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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

This chapter discusses the research design, research setting and subjects,

and research procedure, which includes preliminary study, planning the action,

implementing the action, observing the action, and reflecting on the results of the

action.

3.1 Research Design

The research design in this study was the classroom action research which

focused on a particular group of students in a certain classroom. According to

Hopkins (1993:1) action research is an act undertaken by teachers to enhance their

own or a colleague’s teaching, to test the assumption of educational theory in

practice, or as a means of evaluating and implementing whole school priorities.

Harmer (2001:344) highlights that action research is the name given to a series of

procedures which is engaged by teachers to improve aspects of their teaching and

to evaluate the success and suitability of certain activities and procedures. In

addition, Mills (2003:5) defines action research as any systematic inquiry

conducted by teacher researchers, principals, and school counselors in the

teaching and learning environment to gather information about (a) how their

particular school operates, (b) how teachers teach, and (c) how well their students

learn.
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The researcher applied classroom action research model, as a cyclic

process, proposed by Kemmis and Mc Taggart, which consists of four steps,

namely, planning, implementation, observation, and reflection (Kemmis & Mc

Taggart, 1988:15). Planning stage focuses on how to set up a teaching and

learning strategy to be used to overcome problems which occurs in the class.

During the acting stage, the practitioner tries out the strategy. The observation

stage includes collecting data on the results of the strategy. Finally, during the

reflection stage, conclusions are drawn and the original plan revised based upon

the conclusions so that a new cycle can begin (see Figure 3.1).

Adopted from Kemmis & Mc Taggart (1988:11)

Figure 3.1 Classroom Action Research Design of Kemmis & Mc Taggart Model
 44

The action research in this study was a collaborative classroom action

research, meaning that the researcher was assisted by one of the English teachers

as her collaborator in conducting this study. Together with her, the researcher did

at all of the research activities starting from the planning of the action, the

implementation of the action, the observation of the implementation and the

reflection of the implemented action. The researcher acted as a teacher who taught

writing using Jigsaw technique, while the collaborator acted as the observer who

observed the implementation of action and the whole process of teaching and

learning. This is called a systematic process of collaboration that in which one

teacher observes and gives feedback with some form of reciprocity to another

teacher (Brown, 2001:441). The use of this design was targeted to develop the

teaching strategy in order to solve the classroom’s problem in the teaching of

writing. The researcher employed the activities in Jigsaw technique as one of

cooperative learning technique in this study.

3.2 Research Setting and Subjects

The classroom action research was conducted at MTs Negeri 2 Medan,

which was located at Jl. Peratun No 03 Medan—North Sumatera. There were nine

classes for the first year, nine classes for the second year, and eleven classes for

the third year. Each class consisted of approximately forty students. The school

was chosen as the setting under some considerations. First, the researcher was a

teacher of that school so that she was responsible for helping the students to

improve the students’ writing ability. Second, the researcher wanted to show an
 45

alternative technique for teaching writing skill. Third, the researcher was

motivated to solve the students’ problems in writing narrative texts.

The subjects of the study were the second year students of MTs Negeri 2

Medan. The researcher selected the 42 second year students (eighth grade) of

VIII5 of the second semester in the 2008/2009 academic year as the subjects of the

study. The reason of the researcher for choosing this class as the subjects of the

study was based on the result of preliminary study conducted on July 28th, 2008.

First, this class was considered to be the moderate one which represents the other

8 classes at grade eight in writing skill. Second, students’ motivation in learning

writing in the classroom was low. Third, the students not only had difficulties in

generating and organizing ideas but also lack of vocabulary, so that they had

difficulties in translating the ideas into readable texts. Fourth, they have learned

enough English in the first year and they were not full of activity with loads of

national examination preparations like the third year students was.

Dealing with the problems that the students faced in writing narrative text,

consequently the implementation of Jigsaw technique to overcome the problems is

needed. By implementing Jigsaw technique, the students’ motivation was

expected to increase and their writing ability in narrative texts improve by

working together and sharing the topics and ideas within the groups.

