Enhancing students' understanding and skills on dance music: An action research

Dance students in university tend to have minimum understanding and skills in processing music to address the creativity needs in new dance works. Therefore, effective and critical learning strategies are needed so they are able to process music to create dance works. This research aims at enhancing dance students’ understanding and skills to process music in creating new dance works in the future. It was conducted using an action research design involving 30 dance students at one of the universities in Indonesia. The results showed that, in terms of skills and understanding of music, students were not used to processing music for their dance works, since they were mostly assisted by music stylists. Through internal and external music exploration learning, the musical dance students’ skills could be improved. Therefore, the findings of this research are recommended to be used as an alternative learning in enhancing dance students’ musical ability. Keywords: Dance Music, Movement Exploration, External Music, Internal Music, Dance Creativity.

Using creative research methods and movement to encourage reflection in children

Reflection is a vital part of learning, and yet in early childhood, research work on reflection is most commonly on that undertaken by teachers, and not children. This article draws from a participatory study showing how creative research methods and somatic movement enabled 22 children aged 4–11 to reflect on their experiences and document their reflections, and report findings for children aged 4–8. The aim of the research was to encourage the children to reflect deeply on their experiences, and to generate rich data. These data were used at the end of the study to stimulate discussion. The children demonstrated that they were able to reflect and articulate their experiences of the pressure to be right, the processes of journaling and drawing and reflection itself. The study used a variety of methods including journaling, drawing, mark-making and modelling as part of regular sessions of somatic movement exploration and education over 2 years within the school day.

MENINGKATKAN PEMBELAJARAN EKSPLORASI GERAK TARI BAGI SISWA MELALUI METODE STIMULUS RESPON

AbstrakPenelitian Tindakan Kelas ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan pemahaman konsep siswa tentang keberhasilan pembelajaran eksplorasi gerak tari melalui metode stimulus respon. Objek dari penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas XI IPS 1. Yang menjadi dasar penggunaan metode ini adalah pertimbangan akan mampu meningkatkan kompetensi siswa dari hanya mengidentifikasi gerak tari menjadi memiliki kemampuan untuk mengeksplorasi gerakan tari melalui metode stimulus respon. Dengan menggunakan metode stimulus respon ini siswa dilatih menggunakan kemampuan kreatif dan inovatif yang ada dalam dirinya agar mampu mencapai tingkat produktif berupa melakukan eksplorasi dan menghasilkan gerakan tari. Tindakan dilakukan dalam dua siklus, yang setiap siklusnya terdiri dari empat tahapan yaitu Perencanaan, Pelaksanaan, Pengamatan dan Refleksi. Hasil Observasi dan Refleksi pada siklus 1 mengindikasikan bahwa dua kelompok dari empat kelompok siswa telah mampu mengidentifikasi dan membandingkan gerak tari, sedangkan dua kelompok lainnya baru mampu mengidentifikasi gerak tari. Pada siklus II, hasil Observasi dan Refleksi menunjukkan terjadi peningkatan dalam penguasaan mempraktikkan dan menghasilkan gerak tari. Semua kelompok siswa telah mampu mengidentifikasi, membandingkan, mempraktikkan dan mengeksplor gerak tari Bahkan ada satu kelompok telah mampu menghasilkan gerak tari. Direkomendasikan dilakukan remedial untuk kelompok yang belum mampu menguasai kompetensi eksplorasi gerak tari. AbstractThis Classroom Action Research aims to improve the understanding of students' concepts about the success of dance movement learning through the stimulus response method. The object of this study is class XI IPS 1. The basis of the use of this method is the consideration that it will be able to improve student competencies from only identifying dance movements to having the ability to explore dance movements through the stimulus response method. By using this stimulus response method students are trained to use creative and innovative abilities that are within themselves to be able to achieve productive levels in the form of exploring and producing dance movements. The action is carried out in two cycles, each of which consists of four stages, namely Planning, Implementation, Observation and Reflection. Observation and Reflection Results in cycle 1 indicate that two groups of four groups of students have been able to identify and compare dance movements, while the other two groups have only been able to identify dance movements. In the second cycle, the results of observation and reflection showed an increase in mastery in practicing and producing dance moves. All groups of students have been able to identify, compare, practice and explore dance moves. Even one group has been able to produce dance moves. Remedials are recommended for groups that have not been able to master dance movement exploration competencies.