How different types of music can influence the

studying process in 12- to 16-year-old students of

Agora Portals

Word count: 1081

Table of Contents:

1. Identifying the
context.......................................................................................................................... 1
a. Research
question........................................................................................................................ 1
b. Aim............................................................................................................................... 1
c. Introduction.................................................................................................................. 1
d. Environmental
issue.............................................................................................................................. 2
e. Local and global
connections................................................................................................................... 3
1. Planning........................................................................................................................ 3
a. Hypothesis.................................................................................................................... 3
b. Identification of
variables....................................................................................................................... 3
c. Materials....................................................................................................................... 4
d. Methodology................................................................................................................ 4
e. Sampling
strategy......................................................................................................................... 5
f. Risk assessment, Ethical and Environmental
considerations............................................................................................................... 5
Identifying the context

Research question:
To what extent do different types of music affect the studying process of 12 to 16 years old
students of Agora Portals?

Aim:
The aim of this report is to find the right types of music that could help the concentration,
memory skills, and ability to understand while studying. It could improve many students’
lives when it comes to school and academic grades. Additionally, I believe that the survey
could help many people find the right motivation to study in the most efficient way, while
also enjoying the process.

Introduction:
Having practiced music since I was five years old, I was always trying to find ways to integ-
rate it in my daily life in the most efficient ways possible. I started listening to music while
cooking, doing homework, cleaning, etc., as well us experimenting with distinct types of mu-
sic while studying, since it has always been hard for me concentrating and memorising large
pieces of information. I have realised throughout the years, that calmer music, like classical
music, has helped me distribute my time better, in a more efficient way and concentrate better
during studying.

I would like to use the experiment method to study on different days while listening to clas-
sical, pop, and no music and see if there are any changes in the process and outcome. After
annotating the results, I made a survey to ask other people to do the same and answer to some
specific questions, telling me their results.
Listening to music can be immensely helpful when it comes to studying, but it also depends
on the genre and several types of music that can either help you concentrate but it can also
distract you from your work (1).  

Music can help your brain in such a way that it trains it to pay better attention to assignments
and predict potential future events (2). A study showed that listening to music during study-
ing reduces anxiety as much as a massage, as well as dealing better with stress and other
mental health issues (3).

Environmental issue:
Using the research question above, there is nothing that affects the environment whatsoever.
Every information taken will be done on the laptop, not using any type of waste like paper or
plastic that could worsen the state of climate change.

Every person that is going to take part of the survey will answer all the questions through in-
ternet. There is going to be an a, b, c questions test that people will be able to answer easily
and their response will get sent to me anonymously automatically. This method is used so
that the environment is not damaged by waste.

In the research question, I am going to study while listening to diverse types of music on the
background and see how it can affect my concentration, memory, etc. Also, do a survey ask-
ing anonymously different students from 12 to 16 years old to do the same and answer to
some questions, giving me their results.

___________________________

(1) Karin Gepp (2022), Music and studying: it’s complicated, Healthline, Music and Studying: Do They
Go Together? (healthline.com), Date of access: 17/10/2022
(2) Florida National University (2019), The benefits of studying with music, FNU, Does Music Help You
Study: Science Says There Are Many Benefits (fnu.edu), Date of access: 17/10/2022
(3) Hasan (2007), Music and studying, DIR Journal, Music and Studying (dirjournal.com), Date of access:
17/10/2022
Local and global connections:
Music can affect our daily life in many ways. For example, when we study, if we listen to
some specific types of music, it can either distract or help us concentrate better. Or even just
simply playing some background music while doing house chores, or cooking can improve
our mood and make our day more productive. This topic is around anyone around the world,
it is more of a global issue rather than local, because anyone get use music to improve their
lives. Music is such an important part of everyone's’ lives even if people may not realize, but
it is everywhere. When you go and take a walk, you pass by some restaurants that have music
playing, or you go to the gym, and they have it on the background to help people be more en-
ergetic. Everyone uses music from day to day without even realizing the advantages and im-
provements it can get you.

Planning

Hypothesis:
According to a study in Learning and Individual Differences, classical music can have an ef-
fect on the brain, stimulating arousal and happiness, which can help students concentrate bet-
ter on their tasks. The experiment states that as long as the music is not too dynamic so that it
does not become distracting, classical performances are associated with better outcomes on
students’ exams (4).

Meanwhile, listening to pop music, could worsen the efficiency of the student and making
them absorb less information. Also, it can have negative effects on mood and reading com-
prehension, making it more difficult to concentrate (5).

Lastly, studying in a quiet environment can help with your concentration and understanding
information. At the same time, some people need to have some kind of background music to
be able to focus and not get distracted by any minor sound.

Classical music would help the participants concentrate better on studying, and improving
their memory, while pop music would rather distract them more and elongating their process.
Whereas no music would be better than listening to pop, being more focused and managing
your time better, but worse than listening to classical music, because you will not feel as con-
centrated and would process the same amount of information in longer periods of time.
Identification of variables:

Variables What? How?

Dependent The studying process because it depends on what
type of music you listen to
Independent The classical, pop and no because if you change the di-
music verse types of music, it
changes the outcome
Controlled The time of day, environ- Because different condition
ment, and subject you are and affect the outcome.
studying for.

Materials:

- Instagram
- Microsoft Teams
- Microsoft Excel
- Classical music
- Pop music
- No music
- 3-4 hour studying process
- Subject you are studying for
- Notebook of certain subject
- Google-Forms questionnaire: to collect the data of every participant
- 30, 12 to 16 years old students from Agora Portals participating in the survey

Methodology:
 1. Questions about the studying process of multiple choice and optional written ques-
tions
2. The survey will be sent through Instagram and Microsoft Teams to the participants
3. Results were put into a Microsoft Excel sheet
4. An average was made from the results of each type of music
5. A graph was made indicating the percentage of how many people chose each type of
music

Sampling strategy:
I chose to use a survey through a question test so that the people who will answer it, do not
use any paper and it does not affect the environment. It is a quite frequent problem when it
comes to global warming and climate change, throwing too much waste and polluting the
planet. By using the internet, it will not affect the environment and it is a more accessible
way for people.

It will be anonymous so that I cannot be influenced into understanding the results any differ-
ently depending on the person. The results should be strictly professional, and not knowing if
your friend or your enemy answered the questions, will not affect the conclusion and the out-
come. Also, it is cheaper than having to print papers with the questions, you can get the res-
ults much faster and transfer the data in an Excel sheet would be easier.

Also, by using the Google Forms questionnaire, I will be sent the results immediately after
completing the test, making it much easier to collect and complete the data. And by having
the data saved automatically on my computer, it is also much more efficient and faster to put
the information into the Microsoft Excel document.

Risk assessment, Ethical and Environmental considerations:

The questions weren't very intrusive or personal, and participants were notified that their an-
swers will be kept anonymous in the Google Form's description, which should encourage
them to be more honest. In addition, in order to save paper usage, I just printed one copy of
the questionnaire. To prevent a larger energy use, media was not included on the question-
naire.
Results and data presentation:
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