3.3 Research Procedure

In conducting the research, the researcher followed a number of steps. The

steps included preliminary study to analyze and identify the problems as the

preparation, followed by planning the action, implementing the action, observing,

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analyzing, and reflecting. The researcher conducted the research procedure that

follows the Kemmis and Mc Taggart’s procedure as illustrated in Figure 3.2

below.

The Classroom Action Research Procedure

Preliminary Study
Interviewing the English teacher, giving questionnaire to the
students, and the students’ writing narrative text at the VIII
year classes of MTs Negeri 2 Medan

Analysis and findings

Analysis : Analyzing the result of preliminary study
Finding : Result of students’ writing narrative text is not
satisfactory.
Causes :
The students have difficulty to start their writing and to organize and translate
the ideas into readable texts.
The teaching–learning writing strategy is ineffective.
The students have low motivation to write.

Planning
Implementing Designing lesson plan.
Carrying out the planned Preparing the model of Jigsaw technique
activities of Jigsaw Preparing the materials and media.
technique Setting the criteria of success.

Observing Reflecting
Observing and ensuring the analyzing the collected data
achievement of the targeted determining whether or not the
success criteria action is successful

Revise the plan and Fail Succeed

continue the next cycle

Conclusion
and report

Figure 3.2: The Classroom Action Research Procedure (Adapted from Kemmis & Mc
Taggart, 1988: 11)
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3.3.1 Preliminary Study

A preliminary study was conducted to get data about the factual conditions

of the problems faced by the teacher and students in the teaching and learning

process of writing. The preliminary study was conducted on July 28th, 2008 which

was done by (a) interviewing the English teachers in terms of the techniques and

activities employed in teaching writing, (b) giving questionnaire to the students in

terms of learning English, and (c) assigning the students to write narrative text in

order to identify the students’ real competence and problems in writing narrative

texts.

The informal interview and questionnaire’s results revealed some issues.

First, the strategies used by the teachers were not able to stimulate the students in

expressing their ideas in written form of language. The teacher usually kept the

students to work individually by asking them to write on their own writing and

struggle by themselves to refine their writings without any interaction or feedback

either from other friends or from the teacher. Second, the teacher seldom used

instructional media that could facilitate the students in writing. Third, the students

were not motivated to follow the teaching and learning process of writing; they

said that writing was difficult to learn. It was not easy to start writing, organize,

and translate the ideas into readable text.

The students’ results of writing narrative texts (see Appendix 1) showed

that it was unsatisfactory. Many students made some mistakes in (1) content, the

story has unclear information and little detail in a logical order across narrative,

(2) organization, the ideas were unevenly organized and weakly connected, (3)

verb forms and verb agreement (linguistics structure), the subject or verb in the
 48

sentence used incorrectly, and (4) spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. It

indicated that students’ writing narrative text was low (see appendix 2).

The result of this preliminary study was used to set up a plan of action at

the first cycle. An action plan was established in order to solve the problems. The

action was intended to improve the students’ writing ability, introduced the

technique for teaching of writing, as well as increased students’ motivation during

writing activities. The researcher planned the action dealing with preparing Jigsaw

technique, lesson plan, instructional materials and media, and determining the

criteria of success. It was followed by carrying out the plan when the preparation

is complete. The implementation of Jigsaw technique was observed based the

research instruments to collect the data needed on the basis of the criteria of

success. The last stage was analyzing the data and reflecting on the results against

the criteria of success.

3.3.2 Planning

In this phase, the researcher and the collaborator made a plan based on the

findings. The step of planning was done on the basis of the Jigsaw technique, the

2006 Standard of Content, and the students’ problems. The planning were focused

on designing lesson plan, preparing the activities of Jigsaw technique, preparing

materials and media, and determining criteria of success.

3.3.2.1 Designing Lesson Plan

The researcher should consider several items in designing a lesson plan.

