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Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 29 (4): 2709 - 2728 (2021)
Journal homepage: http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/
© Universiti Putra Malaysia Press
SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES
ISSN: 0128-7702
e-ISSN: 2231-8534
Article history:
Received: 31 August 2021
Accepted: 04 October 2021
Published: 10 December 2021
ARTICLE INFO
DOI: https://doi.org/10.47836/pjssh.29.4.33
E-mail addresses:
mdjais@uitm.edu.my (Md Jais Ismail)
lfc@upm.edu.my (Loo Fung Chiat)
azu.farhana@unikl.edu.my (Azu Farhana Anuar)
* Corresponding author
‘Music in Film’ for Gifted Students: The Eect of Dierentiated
Learning on Students’ Motivation
Md Jais Ismail1*, Loo Fung Chiat2 and Azu Farhana Anuar3
1Department of Music Education, Faculty of Music, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450 Shah Alam,
Selangor, Malaysia
2Department of Music, Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia
3Student Development, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, MICET, 78000 Alor Gajah, Melaka, Malaysia
ABSTRACT
Music is not only an important subject in general education, but it particularly serves gifted
students who face various psychological issues not encountered by their ‘normal’ peers.
Nonetheless, it is found that not all schools are implementing proper music lessons due to the
focus on STEM subjects. This paper provides an overview of developing music enrichment
activities as an approach to meet gifted students’ needs. Dierentiated instruction was used
as the main approach to developing a comprehensive music enrichment activity, namely
‘Music in Film’, in which gifted students integrated music and computer skills in completing
a given task. Furthermore, a research survey was conducted involving 36 gifted students.
The MUSIC Inventory was used to measure their motivation and engagement towards
the activity to measure the methods. Five domains—empowerment, usefulness, success,
interest and caring—were measured on a 6-point Likert scale. Results revealed that all
ve domains were rated from moderate to high by the gifted students with a minimum
4.5 mean. Although it can be concluded that this enrichment activity is apt and eective
for implementation in gifted education,
future studies could look at participants with
dierent backgrounds and demographics.
It is hoped that this paper will contribute to
designing more enrichment activities with a
dierentiated instruction approach as gifted
students possess high potential in various
talents that need to be nurtured.
Keywords: Differentiated instruction, enrichment,
gifted, music education, technology
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Md Jais Ismail, Loo Fung Chiat and Azu Farhana Anuar
INTRODUCTION
Enrichment experiences outspread, excavate,
widen, or supplement an individual’s
knowledge (Hardman et al., 2017). Music
and dance, information technology (ICT),
mathematics, and languages are such
enrichment courses that may be added
to a gifted student’s curriculum, which
may strengthen or sharpen students’
various skills and talents (Phillipson,
2007). Other examples of enrichment
include experiences in which the students
build sophisticated thinking skills, such
as analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and
evaluation, or have chances to master
advanced concepts in a particular field.
Some features of enrichment are viewed as
types of acceleration. For example, a student
whose enrichment involves fully pursuing
mathematical concepts that are well beyond
his or her present grade level is experiencing
a form of acceleration. The two approaches
are interrelated.
Enrichment could be the best way to
serve gifted students. Eminent enrichment
programmes are determined by cautiously
designed activities, modules, or books,
are challenging but not packed with
assignments, and use rigorous yet reasonable
assessments (Alabdullatif, 2020; Kamis et
al., 2021). Additionally, good enrichment
programmes focus on students’ considerate
and thorough plans and appealing activities
that stress high-order thinking and practical
skills. The close Assistive Technology
type, ‘The Renzulli Learning Enrichment
Differentiation’, shows how a particular
database can deliver modified learning
options for gifted students (Hardman et al.,
2017). Renzulli’s work is appropriate as
he highlights how the behaviour of gifted
individuals contrasts with that of the non-
gifted. That is a realisation that has clear
and important implications in the eld of
gifted education.
Enrichment comprises activities, such
as exploring thrilling topics not normally
included in the general curriculum, group-
centred activities that concentrate on mental
or aective skills and processes, and small-
group studies of actual-life problems
(Golle et al., 2018; Wu, 2013). The keys
to these activities are high student interest,
outstanding teaching, and meaningful
mentoring. In the process of teaching
gifted students, there are some strategies
that teachers may implement to heighten
students’ interest towards the class activity:
active learning; opportunities for choice and
flexibility; asking unexpected questions;
giving children responsibility for planning
and decision-making; opportunities for
humour; lateral thinking; and oering new
learning experiences (Cathcart, 2020).
