43
D. Analyzing the Students’ Changes in Each Cycle Through Five Criteria of
Cooperative Learning
It has been mentioned before that according to Felder and Brent 2008 in Cooperative Learning, the students work in teams on structured learning tasks
under conditions that meet five criteria. They are positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, appropriate use of interpersonal
skills, and regular self-assessment of group functioning para.20. In this chapter, the writer also explains the results of the research through the aforementioned
criteria.
1. Positive Interdependence
In Positive Interdependence, each member relies on one another to reach their teams
’ goals. Before starting the teaching learning activity in the first cycle, the teacher emphasized the students that they had to do the tasks together with their
group-mates if they wanted to succeed and get the award. If one of the students did not want to cooperate with their groups or they were not able to do the task,
they would affect their groups’ scores. After listening to the researcher’s explanation, the students gathered with their groups. At first the students were
very enthusiastic to the activity. The students were enthusiastic because in the main activity task, the researcher played a recording and the students had to fill in
the blank parts together with their groups. This activity was rarely used in the teaching and learning activity. Another reason was because the students were
asked to work in groups. They were enthusiastic because the students were rarely asked to work in groups See Appendix 9.
44 However, after some minutes there were some students who started playing
around with their friends from other groups. They did not want to cooperate with their group-
mates to do the task. From the researcher’s observation they were not accustomed to work in groups in which the members were chosen by the teacher.
There were some students who felt that they could not get along with their group- mates. Thus, they did not want to get together with their groups. Moreover, the
students’ statement in the interview which was conducted before the implementation of the cycles showed that one of the students’ problems in
working in groups was they did not feel comfortable with their group-mates See Appendix 9.
In the second cycle, the teaching strategy which was used in the second cycle was crossword. After distributing the handout, the researcher emphasized the
students that they had to do the task together with their group-mates because the task contained some difficult words which required the students’ cooperation.
From the researcher’s observation all of the students also wanted to work together and relied on one another to do the task. They wanted to give their contribution to
do the task. This was showed when some of the students tried to use dictionary. Some of the students who brought dictionary checked on the dictionary to find
difficult words. After finding the words, they informed them to their group-mates and helped other group-mates to understand the words. The students became more
responsible not only with themselves but also with their group-mates. This was shown by the students’ questionnaire results See Appendix 6, Questionnaire item
number 10. Most of the students agreed that they wanted to help their friends
45 who needed help to understand the material. By helping each other, there were
some students who stated that they got new vocabulary from their group-mates See Appendix 11 they also considered that they could learn vocabulary better
through working in groups See Appendix 6, Questionnaire item number 1. The students’ questionnaire results showed that none of the students disagreed or
strongly disagreed that they could not learn vocabulary through English. While, 41.17 of the students strongly agreed and 58.82 of the students agreed that
learning in group helped the students to learn vocabulary. In the third cycle all of the students helped one another to mention as many
words as they could. In the last task, the students were asked to mention the words which were
related to “Public Places”. This task required the students to work together because each student had their own vocabulary. By mentioning the
vocabulary they knew, the groups could have many words. The group who had the largest number of words got the best score. From the research
er’s observation, the students could cooperate well with their group-mates. Each student gave their
contribution by mentioning the words they knew. The students also helped their group-mates who found difficulty in finishing the task. This was related to the
students’ questionnaire results See Appendix 6, Questionnaire item number 12. There were 32.35 of the students who strongly agreed and there were 55.88 of
the students who agreed that their group-mates wanted to help other students to understand the material. The students also wanted to help each other when the
group-mates found difficulty in doing their part See Appendix 5, Questionnaire item number 18. Based on the questionnaire, most of the students agreed that the
46 group-mates wanted to help other group-mates who found difficulty in doing their
parts. By doing the task together, the students could mention the words they knew and they even had much time to decorate their worksheet.
From the students’ progress in each cycle, the researcher could conclude that the students’ awareness of the importance of working together to achieve their
teams’ goals got better in each meeting. This was showed by the students’ answer in the questionnaire see Appendix 6, Questionnaire item number 21. The
statement w as about the students’ awareness about their efforts to make the group
became successful. There were 55.88 of the students who strongly agreed that the students realized that each member had to work hard in order to achieve the
groups’ goals. Furthermore 41.17 of the students agreed with the statement. These showed that the students realized that they had to work hard in order to
make the group success.
2. Individual Accountability
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