According to Brown (2001:149-151) the essential elements of a lesson plan are

 49

(1) goal will be accomplished by the end of the class period, (2) objectives will be

gained by students from the lesson, (3) material and equipments are needed, (4)

procedure will guide the planning, and (5) evaluation to determine whether the

objectives have been achieved or not. In this study, the researcher collaborated

with her collaborator in designing a lesson plan by considering the essential items

above. Details of lesson plan can be seen in Appendix 3a.

3.3.2.2 Preparing the Activities of Jigsaw

In conducting the study, the researcher employed Jigsaw technique as the

technique of teaching of writing with the aim at facilitating the students to

improve their writing ability. The teaching procedures were developed on the

basis of Jigsaw technique.

Before involving students in Jigsaw technique, the researcher asked

students to read the story given classically to build the students’ knowledge about

narrative texts. Having known about the characteristic of narrative texts the

students were involved in Jigsaw technique. They discussed, described the events,

and shared the ideas based on the picture given. By doing these activities, the

students were motivated and facilitated in generating and organizing the idea into

good organization. The procedure of Jigsaw technique was elaborated as follows.

(1) Distribute the story to the students as reading text to build the students’

knowledge of the story and language input in vocabulary, grammatical usage,

and the generic structure of narrative text.

(2) Ask everyone to read the story and pay attention to vocabulary and sentence

structure or language feature of narrative text in the story.

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(3) Ask students some questions to ensure that the students have understood

about the story and generic structure of narrative text.

(4) Prepare different several copies (as many copies as there are groups) of the

picture sequence to stimulate and help students describe the events. The

picture sequence should be cut into a specific picture of sequence for

distribution to individual students.

(5) Put students into groups of six to seven. The diagram below shows the

arrangement of the group.

Division of Students in “home group”

S2 S2 S2 S2
S3 S1 S3 S1 S3 S1 S3 S1

S4 S6 S4 S6 S4 S6 S4 S6
S5 S5 S5 S5

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4

S2 S2 S2
S3 S1 S3 S1 S3 S1

S4 S1 S4 S6 S4 S2
S5
S5 S6 S5 S6

Group 5 Group 6 Group 7

: Picture A : Picture D
: Picture B : Picture E
: : Picture C : Picture F

Figure 3.3: Division of students in “Home group”.

(6) Give each member of group one of specific picture, so everyone in the group

has the different picture.

(7) Reorganize the class into Expert group. The rearrangement can be shown

diagrammatically in Figure 3.3

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Division of Students in “expert group”

S1 S1 S2 S2 S3 S3 S4 S4 S5 S5 S6 S6
S1 S1 S2 S2 S3 S3 S4 S4 S5 S5 S6 S6

Group A Group B Group C Group D Group E Group F

S1 S1 S2 S2 S3 S3 S4 S4 S5 S5 S6 S6
S1 S1 S2 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6
Group A Group B Group C Group D Group E Group F

: Picture A : Picture D
: Picture B : Picture E
: Picture C : Picture F

Figure 3.4: Division of students in “Expert group”.

(8) Assign students to discuss and describe the events in the picture become an

"expert" in their part of the story.

(9) Collect the pictures.

(10) Reorganize the class into Home groups after each student has a summary of a

part of the story or a description of one picture. The rearrangement can be

shown in Figure 3.1.

(11) Ask each student to present and share her or his part of the story to the group,

in order to get the whole story.

(12) Float from group to group, observing the process. If any group is having

trouble (e.g., a member is dominating or disruptive), the teacher makes an

appropriate intervention.

(13) Ask students to write the complete story individually so that students quickly

come to realize that these sessions are not just fun and games but really

count.
 52

(14) Ask students to revise their draft on content and organization using the

revising guide (see Appendix 3b).

(15) Give students a chance to edit their writing in terms of grammar, spelling,

capitalization, and punctuation using editing guide (see Appendix 3c).

(16) Publish the students’ revision and completed versions by reading aloud at

the end of the session or displaying on the wall magazine.

