Senin, 25 Oktober 2010 Musical Intelligence and The Way to Involve It in Teaching and Learning Process Diposting oleh an.pane di 09.47

Howard Gardner is famous for his multiple intelligences theory. His full-length statement about this theory was written in his book, titled Frames of Mind, in 1983. He stated that there were eight kinds of intelligences.  It started to give a big influence to the world, especially in education, where people had a concept that human had only one kind of intelligence.

taken from educ-reality.com

One of the intelligences from Gardner’s theory is musical intelligence. In many schools, including the ones in Indonesia, students with musical intelligence are assumed to develop their skill only in a specific subject by learning how to read musical notes, play musical instruments, and compose some songs. Although this assumption does not seem completely wrong, it gives a misconception about musical intelligence. The fact is students who likes singing, listening to music, and imitating songs’ beat by clapping hands, may include in this intelligence. Looking at these examples, musical intelligence can be used effectively for teaching and learning process in all subjects, including English. There are many techniques that teachers can apply to accommodate the students with this intelligence.

When I become an English teacher, I will pay attention to this intelligence by conducting some interesting activities in a classroom that can make them understand my subject. For example, the topic is about simple past tense. Firstly, I introduce the topic and explain it briefly. After that, each student is given a piece of paper that contains lyrics of a song with some blanks that they must fill with correct verbs according to the song that I will play. Next, I play a song with lyrics in past tense and they fill the blanks at the same time.  Then, I divide the class into some groups. After that, they have to discuss it together within their groups and make a list about all the things they find in the song, including the verbs’ forms and time indicators (adverbs of time).  After finishing discussion, they are asked to choose one people from each group to share the result. Then, other groups are allowed to give comments. Finally, I will ask their opinions about the song, the reason why it uses past tense, and whether it is possible to change the lyrics into other tenses. These activities have some goals, they are: improving students’ listening and speaking skill, developing their comprehension about the material (simple past tense) and their ability to work cooperatively with their peers. It also builds students’ critical thinking.

Musical intelligence can be involved in all levels since music is usually introduced from beginner level; even kindergarten students are usually introduced to songs. However, the activity like I mentioned before is appropriate for students in K-8 because of the material and the techniques. The point is musical intelligence can be applied in any levels as long as the teachers use suitable materials and activities based on the level or the class that they teach.