Additionally, learning materials strengthen
students’ understanding of a topic as they can
signicantly increase students’ achievement
by supporting their learning. This allows the
students to explore knowledge independently
as well as providing repetition. Learning
materials, regardless of form, have their
special functions to enrich teaching, occupy
students in multi-dimensional learning, and
develop students’ skills in applying their
knowledge (Elliott & Corrie, 2015). Thus,
according to Tomlinson and Masuhara
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Music in Film for Gifted Students
(2017), some factors should be taken into
consideration to select proper learning
material in conducting a course, which are
• Materials may encourage students
to exploit higher-order thinking
skills and to become up-to-date
learners, to practise freedom of
thought and to make independent
decisions through evaluation of
pertinent information, evidence,
and diering perspectives.
• Materials that inspire the
development of observation and
awareness.
• Materials that are related to precise
talent areas.
• Materials that encourage learners to
utilize their creative skills.
• Materials that provoke thought
about specic concepts and ideas
• Materials that motivate students
to reflect on their manners and
behaviours and understand their
responsibilities, duties, moralities,
and rights as contributing citizens
in a diverse society.
• Materials that are varied with
respect to stages of difficulty,
reading level, and which present a
variety of information.
Music is found to be important for
gifted students. Previous studies proposed
that gifted students be exposed to music
to strengthen their skills, foster creativity,
sharpen talents and bring many other
benets (Md Jais et al., 2018; Tolar, 2016).
Gifted education has been introduced in
Malaysia since 2009 under the governance
of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (Md
Jais et al., 2021). The gifted education
programme will soon be expanded to
national secondary schools under the
Ministry of Education, according to Iktisas
Circular Letter No. 3 2021 (Pekeliling
Iktisas Bil.3/2021). Recognising that this
is also driven by the online education
prevalent nowadays, researchers feel there
is a need for music studies integrated with
technology to meet the educational needs of
gifted students.
Furthermore, as music has emotional
and psychological eects on individuals,
it heightens the characteristics of self-
actualisation and the personality of a
gifted individual (Piragasam et al.,
2013). Nonetheless, it is found that most
schools are focussing on STEM activities
and have marginalised music (Brewin,
2016; Pepper, 2019). It is an unfortunate
consequence for gifted students to feel and
express the allure of music. Those who
are only musically talented have a limited
time to explore music and sharpen their
skills. The implications of these problems
have caused discrimination against gifted
students, especially those who are musically
gifted, through the limitation of students’
creativity, lack of fun experiences, and
coordination of body movements. Realizing
these issues, we reviewed related literature
and developed music enrichment activities
specifically for gifted students that may
guide teachers to conduct an enrichment
activity in school. The objectives of this
study include i) identifying the eectiveness
of differentiated learning towards gifted
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Md Jais Ismail, Loo Fung Chiat and Azu Farhana Anuar
students’ motivation and ii) recommending
the activity of ‘Music in Film’ as a suitable
enrichment activity for gifted students.
Dierentiated Instruction for Gifted
Students
A popular teaching approach in gifted
education is the use of differentiated
instruction (Lee, 2018). This trend is
indicated by numerous articles and reports
on the subject in various journals, courses
dealing with gifted educators and educational
administrators, and using this method in
the standard gifted curriculum series in
Malaysia. It was found that dierentiated
instruction has become a crucial but complex
teaching strategy that many teachers have
not mastered and feel unprepared (van
Geel et al., 2019). Thus, teachers need to be
equipped with skills through professional
courses and experience of differentiated
instruction, especially in gifted education
courses (Md Jais et al., 2018). As music
is one of the arts subjects taught to gifted
students, dierentiated instruction becomes
a unique teaching approach that triggers
music teachers to be creative in the students’
learning environment. In other words,
differentiated instruction replaces the
traditional method of “one size ts all”, as
explained by Sophia (2019).
Students in a class vary in culture,
socioeconomic background, gender, family
background, home environment, and skills.
By considering every student’s ability,
teachers need to develop personalized
instruction so that all students can master a
topic eectively. Gifted students, like other
children, need space and time to understand
a topic and further develop their skills to the
highest level (Ismail et al., 2021). Through
dierentiated instruction, students may learn
within their diverse classroom community
of learners to acquire content and process
and relate ideas in their ways. This method
is also believed to meet the gifted students’
readiness level, interests, and learning
proles. Although class learning has been
differentiated, this does not mean that
students are separated or neglected. On the
contrary, it is a method where every student
works at their own pace, and the learning
process is simultaneously executed. Sargent
(2017) emphasised that differentiated
instruction is not separating the less able
and more able children. Instead, the process
allows students to optimise their abilities
and further meet a learning target. As a
result, every student has a chance to be
successful in their eld as they may focus
on the area that they are interested in. To
enable this, teachers should give tasks that
sharpen students’ talents and set dierent
expectations based on the students’ abilities.
