The effect of supporting secondary school 5th grade science course with music on student achievement

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of music-assisted instruction on student achievement in Science Course. In the study, quasi-experimental design with control group was preferred from quantitative research methods. The sample consisted of (47) forty-seven fifth grade students who benefited from educational activities in a public school in Tokat province in the 2016-2017 academic year. In the study, two existing classes with close academic achievement levels were studied. The selection of the experimental group and the control group from these classes was done as a result of an unprejudiced and random lottery made by the school administration. Before the application, the researcher wrote six lyrics covering the unit "Let's Visit the World of Living Things" on popular melodies. The written lyrics were recorded by the researcher by vocalizing them on the appropriate infrastructure and made ready to be used in the research. Thirty-five questions developed by the researcher were shared with four science teachers with ten years or more of professional experience and their opinions were obtained. After receiving positive feedback, the questions were shared with two field experts by adding the table of specifications. With the opinions of the field experts, the number of questions was reduced to thirty-two by removing three questions. The questions developed by the researcher in line with the expert opinions received were made ready for the pilot application. The pilot study was conducted with ninety-eight sixth grade students. The results were analysed according to the test analysis program (TAP 6) and the number of questions was reduced to 24. In the study investigating the effect of music on student achievement in science teaching, the current science curriculum was applied to both experimental and control groups by the course teacher. The researcher was physically present in the education and training environment of the experimental group as well as the control group during the implementation. In the experimental group, unlike the control group, songs prepared by the researcher with lyrics written by the researcher were played in the first ten minutes of the lesson which is the introduction part of the lesson. The study lasted for three weeks. In the study, pre-test, post-test and retention tests (four weeks and eight weeks later) were applied and "The Achievement Test" was used as a data collection tool. The data obtained from the experimental and control groups were analysed with independent-samples t-test and paired-samples t-test using the SPSS program. When the results of the pre-test, post-test, retention tests conducted after four weeks, and retention tests conducted after eight weeks were compared and analysed, a significant difference was found in favour of the experimental group. It was concluded that music can be used as a teaching method in science lessons. In the last part of the study, suggestions were presented based on the findings obtained regarding the sub-problems of the study.