The use of music therapy techniques as an educational tool: A systematic review

Abstract

The use of music therapy techniques has recently extended into the educational realm to help overcome learning difficulties, support emotional management, and assist students to develop necessary social skills. This is known as educational music therapy (EMT). Current educational policies give ever greater importance to the fostering and development of core social skills and competencies as decisive factors in overall educational success. Thus, teachers are being encouraged to explore interdisciplinary and creative collaboration and to innovate and incorporate new, more active, teaching methods to enable students to meet these educational objectives. This article comprises a systematic review of 34 research studies from 13 countries concerning the use of EMT over the last 15 years. The authors have identified uses of EMT in general teaching and in music education. The PICO(C) framework was used to develop the research question and the PRISMA diagram was used to determine the criteria for exclusion or inclusion of studies for review. The results from all studies considered agree that music therapy has benefits at all contexts and levels of education. The studies examined are diverse in terms of design, application, and procedures, and music therapy and music education techniques largely coincide in their educational objectives: improving inclusion, learning outcomes, and well-being among students. In conclusion, there is a two-way process of transfer between music education and EMT, and the addition of EMT techniques as another innovative method within teachers’ repertoires could have many benefits in education. The added value can be found in the way this review relates different studies, revealing those dimensions that would benefit from further study as well as exploring the decision-making process around their potential applications.

Keywords

education educational music therapy music education music therapy systematic review

Introduction

Studies of the benefits of music therapy in the educational field—educational music therapy (EMT)—have shown that, as a tool for inclusion, EMT has positive effects for students with cognitive, emotional, and social problems (Pérez Eizaguirre et al., 2015; Silva & Silva, 2017). Understanding of techniques and their application by music therapy specialists and music teachers could be of huge value in educational settings, as these innovative teaching methods are in line with current educational policies (UN. The 2030 agenda) and well-suited to improving teaching and learning, skill acquisition, and student well-being.

Music education and music therapy in education

Music education has a fundamental role in the personal and educational development of students. According to authors such as Limones Solís et al. (2021), music can help increase academic and social performance and improve students’ spiritual, intellectual, and physical health. Other benefits for education have been seen in the use of music as a tool to overcome disruptive behavior and for the reduction of aggression among adolescents (Fernández & Cardoso, 2016).

Federación Mundial de Musicoterapia World Federation of Music Therapy (2011) defines music therapy as:

the professional use of music and its elements as an intervention in medical, educational, and everyday environments with individuals, groups, families, or communities who seek to optimise their quality of life and improve their physical, social, communicative, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health and wellbeing. Research, practice, education, and clinical training in music therapy are based on professional standards according to cultural, social, and political contexts. (p. 1)

Pelliteri (2000) also highlights the use of music therapy for physiological, educational, and social purposes, while Edwards (2011) gives music therapy a role in special education as a way to reach particular educational objectives.

Within the educational field, we distinguish two principal areas for the application of music therapy: special education and mainstream education. Historically, the first uses of music therapy were with students who had special educational needs (SEN), and only more recently has its use been extended to educational centers for mainstream students.

The numerous experimental interventions and programs that have explored music therapy techniques demonstrate their wide-ranging benefits such as improving interpersonal skills, helping students with mobility problems, as well as improving student motivation (Knapp et al., 2011, cited in Lucas, 2013). Music therapy has also been used in educational centers for students with psychological problems or cognitive deficits (Oldfield & Carr, 2018). However, as Karkou (2010) notes, studies concerning music therapy interventions in schools are still few in number.

In the opinion of McFerran (2020), the use of music therapy techniques can result in improved learning outcomes and emotional well-being among students. Wigram et al. (2011) consider that music therapy can complement the teaching and learning process for students with particular needs. The incorporation of music therapy in schools alongside other educational programs and teaching strategies may contribute to improving students’ motivation to work. In addition, it could help to better address the needs of students on an individual basis, making for a more personalized, inclusive, and diverse approach to education.

Music therapy techniques and music education

Praena (2020) demonstrates that music therapy techniques introduced as a novel educational methodology can improve general development; motor, cognitive, and emotional skills; as well as particular behavioral and social skills. Furthermore, Praena found that these teaching methods fostered self-confidence, self-esteem, and independence—all of which are of potential benefit to students’ ongoing development.

Music therapy techniques have their origins in various methods derived from music education (Table 1). They can be classified as active or receptive depending on the type of student or patient participation. Examples of active techniques include interpretation, either vocal (singing and rhythmic recitation) or instrumental; composition; writing poetry or lyrics; musical games; dance and movement; and making instruments. Examples of receptive techniques, in contrast, include listening to music and relaxation. Other musical techniques used in EMT are improvisation, composition, experimentation, arrangement, verbalization, transference, and communication.

Table 1.

Principal Methods and Pedagogies That Form the Foundations of Music Therapy Techniques.

	Kodaly	Willems	Orff	Dalcroze	Martenot	Waytack
Composition	x		x			x
Improvisation	x	x	x	x	x
Active listening		x		x	x	x
Relaxation		x			x	x
Psychomotricity, dance		x	x	x		x
Vocalization	x	x	x	x	x
Playing instruments	x	x	x

The relationship between music therapy and music education

Alley (1977), cited by Lucas (2013), distinguishes between music therapy and music education for SEN students: their function and objectives being different, while complementary. Llamas (2012) defines and compares the two, describing music therapy as the use of elements of music for therapeutic purposes designed to achieve specific physical, emotional, mental, social, and cognitive changes (Federación Mundial de Musicoterapia World Federation of Music Therapy, 2011). This is in contrast to traditional music education, which includes the processes of music teaching and learning: musical terminology, history, aesthetics, harmony, acoustics, performance, and so on.

As a result of its purpose, traditional music education is principally concerned with delivering an academic, aesthetic education, while current music education has wider goals, and music therapy considers music as a means to achieve therapeutic benefits (Table 2). There are a number of important similarities between the fields of music therapy and music education: for example, the push to improve teaching quality and the overall development of students. A study by Yi (2019) concluded that there is much to be gained by an interdisciplinary approach to research into music therapy and music education. A similar conclusion emerges from the work of Metic & Svalina (2020) concerning a study where elements of music therapy were successfully introduced into primary school music lessons.

Table 2.

Comparison between EMT, Traditional Music Education, and Music Education in the Current Educational System.

