Scholarly Commons

Assessing Whether Pre-Class Music Improves Student Performance

In economics education literature, educators tout the benefits of active learning: from pre-class music to in-class activities in lieu of typical “chalk-and-talk” lecture. However, no literature quantifies the effects of active learning at the principles of economics level. To quantify these effects, I designed an experiment where five professors from Susquehanna University, East Tennessee State, Westfield State, and California Polytechnic State participated. Prior to the experiment, each professor only lectured with no pre-class music. Every aspect of their course stayed the same except for beginning every principles of economics class with pre-class music. Based on this experimental data, I anticipate finding statistically significant evidence via censored regression that pre-class music does increase student exam scores. I utilize difference in difference modeling to capture potential discrepancies between the treatment group (i.e. students who did not watch pre-class music) and the experimental group (i.e. students who were exposed to pre-class music).