June 21, 2011

What are the results of including hiphop music into study lessons on students behavior?
Research Methods (PGDMS)
This paper will explore some of the effects of including music into lecture lessons and it will also determine the effect of this on students approach to work. The aim of this research is to find out whether this approach to learning has any benefit on students performances or not. Submitted by: Umar H.Mughal Submitted to: Dr. Tommie Anderson

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Contents
1.0 Executive Summary 3 1.1 Acknowledgements.. 4 2.0 Introduction. 4 3.0 Literature Review................................................... 5 4.0 Research Methodology. 10 4.1 Data Gathering 11 5.0 Findings and Discussions 11 5.1 Post-Interview Students. 15 5.2 Instructor interview. 16 5.3 Control group examination 17 5.4 Research group examination.. 17 6.0 Conclusions 18 7.0 Bibliography.. 20 8.0 Appendices. 23

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1.0 Executive Summary The purpose of this study is to evaluate if the inclusion of background music will have any effect on the students motivation and their learning capabilities. The goal of this study is to find out that whether inclusion of hip-hop music in the literature class will help students to learn more quickly or it will have no effect on students motivation. Research based studies including the use of hip-hop music in education are very less. Due to this fact some articles from different research studies were explored in which some research has already been done on the effectiveness of background music in the classroom, research based articles from the background of hip-hop and several assessment based research on hip-hop literature. I will approach to teachers who are teaching English foundation courses at KFUPM and will interview them briefly about their thoughts through online communication. The articles that will be read, they all will support the effectiveness of hip-hop music in literature class that will ultimately help in the learning process. It will also show the effect that hip-hop music have on well know culture, and it will also testify creative uses of hip-hop culture and music in the classroom. The main aim of this study is to find out whether by including music in the background of English literature classes will help the students to complete their task or it will have no impact on students performance. It can be measured by experiments. For example research group and control group experiments. In these experiments we will give task to control group without having music in the background and see their time on task. After that music will be included in the background and will measure now how much time they had taken. This will help us to determine whether background music have any impact on students time on task.

4|Page Qualitative data collection methods are used for this research. The students were given questionnaires which included six questions concerning learning characteristics. The main limitation of this research is the restricted time within the course semester. With more time available the research could have been broadened by increasing the number of students sampled.

1.1 Acknowledgements
First and headmost I would like to thank my Lord (ALLAH) who enabled me to put effort on my research and helped me all the way to final point. Secondly, I would like to thank my Father (Mr. Muhammad Hanif Mughal) who is working in KFUPM as a personnel specialist in college of industrial management (CIM). Without his help it would have been difficult for me to distribute surveys to students and take time from teachers for interview session. I would also like to express my sincerest gratitude to my teacher (Dr. Tommie Anderson) who has helped me in this research throughout the semester. 2.0 Introduction

Hip-Hop music has gone beyond than just a type of music. All demographics of people from children to adults are impacted by pop culture. In fact hip-hop music has been so well-known, that it has been targeted by media to youth in television programs, advertisements and games (Blair, M. 1993). This way of targeting youth is important because this is how todays youth identify with. If this is true, then why we are not combining these aspects into our educational system?

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At every college/university usual coursework is part of the syllabus where some students are able to learn from methods of teaching, reading, writing and teacher explanation but many others are not able to learn due to causes such as lack of motivation and lack of comprehension. If students can get over the difficulty in learning at lower level such as English foundation courses then they will face severe difficulty at higher level. For students who are not motivated by traditional methods of teaching, if the literature is presented in media form than the students will not only able to understand the subject but also they will explore the deeper meanings of the presented subject matter. However, background music does play a part in learning process to some extent but some questions came up in mind with this assumption. First, which music will work? Secondly any music or some genres or types of music will do. To understand this survey has designed for students where this research has been done. There are some genres presented in front of students and they have been asked to choose their favorite music genre among all. By this it is easy to identify which genre student will like most and that can be used in the class room. 3.0 Literature Review: In some previous research studies, it was proved that music has a positive influence on students concentration periods and it also improves their working time on a specific task assigned. Manthei and Kelly (2004) did a research study in which seventy two students were enrolled in a math course and they all were presented with classical music before testing to identify the effects of this on their math scores. The results were