	Traditional music education	Music therapy	Current music education
Differences	- Music as an end in itself- Teacher/student relationship- Closed process: curriculum content- Focus on generalized goals- Professional preparation: grades, specialist qualification	- A means to accomplish therapeutic or educational objectives- Therapist/patient relationship- Open process: interactive, evolving, experimental- Focus on individual goals- Professional preparation: little regulation, some universities offer a Master’s in music therapy	- A means to accomplish educational goals and skills acquisition- Teacher guides learning- Process adapted to each student: inclusive and diverse- Focus on individual goals- Professional preparation: degree in education, grades, specialist qualification, and Master’s in teaching
Similarities	- Involve musical performances- Propose goals- Use music as a language- Establish an interpersonal relationship between the educator/therapist and student/patient- Employ a systematic process with intent, organization, and regularity- Contexts: educational centers of any level or stage

Source. Based on Llamas (2012).

In summary, to date, a number of studies have looked at the application of music therapy techniques to participants of varied ages and educational levels (primary, secondary, and university). Although they have generally observed positive results, the range of foci (objectives, contexts, professionals involved, and type of students) makes it difficult to obtain a general overview. This review attempts to address this issue by synthesizing the diversity of EMT techniques cited in the literature, with the goal of determining possible educational applications for music therapy that could be implemented by music teachers.

The focus of this review is studies that have investigated the benefits of EMT in educational contexts, where those techniques have been implemented by therapists, music specialists, and teachers (Figure 1). The studies reviewed took place in all types of educational establishment and with a range of student groups. The music therapy techniques used were considered in relation to music education, the collaborating specialists, and common educational goals (skill acquisition).

Figure 1.

Diagram of Terms.

Method

Design of systematic review

The methodology adopted here is that of a systematic review, which, according to Xiao and Watson (2019), is reliable, valid, and repeatable. In addition, it allows us to analyze the available literature on this topic and identify future lines of investigation. To define the research questions for this work, we used the PICO(C) framework: the population (P) was the students, teachers, and therapists, and the intervention (I) was the application of EMT techniques. We compared (C) the uses and purposes of EMT techniques, and the outcome (O) was the identification of techniques that have been used in the school context (C). Thus, this study responds to the following questions: What music therapy techniques are used in the educational context? Are music therapy techniques suitable for application in the educational context?

The principal objective was to identify the various different techniques of music therapy and their application in the educational context. To gain a full overview, the bibliography has been reviewed in light of four specific goals: (a) to describe the studies that have used music therapy techniques in education in the last 15 years; (b) to present a word cloud showing the frequency of keywords in the selected studies; (c) to analyze the objectives proposed by the studies reviewed in relation to EMT techniques; and (d) to summarize the principal results and conclusions of the reviewed work with respect to the use of EMT.

Procedure: Analysis of documents

The review process followed the PRISMA framework (Page et al., 2021) (Figure 2). The data gathered were then organized, and the descriptors of interest were extracted and coded for evaluation (Tables 3 −5):

Definition of objectives with an explicit and repeatable methodology. The articles selected are exclusively those related to music therapy techniques used in the educational context.

Systematic search for studies according to eligibility criteria. The criteria for inclusion were as follows: scientific articles selected via an exhaustive search process of Dialnet, ERIC, Scopus, and WoS; time interval from 2006 to 2021 (January and December included); and English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish languages. The search was filtered using various keywords. In this way, the particular search string used was AB = “music therapy” AND education AND (intervention OR program OR program). After filtering, the final corpus for this article comprised 34 articles.

Evaluation of the validity of results. The methodological reporting of the studies included here was evaluated using a bias risk formula comprising seven items validated and adjusted to the specific context of EMT. The items were as follows: (1) defines the objectives; (2) describes the type of participants; (3) explicitly specifies the educational context; (4) specifies educational level or phase; (5) details the type of instructor; (6) presents the results; and (7) describes the music therapy techniques used. These questions were answered with either “yes,” if they complied with the criterion specified (2 points); “don’t know” (1 point); or “no,” if they did not comply with the criterion specified (0 points). On the basis of this process, studies were classified thus: low methodological reporting (50% of the total points available); good methodological reporting (51%−75% of the total points available); and excellent methodological reporting (>75% of total points available). Scores for the quality evaluation were between 10 and 14 points with a median score of 12.5 points (91.5% of total points available). In the individual quality evaluation, all studies included in the review were classified as excellent.

Systematic presentation and systematic synthesis of the characteristics and results of included studies. Content analysis of the 34 included studies was completed following the approach of Arias et al. (2021). The descriptors analyzed were Design, Objectives, Participants, Duration, Phase/Context, Instructor, Instruments, Limitations, Results, Conclusions/Perspectives, and the Music Therapy Techniques used by professionals (therapists, music therapists, and music teachers).

Figure 2.

PRISMA Flow Diagram Showing the Process of Search and Selection Used to Obtain the Corpus of Articles Used in This Review (Following Page et al., 2021).

Table 3.

General Description of Articles Reviewed.

Author	Publication	Year	Coded segments
Acebes-de Pablo & Carabias-Galindo	Revista Electrónica de LEEME	2016	15
Arnau	Quadrivium-Musicología	2013	9
Ballantyne & Baker	Research Studies in Music Education	2013	18
Blasco Magraner et al.	Revista Electrónica de LEEME	2017	25
Brown et al.	Music Therapy Perspectives	2018	26
Chao-Fernández et al.	Applied Sciences	2020	11
Crooke & McFerran_	Australian Journal of Music Education	2014	16
DeBoth et al.	Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, & Early Intervention,	2021	10
Días Teixeira & Silva Fernandes	Revista de educação e sociedade	2021	24
Epelde-Larrañaga et al.	Sustainability	2020	13
Eren	Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences	2015	15
Fernández & Cardoso	Perfiles Educativos	2016	11
Fong & Jelas	Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences	2010	17
Formariz	Revista De Investigación En Musicoterapia	2019	9
Garrote Rojas et al.	Revista Nacional e Internacional de Educación Inclusiva	2018	32
Gee et al.	Frontiers in Psychology	2019	22
Gold et al.	Journal of Music Therapy	2017	21
Hernán Benavides	Psicoperspectivas	2010	23
Kraus et al.	The Journal of Neuroscience	2014	10
Kwok	Research on Social Work Practice	2019	18
McFerran et al.	Educational Action Research	2016	25
Mendelson et al.	Autism Research and Treatment	2016	12
Moutte	Revista de Investigación en Musicoterapia	2020	9
Pasiali & Clark	Journal of Music Therapy	2018	13
Pérez Eizaguirre et al.	Pulso. Revista de Educación	2015	9
Schmid et al.	Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities	2020	9
Smith	International Journal of Music Education	2018	30
Son et al.	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health	2019	7
Talavera & Gértrudix	Revista Complutense de Educación	2016	35
Thompson & McFerran	Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability	2015	14
Uhling et al.	Psychology of Music	2015	16
Vitoria Gallastegi	International Journal of Developmental and Educational Psychology	2006	14
Ziv & Dolev	Children and Schools	2013	8
Zyga et al.	Journal of Intellectual Disabilities	2017	17

Table 4.