As in other elds, there are four ways
to form dierentiated instruction in music,
by dierentiating content, process, product,
and learning environment (Tomlinson,
2017). Dierentiation displays the music
strength among learners, how they learn,
learning preferences, and individual interests
(Kamarulzaman et al., 2017). Therefore,
dierentiation includes systematic processes
whilst offering a platform of practical,
exible teaching and learning approaches
to cater to each child’s learning needs and
strengths to reach their maximum potential
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Music in Film for Gifted Students
as a learner. Assessment through pre-test
and post-test is important to comprehend
how gifted students learn music and their
musicality level. Students could be provided
with a lesson rubric so that they may strive to
achieve their own goals and decide the grade
they require (Winebrenner, 2020). It oers
an overview for both teacher and student,
with the best target of developing students’
skills. The method of traditional instruction
practices commonly used is a “one size ts
all” approach in which students are unfairly
evaluated. In contrast, dierentiation is more
student-centred, focusing on instructional
and evaluation tools that are fair, adaptable,
challenging, and which attract students to
take part in understanding the curriculum.
Dierentiated Music Contents
Common dierentiated music instruction is
through adapted content in which the lesson
content is differentiated based on what
students know. The most essential lesson
content should cover the levels of learning
set by the educational institution. Students
have diverse experiences of music lessons.
For example, some students are unfamiliar
with music concepts, misunderstanding the
ideas and missing some points, while there
are students who have already mastered the
initial stages. In music lessons, teachers
dierentiate the content by planning musical
activities for students which cover dierent
levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Hanna (2007)
explained that Bloom’s taxonomy is a tool
to translate music education outcomes into
objective educational criteria. It is relevant
to music education as it nurtures creativity
as the most complex of cognitive processes,
which has constructive effects in music
education elds. Thus, the objectives of a
music lesson may comprise the elements of
cognitive domains, as shown in Figure 1.
In the process, teachers may modify what
is essential for students or how students can
dig into the concept and further obtain tacit
knowledge and skills. At this stage, teachers
are not lowering students’ performance
Figure 1. Bloom’s taxonomy
Creating
Evaluating
Analysing
Applying
Understanding
Remembering
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Md Jais Ismail, Loo Fung Chiat and Azu Farhana Anuar
levels or violating lesson objectives. They
use dierent songs, instruments, or short
music scores for each individual or student
in a music class. Teachers can use exible
groups and divide them into groups and then
watch a music video or search for required
sources on the internet. Students should be
allowed to choose how they want to work,
whether in pairs, groups, or individually.
Like other subjects, music content can be
mastered by exploring ideas, concepts,
information, and facts. It can be adjusted
through acceleration, compacting, variety,
restructuring, exible pacing, and the use
of more advanced concepts, tasks, and
materials. At the rst stage, students should
be allowed to explore the music contents
or skills at their own pace. Once they
master a certain skill, it is believed that the
entire music skills or contents which are
introduced to students could be completed
in much less time than by the traditional
method (VanTassel-Baska, 1989).
Dierentiated Music Process
Dierentiated process refers to the activities
designed to allow application and practice
of new skills and information involving
reciprocity toward the enhancement of
thinking skills dependent on prior knowledge
(Glazewski & Hmelo-Silver, 2019). Music
teachers are recommended to integrate
multiple teaching strategies to allow
students to have various ways to process
new information or practise new skills. For
example, supposed students are grouped for
a specic purpose or are allowed to choose
the most appealing task. In that case, they
can process the new information or practise
the new skill in a way that matches their skill
level, interests, or preferred learning style.
Music activities must be reorganised to be
more rationally challenging to dierentiate
processes, such as using tiered activities
to create a music video using various apps
and dierent times according to students’
ability. It is related to Standerfer (2011),
in which students with kinaesthetic ability
were given a task to spell music words with
their bodies, visually oriented students used
a computer to study treble clef notes, and
the more creative students used keyboards
to compose songs.
Regarding this matter, students need
to be challenged by musical reactions of
body movements that entail a quick and
demanding response or by open-ended
questions that encourage discovery, active
learning, exploration, and inquiry. The
goal of a dierentiated process is to inspire
students to think about music in a more
abstract way beyond conventional practice.
Jones et al. (2017) found empowerment is
a crucial factor for students to be engaged
in class through student-centred activities.
Additionally, musical activities should be
based on students’ interests and encourage
self-directed learning. It is directed to
ideas in Bloom’s taxonomy in which the
most common approach to the process is
modication. The categorisation level of
the cognitive system is arranged from the
fundamentals of thought includes imitating
and remembering, to more advanced levels
of judging, evaluating, and creating. Solo
and Dave taxonomies provide additional
models for improving music skills and
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Music in Film for Gifted Students
understanding among students (Hook &
Mills, 2012; Wesolowski & Payne, 2020).
