Study finds link between extracurricular arts activities and improved grades
2023/06/28


A study conducted in Japan looked at how participating in music and visual arts activities after school affects students’ academic performance. The researchers found that being involved in these activities was linked to better overall academic performance.

At first, participating in music activities had a negative impact on grades in the first year. However, after two years, it started having a positive effect. The study was published in the npj Science of Learning.

Art education is often believed to cultivate creativity. Many see it as complementing the general education aimed at preparing individuals for professional careers and the world of work. Aside from developing artistic skills, art education can be said to promote self-expression and create a lifelong appreciation for art. In Japan, students have regular art classes throughout the year. They can also join cultural clubs that focus on artistic activities outside of regular school hours.

Previous studies have explored the connection between music, visual arts, and academic performance. While some studies have shown a positive relationship, there is still debate about the nature of this link. It’s also unclear how skills developed in music and visual arts transfer to academic performance.

The researchers, Chiaki Ishiguro and colleagues, wanted to delve deeper into the relationship between academic performance and music and visual art education. They expected that participating in these activities would lead to better academic performance indirectly, through improved performance in music and art classes. They believed that excelling in these subjects would then positively impact overall academic performance.

They conducted a 2-year survey of junior high school students in Japan that focused on the involvement in art as an extracurricular activity. Participants were 488 students from 5 public junior high schools in Sapporo, the prefectural capital of Hokkaido in Northern Japan. Students were between 12 and 13 years old at the start of the study. 229 of them were females.

The researchers conducted a two-year survey involving junior high school students in Japan. The participants were from five public schools in Sapporo, Hokkaido. They collected data on students’ academic performance at the beginning of the study and two years later. They also assessed the students’ socioeconomic status and collected information on their grades in various subjects, learning habits, and participation in extracurricular activities at different times.

They tested a statistical model proposing that participation in extracurricular music activities directly affected grades in music, which in turn affected the general academic results calculated from the five primary subjects. They tested a similar model for visual arts. Results showed that such models of influence are indeed possible.

However, while the model suggested that visual arts activities had a positive impact on overall academic performance, solely through the link with grades in visual arts, music activities had a direct effect on overall academic performance as well. In the first year, this effect was negative, meaning that participating in music activities reduced academic performance.

But when combined with the positive indirect effect, the overall impact became neutral in the first year. By the third year, the association became positive, indicating that participating in music activities was linked to better academic performance.

“Why did music club involvement have a negative impact on academic performance? Music clubs such as chorus and brass bands are reported to be the most frequent of cultural clubs; such clubs require students to practice extensively for instrumental performance and acquisition of choral skills,” the researchers wrote. “Therefore, the burden on students may have a negative impact on their learning of major subjects for the first year after joining a club.”

“However, after about two years, the students become accustomed to the activities and acquire sufficient skills. Such music learning in club activities may begin to have a positive impact on their academics over time. These results support that the positive effect of after school music involvement with general academic performance in previous studies was explained not by the involvement, but by the outcome of music learning.”

It’s important to note that the study did not collect detailed data on the specific activities students were involved in. Additionally, the students who participated in these extracurricular activities were self-selected and represent a small portion of the student population. Lastly, the study design does not allow for any definitive cause-and-effect conclusions to be made.

The study, “Extracurricular music and visual arts activities are related to academic performance improvement in school-aged children”, was authored by Chiaki Ishiguro, Toru Ishihara, and Noriteru Morita.

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