Descriptive Variables in the Studies Reviewed.

Study	Design	Objective	Participants	Duration	Phase/context	Instructor	Instruments	Limitations	Results	Conclusions/Perspectives
Acebes-de Pablo & Carabias-Galindo, 2016	Multiple case study	Assess the effects of MT on ADHD symptoms	N = 29	4 × 50-min sessions1 month	Primary music room	Primary teacher	Observation tables and diary	Short in time	Improves attention and behavior	Interdisciplinary approach is ideal including MT
Arnau, 2013	Case study	Assess the effects of MT on learning and communication	N = 17 years	−	Primary music room	Music therapist	Observation and interview	Investigation methodology not specified	Reduces language delay and improves attention and performance.	MT is a vehicle for expression that facilitates communication
Ballantyne & Baker, 2013	Qualitative descriptive Intervention	Analysis and impact of a creative collaboration	N = 8 MT and ME students and N = 8 retirees	3 weeks 5 × 90-min sessions	Retirement village	Music education and MT students	Students journals and group interview	Brevity of the project	Compare strategies and assessments MT/MEInfluence in participantsEffects in terms of lifelong learning	Implications for music education and music therapy programs, extended into other educational and therapeutic contexts where creative collaboration is facilitated
Blasco Magraner & Valero, 2017	Case study Model AB	Assess the effects of MT on quality of life and general development	N = 111 years	30 × 1-hr sessions9 months	Primary schoolValencia	Music therapist	Edith Hillman Boxhill test (1985)	Individual sessions, outside class	Improvements in social and cognitive skills	Proof of principle: MT as a treatment to improve attitudes and behavior
Brown et al., 2018	Exploratory	Assess the effects of MT on social and musical skills	N = 5 ASD	1 week	Primary school	Two music therapists + two students (SPL)	Questionnaire and group interview	Small sample.Interviews by researcher	Perceived as a pleasant experience	Interdisciplinarity has many benefits
Chao-Fernández et al., 2020	Pilot study pre-/posttest	To explore the benefits of computer-game-based MT among disruptive students.	N = 616 to 18 years	1 school year	Secondary schoolCoruña	Music specialist	Tests of emotional and social intelligence	No control group, not randomized	Improvements in social skills, motivation, and self-control	MT contributes to developing all types of intelligence
Crooke & McFerran, 2014	Experimentalpre-/posttest	Assess the effects of MT on improving well-being	N = 4812 years	4/5 x 60-minsessions1 month	Secondary school	Music therapist	Interview and well-being test	No description of MT techniques	Insignificant changes	Music programs improve well-being
DeBoth et al., 2021	Pilot case study	Assess the effects of MT on piano lessons on fine motor skills	N = 43/6 years	2 × 20-minsessions6 weeks	Infant school	Music and occupational therapists	Pre-/posttest (manual/visual skills)interview	Results due to factors outside study parameters	Improvements seen/parents had positive impressions	MT can be integrated easily into the curriculum
Epelde-Larrañaga et al., 2020	Quasi-exp. pre-/posttest	Assess the effects of MT on aggressive behavior in an educational setting	N = 200 11 to 14 years	4 months	2: Primary school and secondary schoolMelilla	Music specialist	Cyberbullying test Garaigordóbil (2013)	Small samples. Differences between centers	Reduces cases of cyberbullying	Music is a valid tool to help reduce aggressive behaviors
Eren, 2015	Qualitative descriptive	Assess the effects of MT on social and communicative	N = 613 to 18 years	8 × 90-minsessions4 months	Independent school	Music therapist + two2 SEN teachers	Visual analysissystematic observation	No measurement instruments	Reduces anxiety and improves social skills	Music is motivating
Fernández & Cardoso, 2016	Mixed descriptive pre-/posttest	Assess effects of MT on mode and emotional stability	N = 616 to 18 years	6 × 45-minsessions	Young offender center Coimbra	Music therapist	Mood states scale (POMS)	Youngsters were subject to high emotional stress levels	Reduced levels of anxiety and relationship stress	MT using the Orff method favors the development of skills to help reintegration into society
Fong & Jelas, 2010	Multiple case study	Assess the effects of MT on ASD students	N = 5	15 sessions	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Two teachingassistants	Systematic observationVideo recording	Social games should be more improvisedTraining needs to be longer	Improvements in social and emotional communication	MT is effective for students with ASD
Formariz, 2020	Intervention pre-/posttest	Assess the effects of MT on self-esteem	N = 610 to 12 years	30 × 45-min sessions8 months	Primary school Madrid	Music therapist	Ad hoc questionnaire about self-esteem and emotional state	Used a theoretical base applicable to adolescents	Questionnaire results not presented	MT fosters inclusion and the expression of emotion
Garrote Rojas et al., 2018	Analysis/MT application/analysis	Assess the effects of MT on personal, social, and behavioral development	N = 46 to 13 years	Three sessions1 week	Primary schoolCiudad Real	Music therapist	ChildBehavior Checklist Achenbach (1991)	Instructor not described well	Improvements in general communicative intent among students	Music motivates students to relate to and express themselves to others
Gee et al., 2019	Experimental RCT pilot study	Assess the effects of MT on mental health and well-being through song composition	N = 12 18 to 31 years	5 × 2-hrsessions5 weeks	UniversityUnited Kingdom	Psychologist and Music therapist assessor	Anxiety and Depression (HADS), social connection (FISI), social phobia (mini-SPIN) and meaningfulness of songwriting (MSS)	No details about the intervention programSmall sample	Improved well-beingParticipants valued the therapeutic effects of composition	Direct, face-to-face relational group work is important to the therapeutic potential of the intervention in the educational context
Gold et al., 2017	Random cluster sampling	Assess the effects of MT as a preventative measure for adolescents at risk	N = 100 12 to 13 years	Eight sessions8 weeks	Secondary school Australia	Music therapist	Use of music (HUMS) Well-being (MHC-SF) Meditation, reflection (RRQ) Baseline (TIPI)	No control group	No significant differences seen between Group music therapy (GMT) and Self-directed music listening (SDML)	Adolescents with poor music-use habits have more mental health problems, and are at greater social risk
Hernán Benavides, 2010	Case study	Assess the effects of MT on joint attention skills	N = 19 years	32 × 30-minsessions4 months	Not specified	Music therapist	Quality of relationships (AQR)Observation	Influence of treatments outside trialLack of appropriate space for MT sessions	Of all the types of sessions used those involving music (SCM) produced the best results	MT offers an alternative language with which to Access the complex internal mental worlds of children with ASD
Kraus et al., 2014	Randomized study	Assess the effects of MT on the neurological processing of speech	N = 44 8 to 9 years	2 × 60 minsessions/week1 year	Primary school United States	Music specialist	Neuropsychological test	No control group	Gains in neural encoding for speech	Music programs help improve the neural processing of children at risk of exclusion
