Classroom Action Research

CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Yudi Juniardi and John Pahamzah
Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University – Banten

Abstract
The problems of this research are: firstly, what procedures do teachers applied in their classroom action research? Secondly, how teachers conduct their researches. This papers intended to analyze the procedures of conducting CAR which done by teachers and to see deeply teachers activities when they conducting the research. The method of this research is descriptive qualitative. The subjects of the research are those English teachers who conducted CAR. The writer analyzes eight CAR conducted by teachers who had followed CAR workshop therefore sources of data in this writing are teachers’ works, teachers’ information, and literature studies. Object of this research is teachers’ works or projects. The data analyzed by following procedures: collecting the data, selecting the data, tabulating the data, interpreting the data, and display the data.
The results of the research show us that teachers have followed procedures appropriately based on CAR design. They have analyzed the data qualitatively and quantitatively and the result of their research illustrated the average score improvement of students’ achievement

Key words: teacher, action research, language teaching
I. Introduction
Teachers as professional in teaching keep improving their teaching through CAR (Classroom Action Research). They do planning, implementing, analyzing and evaluating, every single thing they found in teaching process. All those process involve in CAR.
CAR is done to improve and to increase teaching process continuously. Therefore, it is one of strategies in increasing educational service that should be done in the context of increasing school or education quality. The main point of this research, improving teaching process, can be achieved by doing reflecting in diagnosing situation.
Car is situational. It means that it should relate to certain context or situation. Research problem can be proposed from daily activity in teaching process which students or teachers feel. And Cars is conducted to improve and to increase education quality, students’ achievement by doing reflection.
It is a collaborative activity between teacher and students. For teachers, this activity can improve quality of their professionals and for students, they can increase their achievement. However it also can be set up between teacher and headmaster. This research is also a participatory research. It means that everybody has taken apart in doing this research from beginning until the end.
Car is self-evaluative. We conduct it continuously, and keep evaluating the program by having final aim to increase the quality of teaching. Furthermore, it is also flexible. Teachers do some adaptation depend on the situation and setting in the class when teachers conducting the research.
It uses of observation and teacher keep collecting the data during the teaching process. We discuss the data collaboratively with other teachers and students to make some revision or improvement for the action. The improvement of the program is analyzed carefully from time to time. To analyze the improvement we conduct formative evaluation.
There are four steps when we conduct CAR sustainable: planning, action, observation and reflection (PAOR). Planning involves thinking process and evaluating to reflect the events that have been happened and attempting to find out ways to overcome problems encountered. At this step, some problems will be exposed and teacher as researcher should think up to find out some alternative ways or actions to overcome the problems. Next step is Action. At this step, we think and consider what action will be done, how method will be applied, and what material will be provided. Actions are some activity that will be alternative ways to overcome the problem and it is designed in planning step.
Observation is some activities that consist of gathering data to identify the result of action. Collecting data can be considered from several factors: students, teacher, interaction students and teacher. Observation process can be done by teacher or assist by other such as other teachers, consultant, head master, etc. If CAR involves other people, we call this research Collaborative Action Research. Teacher at this step does note taking, recording the data objectively.
Reflection is activity to verify the fairness of data and interpret the data for doing some improvement and revision in other to enhance the successful of teaching. Verification is conducted by asking students to check the fairness data that gathered in observation. In interpreting the data a teacher can discuss with his or her colleague, supervisor, and consultant. By involving others in verification process, interpreting and rechecking data called triangulation. Based on triangulation process a teacher through CAR can identify, formulate, and do remedial activity and plan or design an action for next cycle.
Recently, CAR is encouraged and supported to be set in some schools. Government is also contributed to this program by donating the research grant to teachers. In line with that, Research Institute of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University conducted CAR workshop for teachers. The aim of this research was to provide teachers with ability in conducting CAR; starting from composing proposal, conducting research, and reporting the research. When Teachers conducted the researches, they collaborated with Untirta lecturers.
Relate to the illustration above, the focus this research is intended to analyze how teachers conducted their CAR. There are research problems of this research, firstly, what procedures do teachers applied in their CAR? Secondly, how do they conduct their researches?

