became “test arts” groups, receiving ongoing music and visual arts training. In kindergarten, this group had lagged behind in scholastic performance. After seven months, the students were given a standardized test. The “test arts” group had caught up to their fellow students in reading and surpassed their classmates in math by 22 percent. In the second year of the project, the arts students widened this margin even further. Students were also evaluated on attitude and behavior. Classroom teachers noted improvement in these areas also.

In 2005, it appears the pace of scientific research into music making has never been greater. The most recent evidence from the University of Toronto confirms what many other researchers have already detected – that music boosts brainpower, academic achievement,socialization skills, and emotional health.

It’s logical, when you think about it. People who learn to play an instruments are in groups—bands, choirs, orchestras, combos, worship teams, etc. And working and making music with others is bound to help relateabilty with people and foster close bonds with fellow musicians.

So it appears that learning to play music, whether guitar, piano, or some other instrument, actually does contribute to your ability to “win friends and influence people.”



Franklin