Jigsaw story writing’s procedure adapted from Hedge (2005: 40-41) retrieved from
http://tesl-ej.org/ej35/r3.html.

3.3.2.3 Preparing the Material and Media

It is important to select materials and media that can facilitate the students

in language learning as well as motivate them to get involve in learning activities.

Due to the important role of instructional materials and media in instruction, the

selection and preparation of materials and media which were done by researcher

had to match with the goal and objectives stated in the lesson plan and the needs

of the students.

In order to do this, the researcher and her collaborator selected, adapted

and modified some narrative texts from a number of writing materials based on

the appropriateness of the materials and media with the instructional objectives

and the students’ interest and level. They were taken from some used printed

materials such as textbooks and downloaded from internet (see Appendix 4a).

While for media, the researcher and her collaborator selected and prepared several

copies of the story and the picture sequence that could be used in Jigsaw

technique (see Appendix 4b).

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3.3.2.4 Determining the Criteria of Success

Criteria of success were set up to determine whether the action in the

research was successfully completed or not. In line with this study, the criteria of

success were decided as follows.

(1) The students are highly motivated during the teaching and learning process.

The students are considered motivated if there were 70% (29 out of 42) of

students are enthusiastic in writing narrative text during the implementation

of Jigsaw technique as well as developed social interaction one to another in

their group starting from the pre-activity up to the post-activity of the

teaching process.

(2) The students’ writing score improves at the same as the minimum adequacy

criteria (KKM/Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal) of English (60.0) or above. And

it is considered successful if 65% (27 out of 42) of the students with

individual score in writing narrative text achieve at least the same as or above

60.0.

Indicator 1 is analyzed on the basis of the obtained data from the

observation, field notes, questionnaire and interview. Meanwhile, indicator 2 is

established on the basis of the scores of the students’ writing analyzed by analytic

scoring rubric as illustrated in Table 3.1.

From the scoring rubric of writing narrative (Table 3.1), the maximum

scores is 24 (4 x 6) and the minimum is 4 (4 x 1). So, to identify the final score of

the students’ achievement in writing a narrative text is based on the following

scores category.

Obtained Score
Score = X 100%
Maximum Score (16)
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Table 3.1 Analytic Scoring Rubric of Narrative Writing

Aspects of
Scores Levels Indicators
Writing
Presents complete generic stucture of narrative text
6 Excellent (orientation, complication, and resolution) and easy to
understand.
Presents almost generic stucture of narrative text (orientation,
5 Skillful
complication, and resolution) and easy to understand.
Presents some generic stucture of narrative text (orientation,
4 Sufficient
Content complication, and resolution) and easy to understand.
Presents some generic stucture of narrative text (orientation,
3 Uneven
complication, and resolution) and quite easy to understand.
Presents quite generic stucture of narrative text (orientation,
2 Insufficient
complication, and resolution) and quite easy to understand.
Provides little generic stucture of narrative text (orientation,
1 Unsatisfactory
complication, and resolution) and not easy to understand.
Well organized and utilize the effective use of transition
6 Excellent
words.
Clearly organized and mostly utilize the effective use of
5 Skillful
transition words.
Fairy well organized and mostly utilize the effective use of
4 Sufficient
transition words.
Organization
Unevenly organized utilize some of the effective use of
3 Uneven
transition words.
Very disorganized and utilize little of the effective use of
2 Insufficient
transition words.
Has no organization, and do not utilize the effective use of
1 Unsatisfactory
transition words.
6 Excellent Exhibits good words choice and word forms.
5 Skillful Exhibits some good words choice and word forms.
4 Sufficient Has simple and unvaried word choice and word forms.
Vocabulary
3 Uneven Has some incorrect word choices and word forms.
2 Insufficient Has many incorrect word choices and word forms.
1 Unsatisfactory Has incorrect in all of word choice and word forms.
No errors in past tense and time signals.
6 Excellent
Correct spelling and punctuation.
Almost no errors in past tense.
5 Skillful
mostly correct spelling and punctuation.
Some errors in past tense.
Grammar 4 Sufficient
Some errors in spelling and punctuation.
and Some errors in past tense.
Mechanics 3 Uneven
Fair number of spelling and punctuation.
Many errors in past tense.
2 Insufficient
Frequent errors in spelling and punctuation.
Dominate by errors past tense.
1 Unsatisfactory
No control over spelling and punctuation.