All music teachers should be creative in
using various techniques to nurture and
stimulate a higher level of thinking skills
among gifted students. Group work and
practical activities, exible monitoring, and
guided self-management are a few ideas for
managing music class activities that support
the process of dierentiation.
Dierentiated Music Product
The product is the outcome at the end of the
lesson that demonstrates the understanding
of the topic through tests, projects, reports,
or music performance. Based on students’
abilities, music teachers may assign students
to summarisation activities that develop
mastery of a music concept (writing a music
outline) or a method the student is interested
in (music composition or performing
music on instruments). The product is an
essential part of the dierentiated model
which patently shows the readiness towards
assessments answering the ‘what’ and ‘how’
of the eectiveness of instruction. When
teachers modify a product or performance,
they are enabling students in many ways to
show what they have gained from the lesson.
It is done by exhibiting the product through
class presentations, digital boards or social
media platforms. It is intended to let students
demonstrate what they have learnt based on
their music skills, interests, and strengths.
Kazu and Issaku (2021) added that teachers
might help gifted students display their
mastery of certain concepts by using
technology-based projects. By modifying
the learning product, teachers allow students
to establish the best understanding of a
particular topic and learning objective. Jones
et al. (2017) stated that learning products
are achieved when students relate them to
the real world.
Dierentiated Music Learning
Environment
Differentiating the musical learning
environment for gifted learners is crucial
because it enables the students to achieve
optimal learning in a music topic.
Dierentiating the learning environment
for gifted students covers activities beyond
the four walls of a classroom, allows them
to move at their own pace, and develops
social and emotional awareness in facing
the process. The learning environment
incorporates the physical arrangement
of a learning place and the way students
utilise the space, including lighting and
atmosphere. The teacher’s role is to generate
an environment that is encouraging,
organised, and supportive for each student.
The music learning environment should
be exible with various facilities, such as
music instruments, gadgets, and technology,
by which students can complete a task
individually or in a group. It establishes a
variety of strategies to engage in a exible
and dynamic music class. Eective strategies
may mould students’ perception towards
learning for success (Jones et al., 2017).
Teachers should be open to alternatives,
so the learning environment helps students
nurture their gifted traits and talents through
interaction with the materials, partners,
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Md Jais Ismail, Loo Fung Chiat and Azu Farhana Anuar
group members, or whole class. Teachers
play a role to support and developing
a positive relationship with students so
that they will feel cared for and grasp the
values within the subject. Music educators
may create a meaningful music activity
by varying the learning environment;
for example, students might be allowed
to work in a music lab, computer lab or
recital room. Students might also be given
a choice to determine their preferred place
to complete a specic music task. Ludovico
and Mangione (2014) added that a music
learning environment could be considered
meaningful when adaptive technologies
improve students’ performance. It will
eventually heighten students’ interest and
motivation (Jones et al., 2017). A conceptual
framework was developed to indicate the
implementation of dierentiated learning
related to this study, as shown in Figure 2.
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
A Survey Research was applied to determine
the eectiveness of the music enrichment
activity. According to Denscombe (2017),
survey research is one of the Descriptive
Research Designs that aims to collect data
on a problem through a set of questionnaires,
review of interview documentation, tests,
or observation. The school survey, social
survey, and public opinion research are
models of survey research (Al-Zoubi &
Al-Zoubi, 2019). In the present research,
the high school survey model known as
MUSIC Inventory was used to identify
the eectiveness of an enrichment activity
based on the domains of empowerment,
usefulness, success, interest and caring. This
survey was administered after researchers
completed the intervention.
Participants
Respondents were selected through
purposive sampling and consisted of 36
gifted secondary level students (18 girls, 18
boys) aged 15 years from Kolej GENIUS@
Pintar Negara, Malaysia. The students had
passed the gifted screening tests, namely
UKM1, UKM2, and UKM3. Students of
this age were selected as they have skills
Figure 2. Conceptual framework of developing music course
Dierentiated Contents
Dierentiated Process
Dierentiated Product
Dierentiated Learning
Environment
Dierentiated
Instruction
Assessment Music
Enrichment
Course:
Music in Film
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Music in Film for Gifted Students
of reasoning and scientic argumentation
to be accommodated within the outlined
activities (Balchin et al., 2013). In addition,
there is a need to develop their skill at this
level, so the activities were developed to
enrich students’ skills, including music,
technology, language and interpersonal
skills as portrayed in Multiple Intelligence
Theory (Jignesh & Parul, 2020). The
participants did not have any formal training
in music technology, and the only music
background they had was gained via the
school music modules. The approach
included one 40-minute music class per
week with basic music theory, singing,
dancing and playing musical instruments.
