Multiple Intelligence Based Instructional Material in a Topic about Ecosystem for Musically

Intelligent Learners

Lazzel Natalia B. Mista2009-17414BS MST (Biology)Christia A. Guevara, Ph.D.

INTRODUCTION1.1. Background of the Study

Howard Gardner developed a theory about Multiple Intelligence and started with six intelligences. Now, we have nine…

“An intelligence is the ability to solve problems, or to create

products, that are valued within

one or more cultural settings.”

-Howard GradnerFrames of Mind, 1983

Verbal-Linguistic

Intrapersonal

Interpersonal

Bodily-Kinaesthetic

Existentialist

Visual-Spatial

Naturalist

Logical-Mathematical

Musical

(Source: Thirteen ed online, 2004)

9 Multiple Intelligences

Musical intelligence

The capacity to recognize the components of sound and, in particular, to notice, appreciate and apply the various aspects of music such as pitch, rhythm, timbre and mood, both separately and holistically. (Brainboxx, 2013)

Musical intelligenceCharacteristics:

• A keen sense of hearing.• Enjoys a wide range of music. • Fascination with sound. • Remembers tunes and may sing along with songs. 

• Good sense of rhythm and may tap along with the beat. 

• Good sense of pitch and may harmonise spontaneously. 

• Able to differentiate different instruments.

1.2 Significance of the Study

An instructional material using one of the intelligences which is not commonly used in a normal or ordinary classroom setting was developed. A lesson that is incorporated with music will be implemented so that Musically Intelligent Learners will perform better than their performance in an ordinary classroom setting.

1.2 Significance of the Study

One of the difficult things that a teacher has to do is to prepare a lesson that will arouse the students’ interest on a specific subject matter and at the same time make sure that the students learn. Since generally, in majority of the schools, the students in a classroom have different personalities and different things that they are interested in, some teachers settle to the ordinary classroom setting - the lecture type.

1.2 Objectives of the Study

The general objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a Multiple Intelligence based instructional material for Musically Intelligent Learners about a topic in Science which is Ecosystem. The specific objectives of the study are to:1. Provide a musical instruction about Ecosystem which

tackles Biotic and Abiotic components and the symbiotic relationships among organisms;

2. Determine who among the students/respondents are musically intelligent;

3. Compare the scores of the students in the pre-test and post-test; and

4. Verify that the presence of music in a learning material caters learning especially to the musically intelligent learners.

1.4 Scope and Limitations

• Respondents are grade 7 students from a public national high school in Los Baños, Laguna (Los Baños National High School) and an enriched school in Bay, Laguna (University of the Philippines Rural High School)

• A total of 100 students who were selected as respondents.

• The topic ‘Ecosystem’ specifically Biotic and Abiotic factors, and symbiotic relationship between and among organisms were chosen because these will be the next lessons that they will tackle according to their schedule.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Every teacher whether old or new ones needs quick and easy-to-use instructional materials to help them impart lessons to the students. Using songs can be an easy way for teachers who are trying to help their students to cope up with their lesson. Aside from it is appropriate and fulfilling, your students will not realize how much they are learning just by using a song. “Music makes learning a great adventure.” Singing connects your students, especially the struggling ones, to the joy of learning. (Hachmeister, 2010)

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

“Learning is well organized when it is richly meaningful to the learner” (Mursell, 1954). He also stated that significant interest and intelligibility are the two factors of meaningfulness.

According to a site called Super Simple Learning (2014), one great tool for teaching is music. Good songs will continue to run around their heads helping them remember and understand what is being delivered by the music especially when it is authentic. Learners pick up the lessons if it is incorporated with a song because singing is what people love to do.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Ferguson stated that “music stimulates many others than the purely musical area of the mind”. It is not only the music itself functions as the ‘music lover’ but can also be used in other fields such as academics.

According to Edgar Dale (1954), audio and visual materials have a high degree of interest for students. Through the implementation of this musical instruction, students will pay more attention to the lesson.

1 • MI Inventory

2 • Pre-test

3 • Implementation of the instructional material

4 • Post-test

5 • Recording and Analysis of Data

METHODOLOGY

School Musically Intelligent

learners (%)

Non-musical learners (%)

Total number of students (%)

 

LBNHS 13 81 94

UPRHS 4 2 6

Total 17 83 100

Table 1. Summary of the distribution of musical and non-musical learners.

Student Pre-test(items=10)

Post-test (items=10)

1 3 62 3 73 4 74 4 95 6 86 5 107 5 68 5 99 6 8

10 7 811 5 612 4 1013 3 314 8 1015 4 1016 2 617 3 7

Table 2. Comparison of the pre-test and post-test scores of the musically intelligent learners.