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not so compelling because the subject on which the research has been done is mathematics. However, it was proposed that further studies could be done. Manthei and Kelly (2004) suggested that there is a strong correspondence between the effects of background music used in different academic subjects other than mathematics. Music can play a vital role in cases where the concentration spans of students are short in a class room thus making things difficult for teachers. Music can help them remain attentive and interested in the class room and it will help the teachers in getting attention of the students. Background music has been used in many places such as television/radio, multimedia and games. The use of music in class rooms has very much like the same effect on retaining and increasing the attention spans of students. Levy conducted a research on eighty undergraduate students in some class rooms. These students were exposed to television programs with unpleasant background music and some others were exposed to television programs with very appealing background music. The study revealed that programs that have very appealing background music were watched relatively longer than the programs with unpleasant, slow or with no music. Another study which was conducted by Levy, in which students were asked to choose the music genre which they all like most and then they were given pen and paper assignments. After this students were asked to complete questionnaires for the study to be concluded. It was proved by Levy that background music has a little enhancing impact on students attainment.

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Previous research studies also prove that background music also has an effect on students time on the task as it had on students attention spans. Davidson and Lowell (1986) had conducted a research study in which sixty two college students were studied to identify that whether background music has any impact on students time on task or not. It was found that students significantly have more on task performance when music was played. Davidson and Lowell suggested that providing background music in the class room is reasonable and economical technique for increasing the time in which students are intensely participating in the learning process (Davidson and Lowell, 1986). All these studies prove that music has a positive effect on students attention spans and their time on task. With rise of Hip-Hop music as one of the most well known form of music it is absolutely vital to understand the effect of this on todays young people. As Giroux and Simon (1989) state Popular culture represents a significant pedagogical site that raises important questions about the relevance of everyday life, student voice and the investments of meaning pleasure that structure and anchor the why and how of learning. (p.5) Ibrahim conducted a research study in which he interviewed students of secondary school. In his research he came to know that hip-hop music has a tremendous impact on students from their way of talking to how they dress. The main language of students from that school was French but most of the students use Black English when communicating with each other. When asked that how they learn this English almost all of them stated television programs and songs of hip-hop music. Ibrahim suggested that

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Hip-Hop music can be used as an effective teaching strategy to attract students to actively engage in the learning process. The question now arises that if hip-hop music has such a significant impact on young people, why it is not used as an effective teaching strategy. According to Morrell and Duncan-Andrade (2002), Hip-Hop can be used as a bridge linking the seemingly vast span between the streets and the world of academics. Some teachers have found that Hip-Hop can be used as a strategy to engage students in the learning process. According to Morrell and Duncan-Andrade (2002), Hip-Hop music transcended the racial divide and allowed us to tap into students lives in ways that promoted academic literacy and critical consciousness. Some teachers are incorporating Hip-Hop music into their literature lessons and they think that it is a very good strategy to get students attention. In a high school at northern California, teachers are including hip-hop songs and lyrics into their lectures. As a part of the lecture session students are asked to examine and determine the literature with hip-hop songs and lyrics. The results were affirmative. Students were actively engaged into their task and they were able to associate connections to the literature (Morrell and Duncan-Andrade, 2002). Hip Hop music has been used in middle school and Alexander Smith (2006) a teacher

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Argues that using Hip-Hop and spoken word poetry can help urban students engage in the study of literary terms. (p.59). Jamal A. Cooks, an assistant professor at San Francisco State University used hip-hop music in his stimulating writing classes. Cook writes,
Although I questioned how people would respond to my using hip-hop and rap because of the explicit lyrics, controversial perspectives, and nontraditional curriculum content, there was no resistance from the students, parents, or administration, because the students maintained a high level of interest in the class. (p. 75). He also mentioned that If educators can move students to the point of respecting the parallels in creating nonacademic and academic writing- specially raps, essays, and expository texts- then we will improve the teaching and learning of writing in urban public schools.(Cook, p.76). Conclusions Based on the research studies stated above it has been proved that hip-hop music can be used as an effective teaching strategy in order to enhance learning process. If some elements of hip-hop combined and used in English literature classes it will not only capture students attention but also it will increase the students ability to perform on the task.

