Marcus Butler
5 May 2016: Starting out as a music teacher, University of Canberra assistant professor in music and arts education, Anita Collins never expected to find herself and her research behind one of the most watched TED-Ed original lesson in the online education site's history.
Her research examines the way formal and structured music education changes not just the way we think, but the way our brains work as well.
"I found early on that I have a lot of learning still to do, particularly around the neuroscience aspects of my work," Dr Collins said.
That hasn't stopped an animation based on her research achieving almost 4.7 million views on the TED-Ed website, making it one of the most-watched original lessons on the site.
"The video has been watched more than 11 million views on Facebook as well. It's amazing that so many people are interested in music education changing the way we think."
"My work shows what many music teachers know through practice, that learning, playing and creating music greatly benefits the way people work. I've found that people learn faster and better overall when they have had some formal music education," Dr Collins said.
"It started simply enough for me, I saw that my music classes were filled with students who went on to be school captains or dux of the school, leaders in some way or just better academic performers.
Past research had linked music education with higher test scores among students, but Dr Collins suspects it goes deeper than that.
"I started out taking the results of my research to music educators, but I found it was something they implicitly knew. I want to show them now that the changes that it makes are visible on a neurological level.
Dr Collins left in early May for the United States and Canada on the prestigious Barbara Matthews Churchill Fellowship, which will allow her to take her questions into neuroscience labs to begin getting a clearer picture of how music educators can find out more how their subject area impacts on the way children's brains develop.
"My challenge is to get our policy-makers to see music education as a driver for the economy. A relatively small investment to give all students access to music education could produce better results from their studies overall. It would produce better and harder workers, all of whom would return a far greater dividend to Australia in the long run, economically and socially."
