Using heavy metal music to promote scientific thinking in the classroom

Discussion in 'Science & Society' started by Plazma Inferno!, Mar 1, 2016.

  1. Plazma Inferno! Ding Ding Ding Ding Administrator

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    Heavy metal music may not be something typically covered in an introductory psychology textbook, but it has a long history of unique instances that are directly related to psychology. There are many useful resources from this area of popular culture that can help students think like scientists. By incorporating examples from the world of heavy metal, educators can discuss scientific thinking in a way that is engaging and memorable for students.
    Helping students think like scientists—that is to apply the rigorous principles of hypothesis testing outside of the classroom—is a challenge. Robert Cialdini proposed that creating mystery in the classroom is an effective means to engage students and promote learning. Specifically, Cialadini argued that instructors should frame a lecture in the same way a mystery writer frames a novel, by posing a puzzle and providing the information for the reader—or in this case, the student—to solve it. The question, or mystery, can be broadly stated as, "Can music lead people to commit harmful acts?"
    Using the Cialadini approach of creating mystery, educators can frame a discussion around music as a way to introduce a variety of topics related to scientific thinking, such as logical fallacies, issues in research methodology, and biases in thinking.

    http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00146/full
     
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  3. Edont Knoff Registered Senior Member

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    I must say, that for intense thinking I need silence. Heavy metal may have its merits, but I can't see how it helps scientific thinking, unless it's meant to be used in a short motivational period before the actual brainwork.
     
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  5. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    When people say they can't hear themselves think I tell them, "THINK LOUDER!"
     
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  7. trevor borocz johnson Registered Senior Member

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    Here's a song that mentions the age of the alchemist, I don't know what the rest of it is about
     
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  8. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Quite. This seems to be the sort of imbecile dumbing down of the learning process that we should resist with all our might.
     
  9. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    People have vastly different relationships with music. Some people can't work without it, whereas others find it so distracting that they can't get anything done.

    I'm in the second group. I'm a (D List) musician and if there's music in the air my entire brain focuses on it. Fortunately there are important exceptions such as driving.
     
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  10. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    A flash back of Einstein and his love for music and the intersection of physics and music in his life. Mozart and Bach were his favorite composers, so I chose two pieces he liked to go with this video; Mozart's Quartet in G major, K.156 - I. Presto, and Bach's Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins - Vivace

     
  11. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Me too. Nowadays I don't even put it on when driving - I pay too much attention to it.
     
  12. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    The Double violin concerto is a favourite of mine too.

    But this has nothing to do with the daft idea of playing heavy metal to (presumably) thick students, in order to sugar the pill of science teaching.
     
  13. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    I disagree with the notion that *Heavy Metal* music stimulates intellectual productivity. In fact I believe the reverse is true.

    My own definition of Art is "the creation of that which evokes an emotional response leading to thoughts of the noblest kind."

    Heavy Metal just does not do that for me, I prefer spontaneous creation of beauty in Jazz.
     
  14. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I don't feel that a good teacher needs any help in teaching their curriculum to their students and those that say they do should be released from their teaching jobs as teachers and find other employment. Sure , some visual aids are needed but not neavy music for that would not only distract that classroom but other classrooms around that room. The best teachers just get it done by doing what they do best, teaching. Of course if they are music teachers then this doesn't apply.
     
  15. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    I can play music while doing certain things and not notice it at all.

    That doesn't apply to Heavy Metal. As a friend of mine once said, Heavy Metal gives you POWER. I once scared off a guard dog by growling at it when I was listening to Black Sabbath on my Walkman. "The people who have crippled you you want to see them burn."

    I don't know how that would apply to the classroom though.
     
  16. Oystein Registered Senior Member

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    Couldn't have said it better. Thank you.
     
  17. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    I agree, but would go one step further by using the term; "OVERPOWER", which MI, would negatively affect full mental development

    A test of cloned plants in two separated rooms with identical environments, except one room broadcasting melodious classical music and the other room with Heave Metal.
    It was proven that plants exposed to the classial music thrived and would actually lay some of their leaves on the speakers, while the plants in the other room had shrank away from the speakers and failed to thrive.
    IMO, heavy metal is using technology to dumb down our understanding and appreciation for true artistic musical expression. It's just angry music.
     
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  18. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    Music is famous for leading people to commit harmful acts.
    http://articles.baltimoresun.com/20...6_1_south-baltimore-bus-driver-monday-morning
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Jordan_Davis
    http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_b25b227c-db15-5c6b-998e-0f7bd0749500.html
    http://www.wptz.com/news/argument-over-loud-music-turns-violent-according-to-police/36833714
    http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-co...nd-man-beaten-baseball-bat-argument-over-loud

    If I were trapped in some psych classroom and forced to listen to heavy metal for a long time, I think I would probably come to the conclusion I was being used as a guinea pig for some psych experiment to which I had not consented. The subsequent data point could probably be interpreted as "harmful", by the kind of dweeb who would do that to somebody in the first place.
     
  19. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    I think you're right. On the other hand, anger is a useful emotion (as in my example). It just happens to be over-used quite often in our society. Heavy Metal music might be a better outlet for that anger. Get it out of your system while you're listening to music and then move on.
     
  20. gmilam Valued Senior Member

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    The article is not saying you should play music during class. The article is using the example of "Can music lead people to commit harmful acts?" to encourage the understanding of logical fallacies.

     
  21. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    well, there is the expression "drumming up support for the battle"

    Music is sound waves which can and do elicit violence. Some sound waves are *in harmony* with our bodies, and evoke noble emotions of while others induce a state of *excitement*, which may well lead to violence.

    This subject is touched on in a lecture by Max Tegmark, who cites Pythagoras as being one of the first thinkers to associate sound with human behaviors.
    The entire clip is ascinating but the reference to music is made @ 13:40
     
  22. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    There's a reason the English banned the playing of the Highland Pipes (also called The Warpipes) in subjugated Scotland.

    But they aren't always in the runup - also in the aftermath:
     
  23. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    Heavy Metal? Rap?

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    Tastes in music is subjective and up to the individual, but my tastes see heavy metal as bone jarring noise and rap as crap, that give me a splitting headache!.
    I often play music when I'm resting or doing some important research....
    Music that helps relax the mind.....
     

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