Examining Culturally Structured Learning Environments With Different Types of Music-Linked Movement Opportunity

Abstract

This study describes two experiments that extended earlier work on the Afrocultural theme Movement Expression. The impact of various learning conditions characterized by different types of music-linked movement on story recall performance was examined. African American children were randomly assigned to a learning condition, presented a story, and tested on story recall. In Experiment 1 (N = 48), the authors confirmed the basic finding of Boykin and colleagues that learning conditions with polyrhythmic-percussive music type and high movement opportunity enhanced story recall better than other types of music-linked movement. In Experiment 2 (N = 128), the authors compared story recall in different music-linked movement conditions across grade levels and established improvement only for fourth graders in the learning condition with polyrhythmic-percussive music and high movement. Both fourth and sixth graders' lowest performance was in the condition devoid of any music or movement. Finally, a positive relationship was observed between performance and children's mood state in each learning condition. Movement Expression as a powerful tool for classroom learning for African American children is discussed.