Kwok, 2019	ExperimentalTwo-arm RCT	Assess the effects of MT on anxiety and well-being	N = 10613 to 14 years	8 × 90-min sessions2 months	Three secondary schools in Hong Kong	Music therapist	Emotional hope scale (WLEIS) Anxiety and depression scale (HADS)subjective happiness test	Small sampleUnusual variables	Improvements in well-being and emotional stateReduced anxiety	The innovative combination of MT with psychology had positive effects on adolescents
McFerran et al., 2016	Investigation	Assess the effects of MT on personal, social, and emotional development and independence	N = 905 to 18years	1 year.	Special schoolEEUU	Interdisciplinary	Interviews and group discussion	Improvements were of short duration	Improved expression, personal interaction, and attention	MT resources can help adapt teaching to students’ individual learning styles
Mendelson et al., 2016	Quasi-exp. RandomizedTwo timescales	Assess the effects of MT on social and emotional skills	N = 5	1× 45-min session/weekFor 15 or 7 weeks	Four infant/primary schools SEN classesUnited States	Music therapist + evaluator	Observation“In situ” evaluation of behavior	Intervention not described in sufficient detail to be replicated	Longer intervention group saw improvements in verbal response	MT promotes verbal skills
Moutte, 2020	Participant observation pre-/posttest	Assess the effects of MT on reading skills	N = 46 to 9 years	1 × 45-min session/week3 months	Primary school	MT student	Test of precision and speed of reading Education council of Andalucía	Intervention too short for appreciable improvements to be seen	Improved precision and speed of reading	MT can contribute to improving Reading ability among children with learning difficulties
Pasiali & Clark, 2018	Experimental pre-/posttest	Assess the effects of MT on development of social and academic skills	N = 20 5 to 11 years	8 × 50-min sessions2½ months	Extracurricular activity	Music therapist	Social and academic skills scales (HCSBS and SSIS)	No control group 25% left the study	Reductions in antisocial behavior and improvements in communication	MT has the potential to promote social skills in students from low-income backgrounds
Pérez Eizaguirre et al., 2015	Experimental pre-/posttest (Control and experimental groups)	Assess the effects of MT on anxiety and absenteeism	N = 25 15 to 17 years	30/26 50-min weekly sessions	Special schoolMadrid	Music therapist	SSTest STAI	Larger sample requiredControl group’s activities not specified	Reduced levels of anxiety and absenteeism	Orff method MT motivates school attendance, is a communication tool, and improves the classroom/school environment
Schmid et al., 2020	Baseline,retest−intervention−evaluation	Assess the effects of MT on communication and emotional skills	N = 645 to 11 years	45-min sessions.16 weeks	Primary schoolEEUU	Music therapist	PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) inventoryDUACS (Duke University Autism Communication and Socialization)	Lack of verbal skills among participants undermined measurement instruments used. Skills gain was not maintained	Improves behavior, communication, and social skills	MT is beneficial to developing language and communication, as well as emotional and social skills
Smith, 2018	QualitativeCase study	Assess the effects of MT on social, academic, and cognitive skills	N = 1	1 school year	Primary schoolUSA	Music therapist and Music specialists	InterviewsSystematic observation	Single case study thus results cannot be generalized	Proof of need for interdisciplinary collaboration	Cooperation among specialists helps support students with SEN
Son et al., 2019	Quasi-exp. Randomized pre-/posttest	Assess the effects of MT (and aromatherapy) on stress	N = 96 Nursing staff	1 × 20-min session	UniversityKorea	Teaching assistantsResearcher	Anxiety questionnaire (Benson-El-Zahhar, Spielberger State), Stress scale (NRS)	Convenience sample Possible placebo effect	Reduces anxiety and stressImproves a range of skills	MT can help improve skills and lower levels of stress and anxiety
Talavera Jara & Gértrudix Barrio, 2016	Qualitative Descriptive	Assess the effects of MT for improving “open classrooms”	N = 3Teaching staff	Not specified	Primary schoolCastilla de la Mancha	SEN, and Psycho-pedagogy	Individual semistructured interviews	Lack of teacher trainingLack of appropriate space for MT sessions	Improves communication, social and emotional skills as well as attention levels. MT was little used in general	Concrete teaching methods needed.Also need to understand the musical history of individual children
Días Teixeira & Silva Fernandes, 2021	Case study	Assess the effects of MT on communication, socialization, and imagination	N = 19 years	Two sessions/week	Primary schoolPortugal	Interdisciplinary	InterviewsSystematic observation	Lack of time to gather data	Improvements in communication and social skills and in imagination	Emotional self-regulation contributes to well-being and cognitive development
Thompson & McFerran, 2015	Case study	Assess the effects of MT on communication behaviors among Special School students	N = 410 to 15 years	2 × ½-hr sessions/week(22 sessions)6 months	Special school	Music therapist	Inventory of communicative acts (IPCA)	IPCA does not give an objective frameworkRisk of bias	Improvements in communication in response to singing intervention	MT creates motivational environments within SEN classrooms
Uhlig et al., 2016	Experimental Randomized pre-/posttest	Assess the effects of MT on well-being, self-regulation, and failure at school	N = 180 9 to 12 years	16 × 45-min sessions/week4 months	Secondary school Holland	Four music therapists (Rap and Sing MT)	InterviewTest of well-being, cognitive skills, and rest-activity	Short durationHeterogeneous sample	Creation of an intervention model	This MT technique is potentially useful in the classroom to improve students’ self-regulation
Vitoria Gallastegi, 2006	Experimental music education	Assess the effects of MT on social, cognitive, and motor skills	N = 215 to 17 years	2 × 30-min sessions/week	Music school	Music teachers	Aschero technique (1995)	Not specified	Improvements intellectually, artistically, and in terms of integration	MT helped students express their feelings in a pleasant, playful way
Ziv & Dolev, 2013	Quasi-exp. pre-/posttest	Assessing the effect of MT on reducing bullying	N = 59 11 to 12 years	3 s × 20-min sessions/week3 weeks	Primary school Israel	Researcher	Bullying test (Rolider, 2000), Agitation	Possible Hawthorne effectLoss of gains over timeNo control group	Reduction in bullying, and poor behavior. Improvements in perceptions and well-being	MT creates a positive environment where aggressive behavior is reduced
Zyga et al., 2018	Experimental pre-/posttest and post hoc	Assessing a musical theater intervention for SEN students	N = 73 to 18 years	2 × 30−40-min sessions/week(8 sessions)1 month	Five primary /secondary schoolsUSA	Artistic Educator (Kids Love Musicals)	Socio-emotional skills scaleVideo recording	Heterogeneous sampleNo control group	Improvements in social and emotional skills	Shows the viability of using MT programs with SEN students in the school context

RCT: randomized controlled trial.