The distribution of the respondents based
on gender is shown in Table 1.
Table 1
Distribution of research sample
Gender Frequency Percentage (%)
Male 18 50
Female 18 50
Total 36 100
Survey
A survey was conducted using instruments
based on the MUSIC Inventory adapted
from Jones (2017). Permission to use this
survey had been obtained. There are ve
domains in the inventory: empowerment,
usefulness, success, interest, and caring.
According to Jones (2017), the MUSIC
Inventory is designed to assess the level
at which high school students feel the
presence of each MUSIC model domain
in a learning process. It helps teachers to
identify strengths and weaknesses based on
factors related to student’s engagement and
motivation. Evidence of the instrument’s
validity shows a good value of Cronbach’s
alpha in which all the domains scored above
.7 (empowerment α = .72; Usefulness α=
.80; Success α = .84; Interest α = .77; Caring
α = .85) conducted on fth grade to seventh-
grade students in science classes (Jones et
al., 2017). A study by Parkes et al. (2017)
with fth grade to twelfth-grade students
in music and band ensemble classes shows
higher validity evidence of Cronbach’s
alpha (empowerment α =.73; Usefulness
α= .86; Success α = .92; Interest α = .91;
Caring α = .92) in which the t indices of a
conrmatory factor analysis is acceptable.
The instrument uses a 6-point scale with 18
items. The subscale of the item’s distribution
is shown in Table 2. In determining the level
of a mean score, a mean interpretation score
for the 6-point scale survey, as Table 3, was
developed.
Table 2
Distribution of item subscale
Domains No. of item Percentage (%)
Empowerment 4 22
Usefulness 3 17
Success 4 22
Interest 3 17
Caring 4 22
Total 18 100
Table 3
Mean score interpretation
Score Interpretation
1.0 - 2.9 Low
3.0 – 4.9 Moderate
5.0 – 6.0 High
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Md Jais Ismail, Loo Fung Chiat and Azu Farhana Anuar
Procedure
This lesson plan was designed exclusively
to provide a music enrichment activity for
gifted students. A 6-hour music enrichment
activity entitled ‘Music In Film’, was
outlined encompassing the elements of
differentiated instruction. The topic of
‘Music in Film’ was chosen since it considers
recommendations from previous studies that
found this topic is appropriate in meeting the
needs of music education for gifted students
(Burnette, 2013; Torkar et al., 2018; Zorman
et al., 2018). Teachers could select a day to
run this programme as enrichment for gifted
students. There were six phases of lesson
units, namely Phase 1 to Phase 6. This topic
was chosen as it suited 21st-century music
skill which integrates technology in music
content. Students also had the opportunity
to express their creativity through a digital
platform consisting of current software
and applications. This course was set
during the usual music class time to avoid
any complications in the schedule of the
school and students. Two music lecturers
developed a lesson plan of dierentiated
music instruction as in Table 4 in the eld
of music education. Activities were outlined
by considering the Dierentiated Model of
Giftedness and Talent (DMGT) proposed by
Gagné (2000).
During the process, we followed the
lesson plan framework proposed by Cathcart
(2020). In order to follow the framework, we
answered four major questions, which are: 1.
How am I generating a high level of interest
in learning? 2. How am I developing the
“tools of thought?” 3. How am I developing
intellectual and creative potential? 4. How
am I fostering emotional, social, and ethical
growth? Therefore, we integrated some
active learning activities, such as role-
play, movie scenes comparison, debate,
bookmaking, and film making. Students
were able to choose from the lesson activities
to complete various tasks. Lessons included
were observation, communication, thinking,
and organisation learning styles. Through
this course, we encouraged new work,
created an independent study, and provided
support for the exceptionally able reader.
Students were also given a chance to prepare
themselves with knowledge and condence
to support ideas and respect others’ opinions.
This course also aimed to develop emotional
awareness and understanding of others as
a basis for emotional and social maturity
throughout the process. The course outline
was then checked and veried by an expert
in the eld of gifted education. Finally, an
assessment rubric was prepared based on
the recommendation by Cathcart (2020).
The planning procedure also followed the
guideline by The MUSIC Model Design
Cycle recommended by Jones (2018), as
in Figure 3.
Procedure Planning
Topic: Music in Film
Students’ Age: 15 years old (Foundation 3
class)
Number: 36 students
Period: 6 hours
Objectives: At the end of the lesson,
students can apply music techniques to
create a lm.
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Music in Film for Gifted Students
Table 4
Music enrichment activity lesson plan
Phase 1: Orientation (estimated time 30 minutes):
1. Students are posed with questions:
-Why is music so important in lm?
-Do you agree music contributes much impact in the lm? Why?
