Music and students' achievement and critical thinking skills in Physics

Abstract

The exploration of the effect of music on the cognitive development has not been done thoroughly such that its effect on physics achievement and critical thinking was yet to be studied in such depth as in this research. This quasi-experimental research aimed to ascertain the effect of instrumental background music on the physics achievement and critical thinking skills in physics of grade 9 special science class students of Negros Occidental High School during the school year 2016-2017. This study employed the pre-test post-test design of the experimental method of research. It utilized a researcher-made physics achievement and critical thinking appraisal test, survey questionnaire, journal, and observation sheet. The research revealed that the music group has comparable level of physics achievement with the without music group. Likewise, their critical thinking skills were also comparable. The skills in inferring, recognizing assumption, reason deductively, interpreting, and evaluating arguments in a presented passage of the with background music group were comparable with the without music group. The investigation revealed that instrumental background music was perceived by some of the students as distractor during any classroom activity especially during the test. This study also found out that physics achievement and critical thinking skills has no relationship with or without instrumental background music. It is recommended that similar studies be done to validate the results. It is recommended that the multiple intelligences, individual learning style, and the music preferences of the respondents be considered or assessed before doing the same study.