Table 5.

Music Therapy Techniques Used in the Studies Reviewed.

	Composition		Improvisation			Passive				Active
Study	Musical	Lyrics	Instruments	Voice	Body	Auditory discrimination	Receptive listening	Relaxation	Others	Psychomotricity	Dance	Vocal interpretation	Instrumental interpretation
Acebes-de Pablo & Carabias-Galindo, 2016			x			x	x	x		x	x	x	x
Arnau, 2013	x	x	x	x	x			x		x	x	x	x
Ballantyne & Baker, 2013		x		x								x
Blasco Magraner & Valero, 2017			x			x		x		x		x
Brown et al., 2018	x	x								x		x	x
Chao-Fernández et al., 2020						x	x			x			x
Crooke & McFerran, 2014		x	x									x
DeBoth et al., 2021										x		x	x
Epelde-Larrañaga et al., 2020												x	x
Eren, 2015	x		x							x	x	x
Fernández & Cardoso, 2016			x									x
Fong & Jelas, 2010							x			x		x
Formariz - 2020	x		x				x			x		x	x
Garrote Rojas et al., 2018							x	x				x	x
Gee et al., 2019	x	x
Gold et al., 2017	x	x	x	x
Hernán Benavides, 2010												x	x
Kraus et al., 2014													x
Kwok, 2019			x				x	x					x
McFerran et al., 2016	x	x	x	x			x
Mendelson et al., 2016
Moutte, 2020				x						x		x
Pasiali & Clark, 2018	x	x	x					x		x		x	x
Pérez Eizaguirre et al., 2015			x	x								x	x
Schmid et al., 2020									x			x
Smith, 2018				x		x						x	x
Son et al., 2019								x
Talavera & Gértrudix, 2016			x	x				x		x	x	x	x
Días Teixeira & Silva Fernandes, 2021								x		x	x	x	x
Thompson & McFerran, 2015				x		x	x					x	x
Uhlig et al., 2016		x		x						x		x
Vitoria Gallastegi, 2006						x				x	x		x
Ziv & Dolev, 2013								x
Zyga et al., 2018				x	x						x	x

Instruments

The reference management system Mendeley was used for the organization and selection of records, and the qualitative analysis package MAXQDA 2021 was used for data analysis. Bibliographic data were exported using the standard RIS protocol.

Results

The analysis and review were done via two principle categories: the bibliometric elements and the main descriptors. The first step in the analysis was a general description of the studies reviewed to summarize and compare key features (Table 3): bibliographic data and principal characteristics of the articles (title and keywords). We continued the analysis of the corpus with a further general comparative summary of the articles selected. Table 4 contains the following descriptors as related to the articles reviewed: Design, Objectives, Participants, Duration, Phase/Context, Instructor, Instruments, Limitations, Results, and Conclusions/Perspectives.

Bibliometric elements

The element “principal authors” was used to order records in our corpus. Only two authors (Schmid and McFerran) contributed more than one article on the theme of interest in this study.

Examining the list of publications, we observed that no publication had particular prominence, except that the Revista Electrónica de LEEME and Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences both contributed two articles to this corpus. Concerning the publication year, there has been an increase in the number of articles published on our theme of interest. This is particularly true from 2013 to the present, with 31 of the 34 articles in our corpus being published in this period. This may be a result of attempts to meet the demands and objectives of recent developments in educational policies.

The titles of the articles in our corpus were also examined in terms of word frequency to generate a word cloud (Figures 3 and 4). The terms “students,” ‘social “education,” “music therapy,” and “intervention” are those that appear most frequently. Virtually all of the programs of music therapy considered in the corpus were related to special or mainstream schools, with very few in other educational institutions such as universities, specialist music schools, or young offenders’ centers. In addition, most studies presented here also considered some form of collaboration between music therapy specialists and educators. The data presented in the word cloud reflect the results of content and keyword analysis. This analysis produced a wide range of variable segments (n = 520), which is a consequence of the generic nature of keywords, and in some cases, the fact that authors must choose their keywords from a list generated by the journals in which they wish to publish their articles.

Figure 3.

Number of Publications by Publication Year for the Period 2006 to 2021 for the Corpus Used in This Study.

Figure 4.

Word Cloud Generated Using the Titles of the Articles Selected for This Corpus.

Main descriptors

The first descriptor, study design, involved interventions in educational contexts in which the implementation of a music therapy program uses a pre- and posttest. There were some differences between studies: for example, there was one pilot study (Chao-Fernández et al., 2020); five single case studies (Arnau, 2013; Blasco Magraner & Valero, 2017; Días Teixeira & Silva Fernandes, 2021; Hernán Benavides, 2010; Smith, 2018; Thompson & McFerran, 2015); and one multiple case study (Acebes-de Pablo & Carabias-Galindo, 2016); two cases of the action-research model (Fong & Jelas, 2010; McFerran et al., 2016); four qualitative descriptive studies (Ballantyne & Baker, 2013; Eren, 2015; Fernández & Cardoso, 2016; Talavera Jara & Gértrudix Barrio, 2016); and one exploratory study (Brown et al., 2018). The remainder of the studies were either experimental or quasi-experimental.

Concerning the objectives of the papers examined here, 32 of the 34 studies wished to understand the effects and possible benefits of music therapy for students at risk of social exclusion or failure at school. This applied for studies considering any level of education (infant, primary, secondary, or university level) and any type of student (mainstream, or with SEN). The studies by Fong and Jelas (2010) and Talavera Jara and Gértrudix Barrio (2016) examined music therapy with respect to the acquisition and development of emotional, social, and communicative skills among students with autism spectrum disorder; a study by Blasco Magraner and Valero (2017) looked at the development of these skills to improve schoolwork; Brown et al. (2018) also looked for improvements in musical skills, while Vitoria Gallastegi (2006) specifically explored improvements in areas such as memory, bodily expression, and creativity.

