THE EFFECT OF BRAIN GYM ON THE MEMORY OF STUDENTS AT SD ISLAM SURYA BUANA MALANG

Abstract

Background: Students’ weak memory retention has been reported to negatively impact their academic performance. Interviews with homeroom teachers indicated that students frequently complain about forgetting previously taught material. Brain gym therapy, which consists of simple body-movement exercises, is believed to enhance cognitive function, including memory. This study aims to determine the effect of brain gym exercises on students’ memory. Method: This research employed a one-group pretest–posttest design without a control group. The independent variable was brain gym exercises, while the dependent variable was students’ memory. The study population consisted of 42 fifth-grade students at SD Islam Surya Buana Malang, from which 30 respondents were selected using the simple random sampling technique. Data were collected through observations of questionnaire scores administered before and after the intervention. Results: Findings showed that before receiving brain gym exercises, most students (66.7%) had an average memory score of less than 20. After the intervention, 73.3% of students achieved a very good score, with an average of 22. Statistical analysis using the Wilcoxon test revealed a significance value of p = 0.000 (p < 0.05). Therefore, H1 was accepted, indicating that brain gym exercises had a significant effect on the memory of fifth-grade students at SD Islam Surya Buana. Conclusion: Brain gym exercises significantly improve memory in school-age children. It is recommended that teachers implement brain gym activities prior to learning sessions to support improvements in students’ academic and non-academic performance.