Analytic scoring rubric for narrative writing adapted from Behrman (2003: 332)
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The score is the student’s score which is calculated from the score

obtained by the student, divided with maximum score and multiplied by 100%.

The obtained score is the score which is gained by every student in the aspects of

content, organization, vocabulary, and grammar and mechanic. And the maximum

score is the highest score when the student writes correctly based on the four

aspects determined.

While the data on students’ response to the implementation of Jigsaw

technique in writing a narrative text obtained through questionnaire is analyzed in

the form of percentage.

3.3.3 Implementing the Action

The implementation of the action was focused on what has been proposed

in the lesson plan. The researcher acted as a practitioner who carried out the

Jigsaw technique in teaching of writing, while the collaborator acted as an

observer who observed the students’ activities and participation during the

teaching and learning process of writing using Jigsaw technique.

The implementation of the action encompassed three meetings in each

cycle. The steps of the implementation of this strategy in every cycle were

described as follows.

Pre-activity; the teacher explained the activities that the students were

supposed to do in the classroom. The students were asked to read and discuss the

story in order to build and enrich their knowledge and language input such as

vocabulary and sentence structure or the language feature of narrative texts.

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The students were divided into groups (see Appendix 4c). Firstly, the

students were arranged in groups of four for “home group”. Secondly, they were

reorganized into “expert group”. In order to achieve more heterogeneous groups,

the students’ grouping arrangement was made based on the scores of the writing

assignment. By doing this, hopefully, the higher students could share ideas and

work together with the lower ones in accomplishing the task given during the

teaching and learning process.

Whilst-Activity; the main activities of this stage were (1) discussing and

describing the events on the picture in the “expert group”, the students were asked

to use words showing actions or activities in the past (2) time–sharing, the

students shared their part of story which they had learned to others in the “home

group” in order to get the complete story, and (3) writing the story individually,

the students were geared to write by providing writing activities; a) composing a

rough draft, b) identifying topic sentence, adding or deleting, and ordering details

using a revising guide, c) editing for correctness in spelling, capitalization, and

punctuation using a editing guide, and d) publishing the final product by reading

the story in front of the class and displaying it on wall magazine.

Post-Activity; in the closing activity, the teacher reflected the activities that

had done in the class and asked students to complete a questionnaire after they

had finished their writing a narrative text recursively in the last meeting.

While in the second cycle, the discussion and time-sharing in both Jigsaw

and Expert groups were implemented in the first meeting, writing and revising the

first draft were implemented in the second meeting, and editing and publishing the
 57

final draft were implemented in the third meeting. The time table of the

implementation of the action can be seen in Table 3.2.

Table 3.2 The Schedule of the Classroom Action Research

Meeting/Quiz Date Theme/Sub Theme

Stories/The hare and the
Preliminary study July 28th, 2008
Tortoise
1 January 30th, 2009
Stories/Kantan Island and
Cycle I 2 February 2nd, 2009 Law kawar
3 February 6th, 2009
1 February 13th, 2009
Cycle II 2 February 16th, 2009 Stories/Glutinous Rice
3 February 20th, 2009

3.3.4 Observing the Action

Observing was the process of recording and gathering all relevant data

about any aspect occurred during the implementation of the action. Koshy

(2006:98) states that observation plays an important part in any kind of gathered

data. The researcher involved herself in the teaching and learning process in the

class, while the collaborator observed the students’ activities and participation

during the teaching and learning process of writing using Jigsaw technique.

In observing the implementation of the action, the researcher considered

three important aspects, namely data sources, the instruments used in collecting

data and techniques of data collection.