Further to these fundamental objectives, other studies aimed to improve behavior and social skills among disruptive students (Fernández & Cardoso, 2016; Garrote Rojas et al., 2018; Pérez Eizaguirre et al., 2015), and Hernán Benavides’s (2010) work focused on the development of joint attention skills. The works by Ballantyne and Baker (2013) and Smith (2018), respectively, analyze the impact of a creative collaboration and identify the particular roles taken by music therapists within a music education collaboration. In addition, studies by Gee et al. (2019) and Son et al. (2019) looked at music therapy as a way to improve well-being and reduce stress among a cohort of university students.

The participants (N = 549) were infant and primary school students (n = 227) in 18 studies, secondary students (n = 214) in 10 studies, a mix of students from all these phases in three studies, and university students (n = 116) in three studies. In 17 studies, participants were students with SEN, and in 15, the students were mainstream. In some cases, participants were in young offenders’ institutions (Fernández & Cardoso, 2016), attended special schools (McFerran et al., 2016; Mendelson et al., 2016), or were residents in a retirement village (n = 8) (Ballantyne & Baker, 2013). Vitoria Gallastegi’s (2006) paper involved students at an unregulated institution (a music school). In four instances, the ages of participants were not stated (Brown et al., 2018; Fong & Jelas, 2010; Mendelson et al., 2016; Smith, 2018). The locations of the studies and the countries of origin of participants included Australia, Chile, Spain, the United States, Malaysia, Holland, Israel, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Korea.

The duration of investigations—in terms of the length of the intervention program, the number of sessions, and the length of individual music therapy sessions—showed great variation among studies. Many used 30- to 45-min sessions (four studies) adapted to the 50 min periods of the school timetable; others used 1-hr sessions (Blasco Magraner & Valero, 2017) or even 1½-hr sessions (Ballantyne & Baker, 2013; Eren, 2015). Six studies did not mention the length of sessions used. With respect to the number of sessions and the intervention duration, studies ranged from three sessions in a single week (Garrote Rojas et al., 2018) to sessions spread across a whole school year (McFerran et al., 2016; Smith, 2018). Five studies did not specify either the number of sessions or the total length of the intervention (Brown et al., 2018; Días Teixeira & Silva Fernandes, 2021; Fong & Jelas, 2010; Talavera Jara & Gértrudix Barrio, 2016; Vitoria Gallastegi, 2006).

The instructors delivering the interventions described included the researchers themselves (Son et al., 2019; Ziv & Dolev, 2013), specialists in SEN (Talavera Jara & Gértrudix Barrio, 2016), psychologists (Gee et al., 2019), music specialists (Chao-Fernández et al., 2020; Epelde-Larrañaga et al., 2020; Kraus et al., 2014; Vitoria Gallastegi, 2006), arts educators (Zyga et al., 2018), music therapists (Arnau, 2013; Blasco Magraner & Valero, 2017; Crooke & McFerran, 2014; Fernández & Cardoso, 2016; Formariz, 2020; Garrote Rojas et al., 2018; Gold et al., 2017; Hernán Benavides, 2010; Kwok, 2019; Mendelson et al., 2016; Moutte, 2020; Pasiali & Clark, 2018; Pérez Eizaguirre et al., 2015; Schmid et al., 2020; Thompson & McFerran, 2015; Uhlig et al., 2016), and teachers (Acebes-de Pablo & Carabias-Galindo, 2016; Fong & Jelas, 2010). In addition, there were several examples of interdisciplinary collaboration, for instance, between several specialists in the cases of Brown et al. (2018) and Eren (2015); between SEN specialists and music therapists in DeBoth et al. (2021) and McFerran et al. (2016); and between music therapists and music specialists (Ballantyne & Baker, 2013).

The music therapy techniques (Table 5) used in the studies reviewed can be organized as follows:

Composition: lyrics for songs and music (Ballantyne & Baker, 2013; Brown et al., 2018; Eren, 2015).

Improvisation: with instruments; movement and voice; and inspired by current feelings (Días Teixeira & Silva Fernandes, 2021; Eren, 2015; McFerran et al., 2016; Talavera Jara & Gértrudix Barrio, 2016; Vitoria Gallastegi, 2006).

Passive: auditory discrimination; receptive listening; and relaxation (Garrote Rojas et al., 2018; McFerran et al., 2016; Vitoria Gallastegi, 2006 among others).

Active: psychomotricity and rhythmic games; dance; vocal interpretation; and instrumental interpretation (percussion, Orff instruments, piano, and guitar) (Blasco Magraner & Valero, 2017; Brown et al., 2018; Eren, 2015; Smith, 2018 among others).

Several of the measurement instruments used in the various studies were especially designed for use with music therapy interventions, such as the Edith Hillman Boxhill Test (1985) used in the work by Blasco Magraner and Valero (2017). Garrote Rojas et al.’s (2018) work centered inclusive education and used the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (1991). Hernán Benavides’s (2010) study made use of the Assessment of the Quality of Relationships (AQR) tool, while Schmid et al. (2020) employed the PDD behavior inventory to assess general developmental disorders, and the DUACS scale to test social skills. Here we must point out that systematic observation techniques, such as individual, semistructured interviews and discussion groups were also widely used (Ballantyne & Baker, 2013). In addition, it should be noted that Vitoria Gallastegi (2006) used the Aschero Method (1995) as the music teaching scheme in her work.

Concerning the limitations found in the papers reviewed, several studies highlighted the lack of control group in their interventions (Chao-Fernández et al., 2020; Kraus et al., 2014; Pasiali & Clark, 2018; Ziv & Dolev, 2013; Zyga et al., 2018). Another limitation was the small number of participants in many of the studies reviewed in this work, and the diversity within test groups (Brown et al., 2018; Eren, 2015; Fong & Jelas, 2010) which made it difficult to generalize the results of these investigations. There were a number of other notable limitations: for instance, Blasco Magraner and Valero (2017) mentioned the importance of social interaction in connecting with the curriculum, yet despite this, their sessions took place on an individual basis, separated from the main group. Furthermore, in the work by Brown et al. (2018), the interviews conducted with participants to assess the progress of the intervention were led by instructors rather than, as would have been preferable, the researchers themselves.

