Founder of Bigger Better Brains and an advocate for understanding how music learning can benefit every child’s development.
Anita is an award-winning educator, researcher and writer in the field of brain development and music learning. She is internationally recognised for her unique work in translating the scientific research of neuroscientists and psychologists to the everyday parent, teacher and student.
Anita’s work first came to prominence when she wrote the script for the highly successful TEDEd video, How playing an instrument benefits your brain, followed by her TEDx Talk, What if every child had music education from birth? She is known for her role as on-screen expert for the Don’t Stop the Music documentary that aired on ABC in 2018 and was awarded the inaugural Australian Women in Music award for Music Education in 2019.
As a primary student, she was given the opportunity to learn the clarinet, and experienced significant improvements in her own learning. A life-long love of music, an accomplished teacher at Canberra Grammar School and experienced lecturer at the University of Canberra and ANU, her education, research and personal experience.
Bigger Better Brains initially launched as a Facebook community for music educators to share and learn more about the emerging field of neuromusical research. With so much interest, a global network quickly grew, and the Bigger Better Brains Facebook now has over 14,000 followers.
Bigger Better Brains has members all over Australia as well as in Asia, the UK, USA and South America and helps you educate to advocate. Anita believes that to advocate effectively we need to first educate effectively.
Learn more about Dr Anita Collins here
The benefits of music education
In this talk, musician and educator Anita Collins makes a passionate case for music education as an indispensable part of school curricula, describing how learning to play music is the neurological equivalent of a full-body workout.