-How do you determine the best musical usage in the lm?
2. Students watch a short blockbuster movie scene (students may choose any movie), for example,
video as https://youtu.be/udKE1ksKWDE. Students identify sounds and music elements in the scene.
2. Based on the previous reading material, students list music techniques used in the lm scenes.
3. Students share their answers and make conclusions about music techniques used in the lm scenes.
4. Students are divided into three groups; Group A, B, and C. Students may choose which group they
want to join. Each group will explore three activities (Role-play, Compare Scenes, and Book Making)
for three hours. The activities are designed based on Dierentiated Learning Environment and Product
approach. It can be implied as a rotation activity. The activities are scheduled as below.
1st-hour activity:
Group A: Role-play
Group B: Compare Scenes
Group C; Book Making
2nd-hour activity:
Group A: Compare Scenes
Group B: Book Making
Group C: Role-play
3rd-hour activity:
Group A: Book Making
Group B: Role-play
Group C: Compare Scenes
This lesson is important to students as it:
a. Develops creativity by making
and choosing proper music and
sound in lm.
b. Challenges thinking skills by
creating and matching sounds and
actions in the lm scene.
c. Inculcates cooperation among
each group member.
d. Appreciates the ideas and
aesthetics of music elements in the
lm.
Concepts:
a. Musical elements: Rhythm, melody,
dynamics, harmony, texture
b. Music techniques: Orchestration,
Diegetic and Non-diegetic, Syncing,
Timing
c. Music moods
Assessment Rubric
In designing the assessment rubric, we
followed the strategies of the ve motivation
domains recommended by Jones (2018).
The strategies include providing choices
during class, having students reflect on
lesson goals, providing students with
honest and specific feedback, designing
activities with consideration of students’
interests, and showing students that you
care to achieve the lesson objectives. After
considering all the domains strategies, we
mapped it with the assessment rubric for
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Md Jais Ismail, Loo Fung Chiat and Azu Farhana Anuar
Table 4 (continue)
Phase 2
(estimated time
3 hours)
Role play
Activity
Compare Scene
Activity
Making Book Activity
Teacher
facilitates all
three groups.
Teacher assists
students who
need help.
1. Students will have to
act and insert live sounds
in this activity.
2. Students plan their
storylines rst.
3. Some students act,
and some will make live
sounds to accompany the
action. Students may use
any musical instruments,
audio, and voice.
4. Students present their
role-play in front of the
class.
1. Students watch two
movie scenes provided for
them.
2. Students analyse music
techniques that are used
in both lms and compare
them.
3. Students list the strength
of each lm from the aspect
of music techniques.
4. Students share their
ndings in the group and
paste the ndings on the
wall.
1. Students read and nd
information in books,
articles, and the internet
source provided for them.
2. Students must nd info
about what music techniques
are used in lmmaking and
how to use them.
3. Students must collect
notes and make a scrapbook.
4. Students present and
submit their scrapbooks to
the teacher.
Phase 3 (30 minutes):
These activities are designated by applying the Dierentiated Content approach.
1. Students are divided into three debate groups: Modied Group, Extended Group 1, and Extended
Group
2. There are two teams in each group which are proponent and opponent.
3. Students may choose the topic to be debated from those below:
i. Diegetic and Timing are the most basic techniques in lm.
ii. Sync or Orchestration is the most important music technique in lm.
iii. Rhythm and melody could strengthen music in lm.
4. The proponent team has to propose and defend the topic given while the opponent has to oppose the
topic by emphasising other techniques as more important and justify the answer.
5. Students come up with a consensus on music techniques that are important in making a lm.
*Note: Those who do not join as proponents or opponents may become the audience and decide the winning
team.
Phase 4 (estimated time 1 hour 45 minutes):
These activities are designated by applying the Dierentiated Process approach.
1. Students are given a task to create a 10-minute short lm scene. Students are provided with a rubric
alongside completing the task.
2. Students must insert music or sounds in the lm using technology. Students may use software, such
as MovieMaker, VideoEditor, or Adobe Creative Cloud.
3. Students are given a choice to work in a group, pair or individually. Students may use any materials,
such as musical instruments, audio les, laptops, cameras, handphones, iPad, wood, paper, etc., to
create sounds.
4. Students broadcast their lm in the class.
Phase 5: Conclusion (15 minutes)
1. Students complete their video making and evaluate
their product based on the rubric provided.
2. Students submit their video (lm and music) and
broadcast it on the students’ portal.
Phase 6: Evaluation
1. Teacher uses a survey or reection form to
evaluate the lesson.
2. Teacher uses the assessment rubric prepared
by the teacher and students to evaluate students’
achievement.
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Music in Film for Gifted Students
gifted students proposed by Catchart (2020).