4.0 Research Methodology and Planning

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The purpose of this study is to evaluate if the inclusion of background music will have any effect on the students motivation and their learning capabilities. The goal of this study is to find out that whether inclusion of hip-hop music in the literature class will help students to learn more quickly or it will have no effect on students motivation. The main aim of this study is to find out whether by including music in the background of English literature classes will help the students to complete their task or it will have no impact on students performance. It can be measured by experiments. For example research group and control group experiments. In these experiments a task will be given to control group without having music in the background and see their time on task. The other group will perform in the presence of hip-hop music and the time will be observed. This will help us to determine whether background music have any impact on students time on task.

What are the results of including hip-hop music into study lessons on students behavior?

What will be the impact of hip-hop music on students time on task?

The research has been done at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in the department of English foundation courses. The department demographics are 65% Saudi, 25% Asians and 10% European. The participators in the research study are currently taking English foundation courses and all are above 18. 4.1 Data gathering

11 | P a g e The research was conducted at KFUPMs university foundation programmes department. The research comprised of two English language foundation classes taught by Uzair Mirza. Total 46 questionnaires were distributed and all of them had been received. The results of survey will be displayed in findings and discussions. The research study comprised of three fifty-minute class periods for both control group and research group. The students were divided into groups of five. The students were assigned by a poetic term and poem and allotted two fifty minute class periods. Qualitative collection methods have been used and before the beginning of lesson, students were given a questionnaire which consists of six questions concerning the learning attributes (Appendix A). After starting of lesson, two observers have observed the attitudes of students and their working time on a task when they will be going to develop three-minute presentation. After completion of allotted time period five randomly selected students are chosen for the post-interview (Appendix B). The post interview had undertaken in order to identify whether the attitudes of students have been increased or unchanged after the use of hip-hop music as another form of study. At the end, a post interview with the lecturer Uzair Mirza had been done to get his consideration and assessment regarding the session. The only limitation of this study is the allotted time frame within the semester. If the time had been greater the research could be broadened by increasing the number of students sampled. 5.0 Findings and Discussions The research project had been divided into two groups called as Research group and control group. From total of 46 sampled students each group had been allotted with 23 number of students. The racial ethnicity of Research group and control group is shown below in the form of graphs.

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Control Group
Saudi European Asians

15%

50% 35%

Fig (a)

Research Group
saudi Asian 10% European

25%

65%

Fig (b)

13 | P a g e Before the research study students were asked to return questionnaires (Appendix A). Questions such as the music choice of students, their most liked exercise in English class and their mental outlook regarding the research. 1. Music Choice Control Group The students were asked to rate their music choice in between hip-hop, classical, jazz, rock and roll and R&B. Rating is done in this way: from strongly dislike being 5 and strongly like being 1 as the ratio.

Music Choice (Control Group)

10 8 6 4 2 0 Rock and Roll Hip-Hop Country R&B

Fig (c)

Music Choice (Research Group)

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Rock and Roll R&B Country Hip-Hop

Fig (d)

14 | P a g e Favorite Activity in English class For the favorite activity in English class for the research group 25% students gave no answer, 20% chose writing, 10% chose class discussions, 20% watching movies, 10% poetry unit and 15% chose reading. For the control group 25% people said watching movies, 15% said class discussions, 10% gave no response, 25% reading, 15% poetry unit and 10% writing.

Favorite activity in English Class

Research Group
15% 25% 10% No response Writing Class discussions Watching Movies Poetry/Rap unit 20% 20% Reading

10%

Fig (e)

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Favorite Activity in English Class

Control Group
10% 15%

25% Watching movies Class Discussions No Response 15%

25% 10%

Reading Poetry Unit Writing

Fig (f) 5.1 Post Interviews Students After completing the session students were asked questions from both control group and research group (Appendix C) and some qualitative questions were asked. Five randomly selected students were interviewed from both groups. Control group demographics include 3 students (60%) Saudi and 2 of the students (40%) Asian. Research group demographics include 2 students (40%) Saudi, 2 students (40%) European and 1 student (20%) Asian. From Control group total five participants who had taken part in the research four of them expected to get above 90 or more on the task. From research group, from total number of five students four of them said they would expect 80 or more. Another question stated in the questionnaire is about the level of understanding and interest. When asked all of the research group had said that their level of understanding had been increased. 3 from 5 students said that there level of understanding and their interest have been increased. When the interview asked

