Singing, health and well-being in school – a societal matter

What happens to younger children in Swedish primary school when singing and making music decrease? The question has prompted the Royal Swedish Academy of Music to initiate a scientific study with the aim of investigating which functions children's singing affects.

The focus of the project, led by Pia Bygdéus, is how song activities integrated within the school day can support children’s cognitive and language development, contribute to improved learning environments, and strengthen social bonds.  

Singing is one of our oldest and most deeply rooted expressions and follows man from the cradle to the grave. The research group behind the project believes that research that examines the link between music and health in school is important for building knowledge about the connection between music, learning and well-being and for strengthening the song's place in the Swedish school.

Singing has been closely associated with the school but has for several decades shifted from the center of the curriculum. This means that today's school children have little opportunity to practice singing and to explore their voice based on their own conditions. The current state of knowledge indicates gains between children's song development and other areas. Despite this, singing and music are downgraded in school.

Children automatically adapt to the surrounding sound environment and therefore rarely reflect on their own voice and sound behavior. Voice research reports that voice problems in children are increasing and school is often reported to be a noisy workplace.

The central aim is to examine the effect of a model for research-based, developmentally appropriate singing instruction integrated into the school day on primary school children’s sense of well-being and learning environment, as well as measurement of associations between singing and cognitive, language and social competences. Song contains components that can be assumed to strengthen the linguistic ability, but the song's effect on language acquisition is only slightly explored. The study will be conducted so that teachers from two randomly selected, equivalent schools will be trained to sing with the children in a structured way with the support of the school's music teachers. The research group will monitor the children's development of social, linguistic and cognitive abilities, study peace and well-being and compare this with the control school.

The research project aims to build an evidence-based teaching model for singing instruction that can be used to offer singing for school classes in the lower ages in primary school where study peace, cognitive, linguistic, emotional and social development are in focus. At the end of the project, the collected data will lay the foundation for another pilot project with the aim of contributing to measures for an optimal sound environment for study peace and learning in the classroom. The idea is to create a classroom-based robot that with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) can help children create an optimal sound environment. This pilot project is as a potential study contributing to measures and methods for optimizing classroom soundscapes. 

Project:
“Sånghälsa i skolan – en samhällelig angelägenhet” (“Singing, health and well-being in school – a societal matter”)

Principal investigator:
Pia Bygdéus

Co-investigators:
Eva Bojner Horwitz
David Johnson
Viveka Lyberg Åhlander
Birgitta Sahlén

Institution:
Royal Swedish Academy of Music

Grant:
SEK 4 million