According to Catchart (2020), the eective
feedback of assessment for gifted students is
through a collective statement that provides
information and constructive comments to
improve learning. The grading system and
marks are not sucient to portray what the
students have done and reect their learning.
Hence, a rubric is recommended to be an
appropriate approach to assess what had
been learnt by gifted students. Students
are given a chance to revise the rubric and
discuss the criteria with the teacher. The
recommended rubric is as follows:
Level 1: (Lowest Level). The student
knows that music is important in a lm. It
is unsure about which techniques can be
used to suit the action or situation in a lm.
Accepts that various music techniques may
help to improve a lm line. However, it is
vague about music elements in the lm and
techniques to insert proper sounds.
Level 2. The student knows music is
important in a lm. Can specify some major
music techniques used in the lm. Accepts
that various music techniques may help to
improve a lm line and understands how to
apply the techniques. Recognised musical
elements in the film, such as rhythm,
melody, and dynamic. Has heard or watched
about the making of the lm by inserting
quality music or sound in the lm.
Level 3. The student knows music is
important in a lm. Can specify some major
music techniques used in the lm. Has some
knowledge of the research behind this.
Accepts that various music techniques may
help to improve a lm line and understands
how to apply the techniques. Strong
recognition of musical elements in the lm,
such as rhythm, melody, and dynamics. Has
views on impactful music in the lm. Has
views on/puts forward ideas for the right
techniques to be matched with action in the
lm. Knows about/discusses the strength or
weakness of music/sound quality in lm.
Recommends some improvements for the
lm to make it more interesting.
Figure 3. The MUSIC model design cycle (Jones, 2018)
1. Select course
objectives
2. Select instructional
and MUSIC strategies
3. Implement
strategies
4. Assess students'
MUSIC perceptions
and progress towards
course objectives
5. Evaluate the
assessment results.
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Md Jais Ismail, Loo Fung Chiat and Azu Farhana Anuar
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
With the high records in all motivation
domains, this revealed that the present
enrichment activity has the potential to be
included in the gifted programme. Based on
Figure 4, it was found that students scored
more than 4.5 mean values for each domain.
Boys were slightly higher in Usefulness
(M=4.80) and Caring (M=5.64), while girls
scored slightly higher in empowerment
(M=5.25), Success (M=4.94), and Interest
(M=5.56). Based on Figure 5, gifted students
overall scored high in ve domains of the
MUSIC Inventory, in which the highest
scores are caring (M=5.5) and interest
(M=5.39). One possible reason may be
that these students were motivated when
teachers treated them well along the learning
process and therefore heightened interest in
engaging with the activity.
To examine if there are any signicance
dierences between female and male for
the five domains, an independent T-test
was employed. According to Table 5, there
Figure 4. Mean score of the eectiveness of music enrichment activity based on gender
Figure 5. Mean score of the eectiveness of music enrichment activity among gifted students
Empowerment Usefulness Success Interest Caring
Boys Girls
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Empowerment
Usefulness
Success
Interest
Caring
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Music in Film for Gifted Students
is no signicant dierence between male
and female in all domain; empowerment
(t(34)= 0.52, p=0.6, Cl [-0.54, 0.32]),
usefulness (t(34)= 0.59, p=0.56, Cl [-0.36,
0.66]), success (t(34)= 0.09, p=0.92, Cl
[-0.61, 0.55]), interest (t(34)= 1.39, p=0.17,
Cl [-0.77, 0.14]), and caring (t(34)= 1.51,
p=0.14, Cl [-0.09, 0.65]).
Overall, students’ mean scores are
high in empowerment, interest, and caring
domains. It reveals that students believed
this enrichment activity empowered them
to learn music, heightened their interest and
sense of teachers’ caring and concern while
doing the activity. It aligns with Catchart’s
(2020) statement that activities with
various strategies, such as active learning,
observations, opportunities for choice
and exibility, and oering new learning
experiences as outlined in the lesson are
truly eective, especially to attract gifted
students’ attention. In the lesson, students
were given chances to own the learning
process, have choices and communicate
in a group to solve the task. These are the
factors that may empower students to master
the skills, as explained by Hoover (2018).
It is also due to a student-centred approach
in which every student was given a chance
to learn at their own pace with guidance
from the teacher to assist those who were
struggling during the lesson.
In addition, students scored moderate
levels for usefulness and success. It means
the students still believed that this activity
was useful and practical for them as well
as able to contribute to their success. It is
in line with the research of Md Jais et al.