16 | P a g e about the methods in which both group prefer teaching, research group students asked they would like to be taught in Hip-Hop way. 80% of students in the control group had said that they would also like to be being taught in hip-hop lyrics style. 5.2 Interview- Teacher At the end of the research study, teacher had been asked to give a brief interview. The teacher was asked to examine and contrast the understanding of both groups and he declared as follows The students in the research group had shown good understanding of comprehension and understanding as compared to control group (Uzair.I.Mirza) The teacher recommended there are some changes that could be made to improve lesson and he act in response as follows He said that students should be given more time to create their hip-hop rap song (Uzair.I.Mirza) When the interview asked about the second question relating to the research study about what he think about the addition of hip-hop music on students time on task the teacher replied as follows On the first day the students in the control group was working more on the assignment because the task was very much alike to the projects that they did work in the past. The research group however was in confusion because they really didnt understand what they have been asked to do. The second day control group did very less work because they have to do the three minute presentation only. The research group students were more involved in

17 | P a g e the second day and they are much interested because they know they have to present and to do that they need to mount 5.3 Control Group Examination It was examined that the control group students were more attentive and they were spending more time on the assignment in the initial stage of the unit. The research group students were not so focused and it seemed that they really didnt understand the subject matter. However, control group students were not willing to come up front and present their material and the level of interest was very low. When the presenters presented in front of the class it was noted that some students were not listening and some others were doing other activities. 5.4 Research Group Examination Research group students were highly interested in presenting their project in front of the class. Some students were feeling stage freight but the nervous students performed brilliantly. All students in the class were enjoying the presentations and were not doing any other activities during presentation period. Their level of interest and their motivation had been increased and they all were enjoying the presentation. The teacher for both groups was the same but it came into sight that students from the research group have enjoyed the lesson more as compared with the students of the control group. It was also noticed by the instructor that the feature of the presentation was also dissimilar. The students in the control group presented incomplete project and it seemed that very less work has been done on those assignments. Opposite to control group, the students in the research group presented their projects complete and in well organized and professional manner.

18 | P a g e 6.0 Conclusions It can be concluded from these observations that students in control group were not very much interested in their work and the level of understanding is not very high. They also were not willing to present on the presentation day and their task was also incomplete. Adverse to control group, students in research group seemed to be more confident and enthusiastic about their presentation and their level of interest and understanding is high. The students in the research group presented their task completely and in well organized and professional manner. By doing qualitative analysis of the data we gathered and by doing surveys, interviews and through examination of both groups, it is apparently clear that (85%) of students in both the control and research group have liked hip-hop before the starting of the study. After analyzing the gathered data which was received through surveys and interviews, the study came into conclusion that hip hop music do play a part in changing the attitude of the students. By observations and analysis it is apparently very clear that the inclusion of music into English literature classes will not only help in changing the students attitudes but it will also help in their learning capabilities. Their level of interest will increase and they will understand the comprehension in greater meanings. It can be used as a very good teaching strategy for the teachers to control the attention of students which are not highly motivated to take part in the class. As we noticed during the presentation when hip-hop music was used in the presentations the other activities in the class was reduced and every student was listening to the presentation. Hip-hop or any other music can be used as an effective teaching strategy and it depends a lot on students who want to use music genres as part of their education. The students where this research study was done have other music preferences and it could be possible that these

19 | P a g e preferences may subject to change from people to people. After completion of this research study, i would like to recommend that the time period for the lesson must be increased. It is also advised that students must have their own choice of selecting music genres for creating lyrics. The students must be allowed to select their own music style which is most to their interest. The study can further be conducted with colleges with more contrasting student population.

