Step 8 // Reporting our findings

Here is a short summary of our findings. Read on to find out more!

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How we analysed our data:

We put together a plan for analysing our data. All groups from the trial itself got together and corrected the tests together, and compiled a table which included pre-test score, post-test score and the difference between them. They examined the scores and also read through the questionnaires, noting down any interesting findings. We also had a team specifically in charge of data analysis. This team calculated averages and compiled graphs with the teacher of average results of each group. They then analysed these figures and compared them.

What we learned (Our Findings)

In this test, it has been proved that the control groups had gotten the highest scores. Our analysis group have looked through graphs of the students marks and have been analysing them.

Control Groups

Control group no.2 did better than control group no.1 but both of them had gotten higher scores than the groups listening to music, so we now know that listening to music does not help you that much when studying

Pop vs Classical

We’ve learnt that classical music is better to listen to than pop while studying, but only by the tiniest bit as it depends on the person. Maybe pop is really the most distracting out of the three, because it has so much going on in the songs. Headphones pop had the lowest scoring post test, on average the participants score was six which was much lower than most of the other groups.

Speakers vs Headphones

We saw this on our analysis in our analysis group that the speakers did better than the headphones because our prediction is that with the headphones, people get distracted because the music is louder than background noise. It really just depended on the person. It might have been quite distracting as the headphones were in your ears and the speakers were in the distance.

From all this research, we have discovered that listening to music does not help as much while studying.

Interesting things we noticed:

The control group completed a survey after the test to get their feedback on the test. Seven people from the control group answered no, they do not listen to music while studying, yet on a separate question answered no, they would not use this method of silence while studying again. These findings suggest to us that perhaps we weren’t clear enough when explaining the questions.
There is also one other thing that we have noticed. We have noticed that some people while answering the Questionnaire put in that they thought the test was easy in one of the questions, when they had gotten lots wrong but then on the other hand, they wouldn’t have known if they had gotten the answers right or wrong.
While analyzing the tests and questionnaire, our class realised something interesting about some of the students answers. One or two of the children, when asked, was the test difficult, answered no, but that did not match up with their tests so we came to the conclusion that they only said that to make us think they are smart. Another thing we came across while analysing the questionnaires, was that one child said that it was easier to learn with music, but that child's test did not match up with their answer either.
Some people suggested that maybe some groups did not do as well because they found the study boring and did not try hard enough, but that didn't make sense because the majority of children said they enjoyed the study which was a question on our questionnaire.
H1: We noticed that student H1C and H1E said that the music did help them but H1C got double the score of H1E. We also noticed that student H1D found the music distracting and performed poorly on their test. Many of the students participating in our research said that the test was easy yet not all of them reached their potential.
As the leaders of the group analysed the tests and questionnaires they found some interesting data. H2U was the only person in their group to say that they found the method of listening to pop music on headphones difficult, yet they got the highest score out of the whole group and they got 15/15 in the test, which was strange because everyone else said it was easy but they all got much lower marks. H2L got the lowest mark in that group, they got 3/15 and also got the lowest improvement. From the information we gathered from the questionnaires, it seemed H2L was quite comfortable with the test and they seemed to find it easy enough to study with the music, whereas H2U who was the highest scoring person in the group seemed to be distracted and irritated by the music. We were surprised by this and still haven’t figured it out!

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