3.3.4.1 Data and Source of Data

Based on the criteria of success established above, the researcher described

the data as follows: the first data for the first criteria of success about the students’

motivation toward the implementation of Jigsaw technique during the teaching

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and learning process came from the observation checklist, field notes, interview

and questionnaire; the data for the second criteria of success about the students’

improvement in writing were obtained from the scores of the students’ writing

narrative text after being evaluated by using a scoring rubric. This writing rubric

was suitable for the level of the students.

Dealing with the data collection, the data was taken from some sources.

They are as follows.

(1) The students’ motivation and participation in the teaching and learning of

writing process. To know whether the students were motivated or not, they

were observed during the implementation of the technique starting from pre-

writing, whilst writing, and post-writing by using observation checklist, field

notes, and questionnaire sheet.

(2) The students’ score in writing a narrative text for their improvement in

writing ability of each cycle. The result of the students’ writing product was

analyzed by analytic scoring rubric.

3.3.4.2 Instruments and Techniques of Data Collection

Before conducting the research, the researcher prepared some instruments.

The instruments in this study were students’ composition, observation checklist,

field notes, and questionnaire sheet.

(1) Students’ composition was used to measure the students’ writing

achievement in narrative texts. To evaluate the students’ writing, the

researcher used the analytic scoring rubric. It was considered successful if

65% of the students have achieved score more than or equal to 60.0 from the
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minimum adequacy criteria (KKM/Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal) based on

the teacher assessment standard. To minimize bias, favoritism, and/or

prejudice, the researcher asked her class peer to rate the scoring she has done

based on analytic scoring rubric. The researcher, then, calculated the

students’ writing result from both researcher and her class peer in order to

take the average score of the students’ writing.

(2) Observation checklist was a sort of guidelines used to obtain information

concerning the activities done by the students during the teaching and

learning process in the class. Observation checklist was used to check

whether the students did the scenario they were supposed to do in the Jigsaw

technique planned and whether they were enthusiastic, a sign of being highly

motivated, in doing activities. The observation checklist was given to the

collaborator who observed and ticked the students’ involvement during the

teaching and learning process.

(3) Field notes were used to make notes related to the data which were not being

covered in the observation checklist. It included the data ranged from the

planning, implementation, and evaluation concerning with the physical

setting of class, the classroom atmosphere, the teaching and learning

activities, and unexpected happening. This instrument was applied in every

meeting.

(4) Questionnaire was a written of questions to be answered by the students. This

instrument took all students as the respondents. It was applied both at the

preliminary study and at the end of every cycle. The first one consisted of 5

items in order to get the data about students’ liking for learning English
 60

particularly in writing skill and the technique used by the teacher in teaching

writing. The second one aimed to obtain the students’ motivation in the

implementation of the Jigsaw technique. To systemize the discussion, the 20

items in the questionnaire were revealed in 4 issues and each issue consisted

of 5 items. Item numbers 1, 2, 10, 19, and 20 concerned about the students’

liking for Jigsaw technique. Item numbers 3, 4, 7, 11, and 18 concerned

about the usefulness of Jigsaw technique. Item numbers 5, 6, 8, 9, and 12

concerned about the easiness of accomplishing the writing task, and item

numbers 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 concerned about the extent of the role of

peers’ responses in improving the writing quality (see Appendix 5).

3.3.5 Reflecting

Reflecting was proposed to see the success or the failure of what has been

done in previous action or during the action. In reflecting, the researcher and the

collaborative teacher discussed together the implementation and observation

during the teaching and learning process in the classroom. If the collected data in

the first cycle revealed that the criteria of success have been fulfilled, there would

be no more cycle to conduct. Conversely, if the conclusions proved the criteria of

success have not been fulfilled, revision should be made in terms of planning

following by implementing the activities for the following cycle.

The result of the research finding and discussion will be discussed in the

chapter IV. The finding and discussion was based on the analysis of the collected

data obtained from the implementation of Jigsaw technique in the teaching of

writing.