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Bibliography

1. Blair, M. (1993). Commercialization of rap music youth subculture. Journal of popular culture, 21-32

2. Manthei, M., & Kelly, S.N. ("n.d."). Effects of popular and classical background music on the math test scores of undergraduate students. Available at: http://music.arts.usf.edu/rpme/effects.htm Accessed Date: [22-06-2011]

3. Giroux, H. & Simon, R. (1989). Popular culture as pedagogy of pleasure and meaning. In Giroux, H. & Simon, R. (Eds.) Popular Culture, Schooling, and Everyday Life. Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey Publishers, Inc. 1-20.

4. Davidson, C.W., & Powell, L.A. (1986). The effects of easy-listening background music on the on-task-performance of fifth-grade children. Journal of Educational Research, 80(1), 29-33.

5. Morrell, E., & Duncan-Andrade, J.M. (2002). Promoting academic literacy with urban youth through engaging hip-hop culture. British Journal, 91(6), 88-92.

21 | P a g e 6. Ibrahim, A. (2004). Operating under erasure: Hip-Hop and the pedagogy of affective. Available at: http://awadmibrahim.blogspot.com/2007/11/operating-under-erasurehip-hop-and.html Accessed Date: [19-06-2011]

7. Levy, Y. ("n.d."). The effects of background music on learning: A review of recent literature. Available at San Diego State University, Department of Educational Technology. [URL] http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/ED690MJ/Examples/LitRev/Levy.htm Accessed Date: [21-06-2011]

8. Alexander-Smith, A.C. (2004). Feeling the rhythm of the critically conscious mind. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/pss/4128810 Accessed Date: [21-06-2011] (English journal. volume 93, No.3 January 2004)

9. Cook, J.A. (2004). Writing for something: Essays, raps and writing preferences. English Journal, Available at: http://www.jstor.org/pss/4128851 Accessed Date: [20-062011] 10. Davidson, C.W., & Powell, L.A. (1986). The effects of easy-listening background music on the on-task-performance of fifth-grade children. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/pss/27540238 Accessed Date: [20-06-2011]

11. Morrell, E., & Duncan-Andrade, J.M. (2002). Promoting academic literacy with urban youth through engaging hip-hop culture. Available at:

22 | P a g e http://www.craftinc.org/literacy-e-books/promoting-academic-literacy-with-urbanyouth-through-engaging-the-hip-hop-culture.pdf Accessed Date: [19-06-2011]

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Appendices
Appendix (A) Questionnaire
PART I: SURVEY PARTICIPANTS INFORMATION:

FIRST NAME: _____________________________________

LAST NAME: _____________________________________ Gender: o Male o Female Age Group:

o o o 18-25 25-32 Over 32

RACIAL ETHNICITY o o o Saudi European Asians

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PART II: SURVEY QUESTIONS:

Strongly like (5) Like (4) Indifferent (3) Dislike (2) Strongly Dislike(1)

1. Rock and Roll

Artists such as: The Beach Boys Dick Dale Blink 182

2. Pop Artists such as: Britney Spears, Shakira Rihanna Justin bieber

3. Country:

Artists such as:

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Sugarland Zac Brown Shania Twain Taylor Swift

4. Hip Hop

Artists such as: Akon Jay-Z Eminem 50 cent

5. R & B

Artists such as: Chris Brown Usher Beyonce R Kelly

26 | P a g e 4. What is your preferred exercise in class? _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 5. In general, what is your approach towards English class? _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________

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Appendix (b) Post Interview Students

Name: __________________________________ Group Type:
o o

Control Study

1. What do you think of the hip-hop music as an alternative form of review? Do u like it or not? Why/ Why not?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What is your most liked and most disliked activity in the English class? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What do you think of your level of understanding poetry? o o o Decreased Unchanged Increased

28 | P a g e 4. Which method you prefer of being taught, hip-hop method or other form? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

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Appendix (c) Instructor Interview Questions Instructor Name: Mr. Uzair I. Mirza (Im_uzair_mirza@yahoo.com) (0092-336-4081343)
1. What one of the group do you think has a better understanding of poetry when the session was finished? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What is the effect of including music on students time on task? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What are some of the changes you would like to recommend? If any please explain below _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________