A study of the relationship between instrumental music education and critical thinking in 8th- and 11th-grade students

The purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship between instrumental music education in Grades 8 and 11 and critical thinking as assessed by the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment. The subsets that were examined included Reading (B): Interpretation and Analysis of Fictional and Nonfictional Text, which assesses the academic standards 1.1, Learning to read independently, standard 1.2 Reading critically in all content areas, standard 1.3 Reading, analyzing and interpreting literature, and Mathematics, sections C.1 Geometry—Analyze characteristics of two and three dimensional shapes, D.2 Algebraic concepts—Analyze mathematical situations using numbers, symbols, words, tables and/or graphs, and E.1 Data analysis and probability— Interpret and analyze data by formulating answers or questions (Pennsylvania Department of Education, 2009–2010). The sample consisted of Instrumental students (N = 50) and Noninstrumental music students (N = 50) over 2 graduated high school classes. The results indicated that the Instrumental music sample consistently outscored the Noninstrumental music sample when comparing the Reading B, Mathematics M.C.1, M.D.2, and M.E.1 subsections of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment with significant increases noted from 8th to 11th grade.