Figure 1. Bar graph comparing the pre-test and post-test scores of musically intelligent learners.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 170

2

4

6

8

10

12

Pre-test

Post-test

Student

Tes

t sc

ore

Test of Hypothesis for Musically Intelligent Learners

Ho: The mean difference between the post-test and the pre-test is equal to zero.Ha: The mean difference between the post-test and the pre-test is greater than zero.Test Procedure: Paired t-testDecision Rule: Reject Ho if p-value is less than α=0.01, otherwise fail to reject Ho.

Statistical Analysis:Paired t test__________________________________________________________________Variable | Obs Mean Std. Err. Std. Dev. [99% Conf. Interval]__________________________________________________________________PostTest | 17 7.647059 .4692075 1.934592 6.276606 9.017512 PreTest | 17 4.529412 .3846087 1.585782 3.406054 5.65277__________________________________________________________________ diff | 17 3.117647 .4445946 1.833111 1.819083 4.416211__________________________________________________________________

Decision: Since p-value = 0.0000(insignificant) is less than α=0.01, we reject Ho.Conclusion: At 99% confidence level, there is sufficient evidence to conclude that the mean difference between the post-test and the pre-test is greater than zero. Therefore the method is effective among students who are identified as musically intelligent.

Test of Hypothesis for Non-Musically Intelligent Learners

Ho: The mean difference between the post-test and the pre-test is equal to zero.Ha: The mean difference between the post-test and the pre-test is greater than zero.Test Procedure: Paired t-testDecision Rule: Reject Ho if p-value is less than α=0.01, otherwise fail to reject Ho.

Statistical Analysis:Paired t test____________________________________________________________________Variable | Obs Mean Std. Err. Std. Dev. [99% Conf. Interval]____________________________________________________________________posttest | 83 5.26506 .2306797 2.101593 4.656729 5.873391pretest | 83 4.493976 .2371428 2.160474 3.868601 5.119351____________________________________________________________________ diff | 83 .7710843 .1061236 .9668317 .4912234 1.050945____________________________________________________________________

Decision: Since p-value = 0.0000(insignificant) is less than α=0.01, we reject Ho.Conclusion: At 99% confidence level, there is sufficient evidence to conclude that the mean difference between the post-test and the pre-test is greater than zero. Therefore the method is effective among students who are identified as non-musical learners.

The data shows that the instructional material is genuinely effective for the musical learners. According to Leo Jones (2007), students consider learning as incentive when they are given opportunities to learn at their own motivation and determination.

On the other hand, it also shows that for non-musical learners, the musical instruction is also effective. Recall that a person has one or more dominant intelligence/s. It doesn’t mean that a musical intelligence in a person is not there. It only means that there are other intelligences that are dominant and are more effective when used as a learning technique.

•A study was conducted to determine if the musically intelligent learners will perform better when an instructional material used for their learning is incorporated with music.

•A song about a topic in Science 7 which is Ecosystem which tackles Biotic and Abiotic components of the ecosystem and the symbiotic relationship between and among organisms was composed to serve as the material for the implementation of this study.

•One hundred respondents which is composed of ninety-four (94) students from Los Banos National High School and six (6) students from University of the Philippines Rural High School.

•They completed three tests which includes the Multiple Intelligence Inventory to identify each student’s dominant multiple intelligence/s, Pre-Test to determine how much do they know about the topic, and Post-Test to determine if the instructional material was effective.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

The results showed that the material provided an increase in the mean scores for both group of learners – musically intelligent and non-musical. Only, the mean difference between the post-test and the pre-test of the musically intelligent learners is higher than that of the non-musical learners. Therefore, the study was effective and it proved that interest and authenticity in the teaching and learning process is important and can cater learning to the students.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

BRAINBOXX. 2013. Musical Intelligence. http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/a1_multiple/pages/musical.htmDALE, EDGAR. 1954. Audio-Visual Methods in Teaching. Revised Edition. The Dryden Press, New York. pp. 65, and 78-83FERGUSON, D. N. The Why of Music: Dialogues In An Unexplored Region of Appreciation. University of Minnesota Press.HACHMEISTER, JEANETTE C. 2010. Music As A Teaching Tool: Learning Through Singing. http://listeningandspokenlanguage.org/Document.aspx?id=252. 3417 Volta Place, NW | Washington, DCHOWARD GARDNER. 2010. Multiple intelligences. http://www.howardgardner.com/MI/mi.htmlJONES, LEO. 2007. The Student-Centered Classroom. 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 18-24.MURSELL, JAMES L. 1954. Successful Teaching: It’s Psychological Principles. Second Edition. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. USA. pp. 1, and 18.SCHROEDER, IRA. 1966. Listener’s Handbook: A Guide to Music Appreciation. The Iowa State University Press, USA.THE SUPER SIMPLE CLUB. 2014. Super Simple Learning: Using Music In The Classroom http://supersimplelearning.com/free-resources/teaching-tips/using-music-in-the-classroom/ NW Market St. #507. Seattle, WA 98107, USATHIRTHEEN ED ONLINE. 2011. Tapping Into Multiple Intelligences. www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/mi/. Educational Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.WESSELLS, N.K. and Hopson, J.L. 1988. Biology. New York: Random House. Ch. 44.