2. Literature Review
The concept of action research can be traced back to the early works of John Dewey in the 1920s and Kurt Lewin in the 1940s, but it is Stephen Corey and others at Teachers College of Columbia University who introduced the term action research to the educational community in 1949. Teacher action research is referred to in the literature as action research, practitioner research, teacher-as-scholar, practical inquiry, interactive research, classroom inquiry, or practice-centred research (Downhower, Melvin & Sizemore, 1990). This type of self-driven, individualized research is a tool teachers can use to develop, reflect, and improve their teaching styles and pedagogical practices.
Some of the most beneficial things about teacher action research are that it is small scale, contextualized, localized, and aimed at discovering, developing, or monitoring changes to practice (Wallace, 2000). Therefore, every project can take on the needs of the specific situation while following a relatively similar format as a guide. What differentiates action research from other types of social study is that it results in concrete actions that can be implemented. Each of the following teachers’ projects began with a set of guidelines that can be used in any teaching situation to open a research process.
These are the guidelines typically used in teacher action research:
Identify a puzzlement/inquiry
Decide in a systematic way how to go about answering that question
Develop a timeline to carry out the project – one week, a month, a grading period or even a full academic year.
Decide how data will be collected and analyzed
Implement study – data collection and analysis
Report and share findings
O’Brien (1998) classified action research into four types: traditional action research, contextual action research, radical action research, and educational action research. In this paper, the researches were conducted by teachers are educational classroom action research on language teaching. Educational classroom action research considered professional education should be involved in solving society problem. By applying this research, collaboration among teacher, lecturer, students was encouraged.
There are six principles in conducting Classroom Action Research (Winter ,1998 in O’Brien 1998), namely: Reflective critique, dialectic critique, collaborative sources, risk taking, complex structure, and theory, practice, and transformation.
Marjorie Hall Haley’s (2004, 2001) work examined foreign and second language teachers engaged in action research to explore the impact of Multiple Intelligences (MI)-based teaching. In the first two phases of this ongoing research, Hall Haley enlisted the help of primary and secondary language teachers from around the country and from Australia, Hong Kong, and Germany (2004: 167-169). These educators collaborated with each other and with Hall Haley to develop ways to apply MI theory to both instructional strategies and assessment practices. Data showed that “learner-centered instruction from the perspective of multiple intelligences…. demonstrated students’ strengths and weaknesses can be affected by a teacher’s pedagogical style” (2004: 171).

3. Methods
The method of this research is qualitative. It described how teachers conducted their CAR. Subject of the research is eight teachers who have conducted CAR . Sources of the data are teachers and their CAR reports. To verify the data, it applied triangulation sources; the data was not only from teacher, teachers’ reports, but also from documentation and literature studies. Content analysis was conducted to investigate how teachers conducted their CAR. Tabulating, interpreting, and display were done in analyzing data.

4. Results and Discussion
Classroom Action Research (CAR)
There are eight CAR conducted by teachers from Junior high school and senior high school in Banten province. The research conducted in language teaching. Teachers did the research for two months at their schools. The following are the titles:
Table 1 Research Title
No
Title
1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.

The efforts to increase students ability in using metaphor in making essay through process approach at grade VI SDN KADUBUNGBANG 1 2006/2007 year

The efforts to increase students’ ability and interest in reading through effective reading technique at grade V SDN MALANGNENGAH 01 Cibaliung

The efforts to increase students’ listening achievement through VCD material at grade III A SMPN 3 panimbang – pandeglang

The efforts to increase students’ ability in Readin AL-Quran through practicing method at Grade VI SDN CURUG PANJANG III Cikulur -. Lebak

The efforts to increase students’ narrative writing skill by using picture through inquiry method at grade IX SMPN 2 Pandeglang 2006 year
The efforts to increase students’ narrative writing skill by using picture through inquiry method at grade IX SMPN 2 Pandeglang 2006 year

The efforts to increase students’ descriptive writing skill by using Study Tour Method at grade VI SDN Perdana I


The efforts to increase students’ descriptive writing through process skill approach at grade V SDN 3 pandeglang 2006 year.



From the table above all of the CAR title beginning with ‘the efforts to increase….’ And the variables which improve teaching and learning process are: approaches, techniques, methods, and instrument.
If we see the dependent variable, there are three skills from eight researches: six writing skills, one listening skill, and one reading skill. Subject of the research are students of Elementary schools and junior high school.

Research method
According to Baskerville and Wood-Harper (1996) in Baskerville (1999) there are seven key strategies in conducting action research: considering paradigm shift, deciding a formal research agreement, deciding problem statement, planning data collecting method, maintaining collaboration, repeating or cycling, making generalization.
How teachers research method in conducting their CAR? Eights CAR reports provided their research methods with: Research setting, CAR procedures, Data collecting technique, Data analyzing technique.

Cycles
Cycles are characteristics in doing Class room Action research. Each cycle provides some activities, namely: Plan, Action, Observation, and Reflect (Kemmis in MacIsaac, 1996). Susman’s cycle is more complex. He provided five activities in each cycle: diagnosing (identifying or defining a problem), Action Planning (considering alternative course of action), taking action (selecting a course of action), evaluating (studying the consequences of an action), specifying learning (identifying general findings).
Having analyzed teachers’ research report, all of their CARS did more than one cycle: seven Cars conduct two cycles and one Car conducted three cycles. Every cycle involved with planning, acting, observing, and reflection. So, teachers’ research cycle refers to Kemmis model.