In other work, there was a lack of detail in various areas. For example, Garrote Rojas et al.’s (2018) study did not make clear the particular nature of the instructor-specialists who delivered the intervention described. Intuitive interventions, such as music therapy, have a clear attraction; however, there is, as yet, little empirical evidence of their effectiveness. Thus, it is unfortunate that several studies did not include sufficient details of their techniques to enable their repetition. The VOICSS program, for example, used by Schmid et al. (2020) was not described in sufficient detail to enable the repetition of the intervention. The work described by Crooke and McFerran (2014) also failed to give enough details concerning their intervention to enable its replication. Furthermore, three studies failed to describe their measurement instrument: Mendelson et al. (2016), Vitoria Gallastegi (2006), and Eren (2015). The study by Fong and Jelas (2010) recognized there might be a need to extend the training period for instructors implementing the social play strategies that formed part of their intervention and also noted that these play strategies could be more improvised. Lack of time with respect to data collection was a factor also mentioned by Ballantyne and Baker (2013) and Días Teixeira and Silva Fernandes (2021). McFerran et al. (2016), on the other hand, pointed out how quickly the gains of any intervention can be lost.

The findings of case studies such as that of Smith (2018) and Hernán Benavides (2010) clearly require further investigation and these researchers highlighted how results can be influenced by other interventions outside the study. These researchers also cited lack of appropriate space for music therapy sessions to take place—there was no music classroom available. Another study mentioning a lack of appropriate space for their music therapy sessions was that of Talavera Jara and Gértrudix Barrio (2016), explaining that this impeded the ability to harness all the potential therapeutic benefits of music therapy. These authors also echoed others in mentioning the lack of training among teachers as a further problem. Finally, while Schmid et al. (2020) attempted to guarantee the validity of the DUACS instrument through a blind evaluation, they also suggested that the scale’s efficacy may be limited in the case of subjects lacking the necessary verbal skills.

The studies reviewed here presented positive results in terms of observed improvements in behavior and attention (Acebes-de Pablo & Carabias-Galindo, 2016; Moutte, 2020); participation, psychomotricity, memory and attention, levels of concentration, and the ability to communicate with specialists, teachers, and peers (Blasco Magraner & Valero, 2017; Fong & Jelas, 2010; Garrote Rojas et al., 2018; McFerran et al., 2016; Schmid et al., 2020); and levels of aggression (Epelde-Larrañaga et al., 2020). The benefits observed seemed to be most significant when interventions were of long duration, as in the case of Mendelson et al. (2016). In addition, Eren (2015) and Uhlig et al. (2016) observed a reduction of anxiety in direct interactions with others and better social skills among both sexes, enhanced well-being (see also Kwok, 2019), greater respect for turn-taking, improved eye contact and listening skills, better self-expression, more coordinated group movement, and acceptance of other peoples’ differences. Vitoria Gallastegi (2006) saw improvements in intellectual and artistic abilities as well as in participants’ integration within the group, and Días Teixeira and Silva Fernandes (2021) also noted increased imagination. However, Ballantyne and Baker (2013) and Smith (2018) indicated the need for more interdisciplinary collaboration, while Talavera Jara and Gértrudix Barrio (2016) highlighted the still scarce examples of the use of music therapy techniques in classrooms.

The studies reviewed reached a range of interesting conclusions, including that music therapy is a vehicle for expression that enables communication (Arnau, 2013); that it is a valid intervention in the case of SEN students (Fong & Jelas, 2010; Talavera Jara & Gértrudix Barrio, 2016) and mainstream students (Chao-Fernández et al., 2020; Crooke & McFerran, 2014; Gee et al., 2019); and that there are many benefits from interdisciplinary collaboration (Ballantyne & Baker, 2013), with music education providing the ideal curricular space for such interactions (Acebes-de Pablo & Carabias-Galindo, 2016; Brown et al., 2018; Smith, 2018). Studies also confirmed the efficacy of music therapy in improving behavior, socializing, and integrating students, so contributing to their well-being and overall development (Blasco Magraner & Valero, 2017; Días Teixeira & Silva Fernandes, 2021; McFerran et al., 2016; Schmid et al., 2020). Music therapy was also found to stimulate, motivate, progress, and enhance students’ personal skills, thus enabling them to express their feelings in an enjoyable, playful way (Vitoria Gallastegi, 2006 and Kwok, 2019). The changes produced in students were linked to an increase in their communicative intent, so motivating them to better relate and express themselves to others (Epelde-Larrañaga et al., 2020; Garrote Rojas et al., 2018; Mendelson et al., 2016). According to Eren (2015), the nonthreatening, welcoming nature of music therapy was key to enabling these changes and helped students move from a place of doubt and unknowing to a place of involvement and openness. For Hernán Benavides (2010), music therapy was an alternative language that allowed access to the complex internal world of students’ minds.

The future perspectives offered by the body of work reviewed here tended to suggest that it would be useful to complete other similar work with longer-duration interventions to understand the impact of music through each educational phase (Fong & Jelas, 2010; Pasiali & Clark, 2018). Ballantyne and Baker (2013), Brown et al. (2018), and Smith (2018) felt that, while collaboration existed between teachers and specialists, it was necessary to create a more stable environment to improve the effectiveness of such collaborations. In a similar vein, Garrote Rojas et al. (2018) thought that fostering relationships between classmates contributed to their cognitive and social development, such that both friendships and family involvement must be considered beneficial for students’ personal development. Blasco Magraner and Valero (2017) and Eren (2015) recommended that music therapy activities be undertaken first with a specialist and that they should be pleasant and easy to complete. The activities developed could then be implemented in the group-classroom context as well as with other populations with special needs. These authors also underlined the importance of designing new evidence-based research. To these ideas, Hernán Benavides (2010) added the need to complete longitudinal studies that would enable the development of music therapy resources specifically designed for SEN students. This author also suggested offering music therapy to members of the general population, regardless of their particular profiles, as a tool for emotional, cognitive, and social development.

Talavera Jara and Gértrudix Barrio (2016) felt that there was a need to improve teachers’ training in regard to delivering music therapy sessions, such that they would be better equipped to use essential techniques such as leading group instrumental work, working on musical language, and combining music with sensory activities or light therapy. Researchers in our corpus also underlined the necessity for specific spaces for music therapy sessions, alongside the development of concrete teaching methods and a full understanding of children’s preferences and musical history when planning activities (McFerran et al., 2016). Furthermore, Días Teixeira and Silva Fernandes (2021) were of the opinion that music has many therapeutic benefits but stressed that any music therapy intervention should always be begun as early as possible to maximize these benefits. Finally, Zyga et al. (2018) underlined the viability of music therapy interventions with SEN students in the school context.

