30 one’s own language learning and an ability to know the value of taking
responsibility for one’s own objectives, content, progress, methods, and techniques of learning.
In PBL, learner autonomy is showed through project work. PBL students are enabled to choose the topic of the project and are enabled to be engaged in
planning and creating their project and the process of learning with support from teachers Markham et al., 2003. In other words, the authority is provided so that
learners can control their learning from the beginning of the study to the end of the course program. Additionally, Stoller 2006, p.33 adds that PBL classroom setting
can create more learner and learning-centred setting. With learner autonomy in PBL, students owns their responsibility for their learning. Moreover, they are
expected to be motivated and to feel more competent and self-determined. Students are also likely to obtain interest and succeed in their learning Kohonen, 1992.
e. Cooperative learning
Gillies 2007, p. 246 defines cooperative learning as working together with group members to finish the shared purposes. To level up the awareness of one’s
own learning, students should reflect and communicate their experience in learning with their partners or friends. Cooperative learning can also be a way to increase
learner’s awareness of learning Kohonen, 1992.
Cooperative learning is a student-centered, instructor-facilitated instructional strategy in which a small group of students is responsible for its own learning and the
learning of all group members. Students interact with each other in the same group to acquire and practice the elements of a subject matter in order to solve a problem,
complete a task or achieve a goal.
31
Panitz offers a similar definition; he goes on to add that the teacher maintains control of the learning environment, designs learning activities, structures work teams,
and, in his view, does not empower students. Kagan 1994 contributes that in cooperative learning the teacher designs the social interaction structures as well as
learning activities. Johnson, Johnson and Holubec 1993 state that in cooperative learning students can maximize their own and each other’s learning when they work
together. Slavin 1996 argues that a critical element of cooperative learning is group team work and team goals.
In contrast to cooperative situations, competitive situations are ones in which students work against each other to achieve a goal that only one or a few can
attain. In competition there is a negative interdependence among goal achievements; students perceive that they can obtain their goals if and only if the
other students in the class fail to obtain their goals Deutsch, 1962; Johnson Johnson, 1989. Norm-referenced evaluation of achievement occurs. The result is
that students either work hard to do better than their classmates, or they take it easy because they do not believe they have a chance to win. In individualistic learning
situations students work alone to accomplish goals unrelated to those of classmates and are evaluated on a criterion-referenced basis. Students goal achievements are
independent; students perceive that the achievement of their learning goals is unrelated to what other students do Deutsch, 1962, Johnson Johnson, 1989. The
result is to focus on self-interest and personal success and ignore as irrelevant the successes and failures of others.
Apart from that, adults often manage conflicts destructively. We tend to behave as we have been taught. A highly individualistic and competitive
environment may lead to an inability to get along or manage conflicts
32 constructively. As cooperation has positive effects on so many important outcomes,
while the other 2 efforts have quite a few defects, makes cooperative learning one of the most valuable tools educators have.
Gilies 2007 and Johnson Johnson 1994 mention five important points for successful cooperative learning. First, there should be positive interdependence
which means that students should create the goal, but the goal can only be accomplished if all of them commit to finish the task given together. Second, there
should be face-to-face promotive interaction which means that students have to provide effective assistance to each other by discussing, exchanging sources,
reasoning, and giving feedback. Third, individual accountability should also be there which means that even though the project is a group project, but the each of
the students must also be given individual tasks evenly so that each of the members can give even contributions. Interpersonal and small-group skills should also be
taken into account. Students should have social skills to promote group achievement. This skill involves constructing trust, having effective
communication, and making decision, and organizing conflict. The last, there should be group processing which means that the students have to keep their
positive working relationships and have to possess a sense of success as well as respect when collaboratively working with their peers to achieve group goal.
f. Multiple Intelligences
PBL produces a learning environment which enables the students to explore their own interests, increase their skills and abilities and enlarge opportunities to
improve their learning potentials. It is also proved that each students has different intelligence strengths. Hence, teachers can apply the multiple intelligences theory
33 in the classroom by presenting a variety of learning activities, options of assignment
or assessment. In fact the theory of multiple intelligences promotes PBL Hargrave, 2003;
Moursound, et al., 1997; Welsh, 2006; Wolk, 1994. Differently, in the traditional formal and structured classroom, students cannot propose their intelligences in their
learning process, but in PBL, students are free and they have many options of learning which enable them to maximize their skills and abilities to improve their
potential in their learning process. This theory also sees learners to have different strengths, therefore different approaches of teaching and chances for students to
give response to their own learning styles are needed. As an outcome, students are likely to be successful in their learning Pritchard, 2005.
Teachers, therefore, should think of all intelligences as equally important. This is in great contrast to traditional education systems which typically place a
strong emphasis on the development and use of verbal and mathematical intelligences. Thus, the Theory of Multiple Intelligences implies that educators
should recognize and teach to a broader range of talents and skills. Another implication is that teachers should structure the presentation of material in a style
which engages most or all of the intelligences. For example, when teaching about the revolutionary war, a teacher can show students battle maps, play revolutionary
war songs, organize a role play of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and have the students read a novel about life during that period. This kind of
presentation not only excites students about learning, but it also allows a teacher to reinforce the same material in a variety of ways. By activating a wide assortment