REFERENCES

ECOSYSTEM(Tune: Dati by Sam Conception and Tippy Dos Santos)

IEcosystem: Interaction of all things on Earth

There are two structures in an ecosystemAbiotic and Biotic are these two factors

These factors interact. Interactions are called symbiosis

IIMutualism, Parasitism, Commensalism

In mutualism, they both benefit, they need each otherParasitism is where one is harmed and the other

benefitsCommensalism: benefits and the other is not affected

BridgeBiotic factors are living things

Abiotic factors are non-living thingsChorus

1Everything is connected to everything else2Everything must go somewhere or become other

things3There is no such thing as free lunch for everybody

These are the three rulesRules of ecosystem

(Repeat I)(Repeat II)

(Repeat Chorus)

Appendix 2A

Appendix 2B

Name ____________________________________Section _________________Write TRUE on the blank if the statement is correct. Otherwise, write the correct term to replace the underlined word.

___________1. Ecosystem involves the interaction among the abiotic and biotic components of the earth.___________2. Plants and animals are abiotic factors.___________3. Commensalism is the relationship where both factors benefit from each other.___________4. The relationship where an organism is harmed while the other organism benefits is parasitism.___________5. Human and mosquitoes have a “mutualism” relationship.II. Fill in the blanks the correct letter from the choices inside the parenthesis._____ factors are living things. (a. Biotic , b. Abiotic)These factors (biotic and abiotic) interact. Interactions are called _____. (a. symbiogenesis , b. symbiosis)Everything must go somewhere or become ____. (a. everything , b. other things)There is no such thing as free ____ for everybody. (a. lunch , b. food)_____: benefits and the other is not affected. (a. mutualism , b. parasitism , c. commensalism)

Appendix 3

Appendix 4January 05, 2014

Prof. Liza CarascalPrincipal

Request for Permission I am Lazzel Natalia Mista, a senior student taking up BS Mathematics and Science Teaching from UPLB. I am currently taking my Special Problem entitled “Multiple Intelligence Based Instruction for Musically Intelligent Learners”. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of Multiple Intelligence Theory on Grade 7 students on a topic in Science (Ecosystem). This also aims to provide a supplementary instructional material for musically intelligent students. I would like to ask a permission to conduct my study in your school (University of the Philippines Rural High School) and my target respondents are at least one (1) section from Grade 7. This study will only be conducted for two (2) meetings. The first meeting will be the Multiple Intelligence Test for the students which they will determine their individual dominant multiple intelligences, the second meeting will be the pre-test about the chosen topic, the activity, and the post-test. Thank you very much for your kind consideration and I am looking forward for your permission. God bless you.

Sincerely yours,

Lazzel Natalia B. Mista2009-17414BS MSTUPLB

Noted by:___________________________ Christia A. Guevara, PhD. SP Adviser

Approved by:____________________________ Prof. Liza Carascal Principal, UPRHS

December 13, 2014

Mrs. Merlinda MuradPrincipal III

Request for Permission I am Lazzel Natalia Mista, a senior student taking up BS Mathematics and Science Teaching from UPLB. I am currently taking my Special Problem entitled “Multiple Intelligence Based Instruction for Musically Intelligent Learners”. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of Multiple Intelligence Theory on Grade 7 students on a topic in Science (Ecosystem). This also aims to provide a supplementary instructional material for musically intelligent students. I would like to ask a permission to conduct my study in your school (University of the Philippines Rural High School) and my target respondents are at least one (1) section from Grade 7. This study will only be conducted for two (2) meetings. The first meeting will be the Multiple Intelligence Test for the students which they will determine their individual dominant multiple intelligences, the second meeting will be the pre-test about the chosen topic, the activity, and the post-test. Thank you very much for your kind consideration and I am looking forward for your permission. God bless you.

Sincerely yours,

Lazzel Natalia B. Mista2009-17414BS MSTUPLB

Noted by:___________________________ Christia A. Guevara, PhD. SP Adviser

Approved by:____________________________ Mrs. Merlinda Murad Principal III, LBNHS