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c. Factors Influencing Perception
There are four important factors which can affect someone to have perception towards something Altman et al, 1985: 86, they are:
1 Selection of stimuli Each person selects certain stimuli and may be different from one person
to another. The different selection of stimuli may be because of each person has
different interests towards something.
Orang-orang cenderung mengabaikan informasi atau petunjuk yang menyebabkan mereka merasa kurang nyaman.
Winardi, 1992: 47
People tend to ignore information which makes them feel less comfortable.
For example, a girl is listening to music. Meanwhile, she is surrounded by so much noise, such as baby’s crying, neighbor’s lawnmower machine, and noise
of starting car machine. She may ignore all of the noise since she feels that it is more interesting to hear the music.
2 Organization of stimuli The selected stimuli should be organized in order to be meaningful.
Altman, et al 1985: 87 state that the perceptual organization of information can help us categorize sensory inputs. The categorization will make the complexity of
the information become simpler until a person can interpret the stimuli as meaningful information.
3 The situation Each person has different expectation towards a situation happened
around him or her. The expectation towards a situation may affect what he or she PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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perceived Altman et. al, 1985:89. Altman et. al add that familiarity with the situation and a person’s past experience also affect what he or she perceived.
Student’s expectation of the situation happened during the group presentation technique may influence their perceptions towards the technique. The students’
past experiences on the use of the technique will also influence students’ perceptions towards the technique. If the students had a bad experience on the use
of group presentation technique before, the students will have negative perception towards the technique. On the contrary, if the students’ expectation towards the
situation happened during the group presentation technique is fulfilled, then the students will have positive perception towards the technique.
Mendesaknya waktu, sikap orang-orang, dengan siapa seseorang bekerja, akan mempengaruhi ketepatan persepsi.
Winardi, 1992: 48 Time constraint, people’s attitude and with whom someone will interact
will influence the accuracy of perception. 4 Self – concept
The next factor which influences someone’s perception is self – concept. Altman et. al 1985: 90 define self – concept as the way someone perceives his
or herself. The way we feel and see ourselves will affect our perception of our surroundings. Altman et. al add that self – concept is very important because it
will determine what a person perceives and do. For example, a student who feels that he or she is an independent person, will enjoy and like to be in the
environment which requires his or her independence, as in the use of group PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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presentation technique which also requires the student’s independence in learning the material without explanation from the teacher. The students’ self–concepts
can shape their like or dislike towards the use of student’s presentation technique. Those four factors mentioned above describe the factors which can
influence someone in having his or her perceptions on something. Those factors also describe the factors that can influence student’s perceptions toward group
presentation technique. The selection of the technique based on the students’ like or dislike will
affect students’ perceptions towards the use of the technique. When the students like the technique, they will have good perception toward the technique. The
organization of the group presentation will affect the students’ perceptions towards the use of the technique. When the group presentation is well-organized,
the students will have good perceptions towards the technique. The students can interpret the use of the group presentation technique as meaningful information.
Students’ familiarity and expectation of the situation in the use of group presentation technique will affect students’ perceptions on the technique. When
the students are familiar with the technique and the situation of the technique is appropriate with the students’ expectation, the students will have good
perceptions on the use of the technique. The students’ self-concepts will affect the students’ perceptions on the use of the group presentation technique too. If the
students perceive that they are motivated in using the group presentation technique, they will have good perception toward the technique.
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Furthermore, Winardi 1992: 47 discusses seven factors that can influence someone in having his or her perception on something. Some of those
factors are similar to the statement from Altman et al. The same factors are organization of stimuli, selective perception which is similar to selection of
stimuli, and situational factor. Then, Winardi adds that stereotype, needs, emotion, and attitude are the factors that can influence someone in perceiving
something too. 1 Stereotype
People tend to have their stereotype on a particular thing. Stereotype is the process of categorizing people or things based on a limited amount of information
Altman et al, 1985: 91. In other words, people make their own classification on a thing or a person based on their expectation. People tend to pay attention to
things which are appropriate to their stereotype and ignore others that do not match with their perception.
2 Needs People work or do something to fulfill their needs. Every person has
different needs. For example, in arranging a wedding party, people may have many considerations in decorating a party room. The decorations are arranged to
satisfy their needs and expectations. They will choose the decorations which they feel the best for the party room. People tend to perceive something positively if
they feel that thing can satisfy their needs and expectation. If the students feel that the use of group presentation technique can fulfill their needs in learning the
materials, they will perceive positively the use of the technique. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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3 Emotion Kreitner and Kinicki 1992: 212 state that emotions have a significant
effect on our perceptions. A person’s emotion can affect his or her perception on something. Negative emotions, such as anger, jealousy, envy, disappointment and
so on toward something may lead someone to have bad perceptions on that thing. On the contrary, when someone has positive emotions, such as happiness,
contentment, gladness, and so on toward something, he or she will have good perceptions on that thing. For example, a student always greets and smiles at her
teacher when they are passing each other. However, the teacher often ignores her greeting. The student feels disappointed by the teacher, thus, she considers her
teacher as a self-assertive person and will have bad perception toward the teacher. 4 Attitude
Attitude may affect someone to have perceptions toward something.
Sikap merupakan suatu keadaan siap mental, yang dipelajari dan diorganisasi menurut pengalaman, dan yang menyebabkan timbulnya pengaruh khusus atas
reaksi seseorang terhadap orang-orang, objek-objek, dan situasi-situasi dengan siapa ia berhubungan
Winardi, 1992: 48 Attitude is a mental-prepared condition, which is learned and organized
based on the experiences and causes the existence of a specific influence on someone’s reaction toward people, objects, and situations with whom
the person make relation.
From the discussion, we know that many factors can influence students’ perception on the use of the group presentation technique. Selection of stimuli,
organization of stimuli, the situation, self – concept, stereotype, needs, emotion, and attitude are some factors which may influence the students in having their
perception on the use of the group presentation technique. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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During preparing the presentation, the students need to work together in groups which can be categorized into cooperative learning since the students need
to cooperate with one another in order to achieve certain goal, thus, in the following discussion, the writer will present the theory of cooperative learning.
3. Cooperative Learning
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