Doing mathematics with music – Creating epistemic environments

Abstract

It is rare to turn music into a mathematical object in an educational context, although the benefit of the articulation between mathematics and music is recognized. The present study focuses on the epistemic environment created for students to do maths with music. The methodological approach had two components: an exploratory one to study the relationships between the epistemic environment experienced by students and the epistemic levels at which they do mathematics, and a quasi-experimental one to assess the effectiveness of intervention in student learning. Three groups took part in the study. The “doing maths with music” approach is more effective than conventional ones whether, or not, students have in-depth musical knowledge. On the other hand, educational artefacts used by students allowed them to deal with music at various epistemic levels, with relevant relationships between the quality of students’ epistemic activity and the profile of epistemic levels.