Discussion and conclusions

This review has described the objectives proposed, results, and conclusions of a body of work concerning the use of music therapy techniques in an educational context. This analysis has enabled the identification of the various EMT techniques employed at all levels of education: primary, secondary, university, and lifelong learning, in both SEN and mainstream teaching environments.

From the results presented here, we can affirm that music therapy techniques are suitable for application in the educational context. In the case of infant school students, Acebes-de Pablo and Carabias-Galindo (2016) and DeBoth et al. (2021) concluded that music therapy can mitigate and even prevent learning difficulties. In the case of adolescents, music therapy appeared able to promote social harmony in school (Pérez Eizaguirre et al., 2015). For university students, music therapy was effective in reducing anxiety (Son et al., 2019; Kwok, 2019), and for older people, it was effective for lifelong learning (Ballantyne & Baker, 2013). Furthermore, the positive effect of music therapy techniques as an educational methodology was confirmed in several areas such as improved learning, the promotion of inclusion and diversity, social harmony, motivation, creative collaboration, and personal development. These techniques also fostered well-being from a skills-based perspective in ways that far exceeded the traditional content-based approach, with students’ increased interest in learning having positive benefits for wider society.

Concerning the question of which music therapy techniques are used in the educational context, here we found huge diversity resulting from individualized use. In addition, we have seen how techniques are tailored to the needs and interests of individuals, with reference to music education teaching methods proven to help students reach educational goals from a skills perspective. The review presented here reinforces the connections and overlap between music therapy in the school environment and music education: music therapy uses musical techniques and resources with a therapeutic aim, while music education applies the same techniques and resources with educational aims that are shaped by the challenges and objectives of the educational system.

The main conclusion that can be extracted from this review is that the implementation of music therapy techniques is recommended and produces positive results at all phases of education and in diverse learning environments (Ballantyne & Baker, 2013; Chao-Fernández et al., 2020). Nonetheless, from the beginning of the review process, we found a wide range of interpretations as to the exact nature of an EMT intervention, since both the term EMT and the concept of music therapy used in educational contexts for educational purposes are insufficiently well-defined and too general (Edwards, 2011; Patterson, 2003). For some authors, music therapy interventions were only those delivered by certified music therapists (Pérez Eizaguirre, 2015) which, while this has some logic in clinical environments, does not address the realities of the educational context. In the review presented here, half of the studies involved interventions delivered by professionals other than music therapists (teachers, students, psychologists, and researchers), using EMT techniques based on musical teaching methods with the aim of helping their students in various areas known to positively influence educational outcomes. To extract the full potential of EMT, however, brings with it the need for training in the specific teaching methods and the requirement that music therapy activities should be delivered by an appropriately qualified professional (Talavera Jara & Gértrudix Barrio, 2016) using peer collaboration (Ballantyne & Baker, 2013). As a result, to better define the concept of EMT, we would describe it as

“the use of music and its elements by teachers, specialists, or therapists in educational contexts with the aim of addressing the needs and problems of both individual students and of the student body as a whole, in processes of learning and personal development to enhance inclusion, social harmony, and well-being as a way to help students achieve necessary skills and objectives.”

The benefits that can be expected from the use of EMT in terms of psychological, physical, and behavioral improvements among students encourage its use in both formal and nonformal music education, as a tool to make teaching strategies more inclusive and to improve the teaching and learning process (Arnau, 2013; Chao-Fernández et al., 2020; Crooke & McFerran, 2014; Pasiali & Clark, 2018). Knowledge of EMT techniques for psycho-socioemotional goals should be encouraged among professionals in music education, because of their proven effectiveness with students at all levels of the educational system. These techniques could then become one more innovative methodology in teachers’ repertoires, further enabling them to foster positive teaching and learning experiences, progress in skill acquisition and motivation and also reduce students’ anxiety and improve the social skills and well-being of their students (Eren, 2015; Son et al., 2019; Uhlig et al., 2016; Ziv & Dolev, 2013).

This review has various limitations. In the first instance, it was difficult to apply the appropriate filters to differentiate between studies using EMT interventions and those simply using music interventions: this meant that, initially, a great number of studies were selected for inclusion, causing an overload of information. The necessary pruning of the corpus meant that some important details may have been lost and this factor must be taken into account in future studies (Young, 2016). Similarly, we omitted what might be termed “grey area” literature, that is, studies not published via the conventional academic or commercial routes, despite the fact that this body of work also contained studies of interest. As in all bibliographic reviews, any given selection of articles could contain some sort of bias which would potentially limit its usefulness. In the same way, there is an ongoing need to keep reviews of this nature up to date. Another limiting factor was the lack of any longitudinal studies that might demonstrate the evolution of any of the dimensions analyzed in the work reviewed so far. The effects of implementing a particular EMT intervention should, ideally, be considered over the long term; thus, it would be interesting to look at, for instance, how the perceptions of these interventions develop over time among teachers, students, and their families.

Based on the results summarized in this review, proposals for future work include a consideration of how to develop specific EMT-based action plans for educational centers, aimed at improving teaching and learning. One new area of research would be to assess the various EMT techniques with a view to understanding which are best suited to addressing particular needs and educational objectives. Another area would be to use the Delphi method to evaluate EMT interventions, establishing clear indicators of quality and applicability according to expert-evaluated programs.

This systematic review has enabled us to objectively evaluate the teaching methods and strategies of EMT applied to incentivize motivation or improve the performance and skills of students on the one hand and to enhance the professional development of educators on the other. It has also allowed us to look at connections between researchers and professionals in education with music as the central axis. Nonetheless, this article cannot be concluded without accepting that there is a great deal more to do. As shown here, there is a growing interest in EMT with a significant increase in studies concerning this topic in recent years. This highlights the need to search for new methodological foci in response to the challenges modern society faces in training the future citizens of the twenty-first century.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical Approval

Because the research is a review of articles, no ethical approvals or informed consent was required.

ORCID iD

Gonzalo Marcos Treceño

Ana Rosa Arias Gago

Author biographies

Gonzalo Marcos Treceño, Degree in Music at the Royal Superior Conservatory of Music of Madrid, Spain, Master’s in Research in Psychology and Education Sciences at the University of León. Professor of Music at IES Juan del Enzina in León, Spain.

Ana Rosa Arias Gago, Degree in Education –Special Education- (1998); Master in Psychopedagogy (2000). PhD degree in Psychology and Educational Sciences from the University of Leon (2005), thesis: La dirección y el liderazgo de la calidad en los centros educativos. 2 Postgraduate termination rewards (Master, special teaching and Bachelor of Arts in Psychopedagogy).

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