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In order to improve either academic or non-academic quality, SMA Negeri 1 Rangkasbitung formulates its
achievement goals which can be seen from its vision and mission:
VISI
Unggul dalam prestasi
Berpikir kreatif dan dinamis
Bersikap Religius MISI
Terwujudnya lingkungan sekolah yang kondusif dan etos
kerja yang tinggi.
Tercapai target dan sasaran siswa yang berkualitas dan berorientasi melanjutkan ke perguruan tinggi.
Terbinanya kemampuan siswa dalam mengembangkan
bakat dan keterampilan.
Terjadinya kerjasama yang harmonis antara sekolah, orang tua dan masyarakat sehingga mendukung terhadap
program-program sekolah.
B. Subject of the Research
The subject of the research was the eleventh year students of SMA Negeri 1 Rangkasbitung, class IPS
3
. It consists of 40 students, 22 of them are males and the rest 18 are females. This
classroom action research will be conducted there and emphasized on reading comprehension due to students’ reading
comprehension is low. Their reading comprehension scores obtained in preliminary research reflect their poor score.
Accordingly, by implementing this action research, it is hoped
that it can improve students’ reading comprehension. Viewed from economic condition, most of students of class
IPS
3
come from low and middle level economic families. Some of their parents are factory or building workers, and retailer.
Meanwhile, few of them work as civil servant and other professions. Consequently, some of them cannot afford to buy
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English book or English grammar book. They only have LKS or exercise book and small English dictionary. Fortunately,
government of Rangkasbitung regency releases students of elementary to secondary from tuition.
For academic condition, students of class IPS
3
, if compared with students of other classes, can be classified low. The English
teacher of the class makes confession that, for instance, if compared with class IPA which consists of predominantly smart
students, it is quite different from class IPS
3
which includes trouble makers and less motivated students, despite few of them
are good students and always pay attention to every lesson instructed.
C. Research Design
This research is carried out as classroom action research in collaboration with an English teacher of SMA Negeri 1
Rangkasbitung in the academic year of 2012-2013. It is qualitative method because it described how teacher conducted
the class. Burns affirms that action research is the application of fact finding to practical problem solving in a social situation
with a view to improving the quality of an action within it, involving the collaboration and cooperation of researchers,
practitioners and laymen.
1
While, Mills defines action research as
2
‘a systematic inquiry done by teacher or other individuals in teaching or learning environment together information about and
subsequently improve the ways particular school operates, how they teach, and how well their student learn’
The statement above can be reflected that Classroom Action Research is done to improve and to increase teaching process
continuously. Therefore, it is one of strategic efforts in increasing educational service that should be done to increase
1
Burns, Anne, Collaborative Action Research for English Language Teachers, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 30.
2
Mills, G.E, Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000, p. 5.
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school or educational quality. The main point of this research, in this sense, is improving teaching process which can be achieved
by doing reflection in diagnosing the situation.
Kemmis and Mc. Taggart state that action research is defined as teacher-initiated classroom investigation which seeks
to increase the teacher’s understanding of classroom teaching and learning, and to bring about change in classroom practice.
3
Moreover, Suharjono affirms that classroom action research can be viewed as a follow-up of either descriptive or experiment
research.
4
Furthermore, the writer would like point out the key activities of action research proposed by Mc Kernan:
5
CAR is situational. It means that it should be related to certain context of situation. Research problem can be proposed
from daily activity in teaching process which students or teachers feel, CAR further is conducted to improve and to
increase education quality, students’ achievement by doing reflection.
It is 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 the 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.
3
Kemmis, S. McTaggart, R, The action research planner, Geelong, Victoria, Deakin University Press, 1992, p. 5.
4
Suharsimi Arikunto Suhardjono Supardi, Penelitian Tindakan Kelas, Jakarta: PT. Bumi Aksara, 2006, p. 56.
5
Mc Kernan James, International Encyclopedia of Higher Education, New Delhi: Crest Publishing House, 2003, p. 32
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It makes use of observation and data collection during the teaching process. We discuss the data collaboratively with other
teachers and students to make some revision or improvement for action. The improvement of the program is analyzed carefully
from time to time. To analyze the improvement we conduct formative evaluation.
In addition, Burns proposes the characteristics of classroom action research as follows:
6
1. Action research is contextual, small-scale and localized-it
identifies and investigates problems within a specific situation.
2. It is evaluative and reflective as it aims to bring about change
and improvement in practice. 3.
It is participatory as it provides for collaborative investigation by teams of colleagues, practitioners and researchers.
4. Changes
in practice are based on the collection of information or data which provides the impetus for change.
It implies that classroom action research is as practical problem solving in a classroom which is conducted by teacher
or other individuals and intended to improve instruction and students’ learning which constitutes a follow-up of descriptive
and experiment research. Based on the above statements, it can be concluded that
action research is a process of self-reflective inquiry by gathering information about the way particular school operate
how to teach, and how well students learn. It is used for improving teaching learning process in school. It is conducted
by teacher researchers, principals, school counselor, or other stakeholders in teachinglearning environment. In this kind of
research, the researcher collaborates and cooperates with practitioner and laymen.
In this research, action research was carried out to improve the students’ reading comprehension and to improve teacher’s
professionalism in teaching reading. This practical action was conducted by employing Question-Answer Relationship QARs
6
Burns, Anne, op. cit., p. 30.
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strategy reflection of the effect of action research while and after this strategy was employed.
D. Research Procedure