(2018) and Piragasam et al. (2013), in which
music is useful for gifted students to sharpen
their talents and accommodate emotional
problems. ‘Music in Film’ enrichment
activities truly attracted the interest of
gifted students’ as they are interested to
explore new things especially in the eld
of technology (Mann, 1994). As many
gifted students are facing asynchronous
development, it is crucial to expose the
Table 5
Results of independent t-test
Motivation
domains Gender N Mean t df
95% Condence interval of the
dierence Sig. (2-
tailed)
Lower Upper
Empowerment Male 18 5.14 -0.52 34 -0.54 0.32 0.60
Female 18 5.25
Usefulness Male 18 4.79 0.59 34 -0.36 0.66 0.56
Female 18 4.65
Success Male 18 4.92 -0.09 34 -0.61 0.55 0.92
Female 18 4.94
Interest Male 18 5.24 -1.39 34 -0.77 0.14 0.17
Female 18 5.56
Caring Male 18 5.64 1.51 34 -0.09 0.65 0.14
Female 18 5.36
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Md Jais Ismail, Loo Fung Chiat and Azu Farhana Anuar
students to music activities and to enrich
their various skills. Through this, gifted
students may heighten their potential,
manage their emotion quotient, and further
realise their abilities and strengths. A rubric
reference provided for students shows that
teachers are concerned with students’ ability
and seek improvement. Students may also
use the rubric as a benchmark of their skill
and try to full the requirement and achieve
the highest level as they can, as proposed by
Winebrenner (2020).
The results indicate the potential of
‘Music in Film’ as an enrichment activity
for gifted students. The data suggest ‘Music
in Film’ can be implemented for gifted
students as respondents believed the lesson
contents were useful for them and tended
to make them successful. It is also related
to the teaching methods embedded in the
lesson consisting of dierentiated learning
styles, which encouraged the respondents
to feel the lesson was engaging, in fact
challenging and fullling their educational
needs. The researchers believe that when
gifted students enjoy actively participating
in a lesson, this will sharpen their skills,
especially when utilising technology tools,
as outlined in the lesson plan. It correlates
with Elliott and Corrie’s (2015) opinion that
learning materials, regardless of form, have
special functions to enrich teaching, occupy
students in multi-dimensional learning,
and develop students’ skills to apply their
knowledge. The process allows students
to optimise their abilities and further meet
learning targets (Sargent, 2017).
The researchers attempted to uphold
music to a high standard through this study
when integrating technology and music. As
music has normally been taught physically
and practically (Ismail et al., 2021; Md
Jais et al., 2020), this enrichment activity
opens a new paradigm to explore music
through technology and oer new learning
experiences. The researchers believe the
product of the present study will serve gifted
students in three elds, including computing
skills, music skills, and comprehending the
element of creative arts. As a result, music
as a subject will not be marginalised; it
will become an important subject and an
enrichment activity in school. It is also a
great chance for gifted students to explore
music in their way and widen their creativity.
CONCLUSION
Music is a subject that may fulfil gifted
students’ needs. Maslow’s theory of human
needs emphasises music as part of the
highest need of self-actualisation, which
an individual feels at the peak of his or her
ability (Piragasam et al., 2013). As gifted
students face asynchronous development
where their chronological age is not matched
with their mental age, as mentioned by
Md Jais et al. (2021), music becomes an
intervention to stabilise their emotions
and further reduce psychological issues
among gifted students. A music enrichment
activity is one of the examples that might
be eective in overcoming gifted students’
psychological issues, enriching their skills
and nurturing giftedness traits to make
a successful gifted student. The present
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Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 29 (4): 2709 - 2728 (2021)
Music in Film for Gifted Students
research indicates the potential eectiveness
of music enrichment activity to empower
gifted students, make the learning useful
for their future, help them succeed, enhance
their interest in a specic topic, and realise
the presence of teachers’ caring during the
lesson.
Additionally, the ‘Music in Film’ topic
is found to be a reliable enrichment. Thus,
to develop an eective enrichment activity,
a teacher should have a careful and thorough
plan as gifted students are special in relation
to their peers (Ali, 2001). Therefore, their
abilities and talents should be nurtured
and guided through such programmes to
heighten their interest and focus on a topic.
As a gifted education programme will be
implemented in schools under the Ministry
of Education, the ndings from this study
can be a guideline for the ministry to
apply and practise ‘Music in Film’ as an
enrichment activity for the gifted students.
We also would like to recommend future
studies related to the eectiveness of music
activities and the usage of differentiated
instruction in music for gifted students.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank Associate
Professor Dr Rorlinda Yusof and Mr Mohd
Hakimie from Pusat GENIUS@Pintar
Negara for assisting in this study. Thank you
to Professor Dr Brett D. Jones for permitting
to use MUSIC Inventory instrument. This
study is supported by Pembiayaan Yuran
Penerbitan Artikel (PYPA), Universiti
Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. There is no
conict of interest relevant to this work.
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