Data Collecting Technique
There are two types of data collecting technique: qualitative and quantitative technique. The technique shown at table 2

Table 2. Data Collecting Technique

No
Qualitative technique
Quantitative technique
R1
Observation
Students’ evaluation
R2
Observation, interview, diary,
Documentation.
Reading test
R3
Observation, Journal, photo
Listening test s
R4
Observation, interview, diary,
Documentation.
Formative tests
R5
Observation, Journal, photo
Formative tests
R6
Observation, Journal, photo
Writing formative tests
R7
Observation, diary journal, photo
Writing formative tests
R8
Observation, diary note, questionnaire
Pretest, formative 1, formative 2

Analyzing Data
How teachers analyzed data.? They analyzed data based on the sources of data. Mostly, their sources of data are students work: students’ scores, students’ interviews, students activities, and students’ documentation. How they analyzed data shown at table 3.






Table 3. Analyzing Data

No
Analyzing data
R1
Conducting observation which assisted by partner.
Describe the diary and test result
R2
Conducting observation which assisted by partner.
Scoring the result of observation: (1+2+3+4+5)/5
Scoring test of reading skill. The result grouped into to 2 groups <65,>65.
R3
Using check list worksheet and scoring by using formulation A/B x 100%.
Describe journal data.
Grouping the result into 2 groups: > 65 and <65
R4
Experiencing, enquiring, examining
R5
Scoring the result of the test (pre test, formative 1, formative 2.)
R6
Students’ activity: total students activity
Students number

Essay score: maximal score X 100%
Students number

Completing study: total those whose got score
Total students number
R7
Observation, diary journal, photo
R8
Scoring the result of the test (pre test, formative 1, formative 2)

It can be seen from the table above, teachers analyzed data quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitavely, the data which analyzed was taken from the result of the tests. The ways how they analyzed the data were different, depend on what skill they researched. For instances, On R2 and R3, they grouped the scores into two group: > 65 and <65, to see the effectiveness of treatment in solving the problem. Qualitatively, teachers described the data from questionnaire, interview, diary, and documentation.

Discussion
Procedures in Conducting Research
Mostly in this research, teachers have applied classroom action research appropriately based on Kemmis model which begin with planning, action, observation and ended with reflection. 87% of teachers conducted their research using two cycles and 12.5% using three cycles. Most of them used two cycles because after cycle two, they have got significant improvement. However for teacher who conduct three cycles, he has the significant improvement after cycle three.
In planning activity, they discuss and decide teaching and learning design which they will be applied in cycle one. Then, he or she composing lesson plan that will be applied; next, deciding competence standard; the last, preparing diary journal and observation sheet.
In action activity, teachers conduct the design that has been decided and prepared in cycle one. It provides some activities: started with presentation the topics, giving task, and ended with evaluation. In observation, teachers do the observation and fill the findings on observation sheet and also they observe students’ formative test.
The last activity is reflection. Reflection is conducted to analyze what have been done and what has not, what has been success full and what have been not. Based on this data, it can be input to repair for next cycle to achieve the target of the research..

Conducting Their Researches
Collecting data. Based on the teachers CAR report, it can be stated that mostly 100% they used tests to investigate students’ ability or skills. Then they used some techniques to get the data such as, observation, journal, photo and interview. But mostly they used observation, diary Journal, and photo.

Analyzing the Data
Teachers analyzed the data qualitatively and quantitatively. The data was taken from pre test and formative tests were analyzed qualitatively. They did quantitatively to see the effectiveness of methods, techniques, or approaches in increasing students’ skills.
In contrast, the data got from observation, documentation, interview, and questionnaire were analyzed qualitatively. Teachers interpreting the data by giving some information based on the facts and the data.

5. Conclusion
From the result of the researches, it can be concluded the following remarks: firstly, Teachers have conducted their CAR based on CAR procedures. They conducted their researches, mostly for two cycles, each cycles provided with planning, action, observation, and reflection.
Secondly, they collected the data by giving students tests : pre-test, formative test, and conducting observation, documentation, and interview. And the collected data analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The result of pre test, and formative tests wee analyzed quantitatively to find out whether or not any improvement. However, the collected data of observation, documentation, and questionnaire were analyzed qualitatively. Classroom action research has improved their qualities in teaching. It can be viewed from the reset of their researches, they have overcome their teaching problem and improve students’ achievement,, having improvement on the average of students’ achievements for 30%.
Based on the result and the discussion, there are some suggestions for the teachers. First, when scoring students’ Works, to be more objective, it’s better to have inter-rater. Second, if we provided our research with diary journal or interview, it would be better to display the transcription both of them. Third, it is important to be consistent. If we provide our data with the result of questionnaire, it must have questionnaire in collecting data technique. Fourth, before conducting CAR, teachers should conduct pretest previously, in order to know exactly, how far the improvement of Students’ achievement after conducting CAR and to see the effectiveness of method, technique, or approach. Finally, classroom action research gives a lot of benefit for institution to increase students’ quality. Therefore, institution or schools should give opportunity, support and facilities assistance to teachers to conduct CAR.
References

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