John McNaughton Rosebush Professor of Psychology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Nominated By: Sarah Jerome
Dr. Frances Rauscher studies the effects of music instruction on children’s cognitive development. She has found that early music instruction can increase children’s abstract reasoning and arithmetic scores. These findings have had a strong impact on educational practice in the US and overseas, with several public elementary schools implementing instrumental instruction to improve spatial intelligence. Her vision is to teach all children, regardless of musical or economic background, how to think and reason creatively.
