Students Washback Occurs to the Parties

49 “…Okay… I will change it… how many should it be? ET 9.5 ya… The other teacher answered Okay, Sir… ET – ET … oke diubah... berapa ya … 9.5 ya.. guru lain menjawab ha.. ? 9.5 pak… The above fact was another fact showed that NE was seen only as an instrument to bring the aim –100 graduation. In short, the teacher and the school had neglect the education. The fraudulent practices had disclosed to students. To hide the dirty practices done by the school, the school rather gave the copy of the academic report than the real academic report. However, some students still realized the gaffe of their academic report. They realized that the school had made up their school scores. It was in line with this excerpt: “…Ms.. my scores have changed They say it at chuckle…” – ET …Ms.. nilaiku berunbah lho Ms…, mereka bilang sambil ketawa- ketawa… The excerpt showed a student who questioned the increasing of his or her school score to the teacher. This situation would make the school lost its power and provoke students to belittle the school. The situation also led students to think that school was the one that needed to graduate them. It was because the school needed to defend its ISO certificate and prestige. In the end, this disclosure of the fraudulent practices made students relied too much on teachers and the school. It was in line with this excerpt: “…I do not really like with the current NE regulations... the last 3 or 4 years… the regulations lead students to rely highly on the school and teachers…” – ET … saya gak begitu suka sih dengan aturannya dengan UN yang sekarang. Ya... 3 atau 4 tiga tahun ini lah... buat anak-anak itu mentalnya jadi mental kalau Bahasa Jawa itu njagakke… 50

3. The School

The school, confidently, welcomed the NE. The teacher pointed out that NE had represented a fair system to consider graduation. It was because NE was no longer the only consideration for the graduation. He further explained that teachers could even prepare their students from the first semester students entered the school. It had been integrated with some programs created by the school to succeed the NE. Teachers could also optimize the 60 of the school score quota. It was seen in this excerpt: “…If we have planned from the tenth grade, there will be no problem in the twelfth grade related to the processing school scores – VP … kalau kita sudah menata dari kelas sepuluh.. nanti pada akhirnya sudah membantu berkaitan dengan nilai sekolah In short, the above findings showed clearly that the school confidently welcomed the NE. Students expected more from the school. It was interesting to contrast how the school viewed the NE and the teacher and students. The interview with VP revealed that the school only focused the NE preparation on the material. On the other hand, the anxieties occurred to students and teachers were not accommodated well by the school. This excerpt showed the boredom experienced by the students: ”…bored… so monotonous… we expected different atmosphere such as having games… not only doing exercises all the time…” – S4 … bosen... monoton kegiatannya... gak ada suasana lain… menjelang UN ini gak cuma mengerja kan soal terus… ada games gitu… The school, with its authority, should have been able to interfere more to avoid such situation. 51 C. Areas Affected by Washback The researcher investigated the areas affected by washback based on the Spratt’s 2005 categorization, i.e.: curriculum, teaching materials, teaching methods, feelings and attitudes, and learning. 1. Curriculum The curriculum here referred to the lesson plans commonly used by the teachers to deliver the material in classroom. From the investigation, the data revealed that both teachers and students neglected the listening materials. A student pointed out this fact in an excerpt: “The teachers only give once listening practice… it was the last meeting…” – S5 Itu a walnya guru gak ngasi kita latihan listening. Sempet itu terakhir ya cuma seka li doang kita dikasi listening… The teacher considered that giving listening materials were just useless. It was because the students would not cooperate well to the activities. The teacher said that she often got refusal from the students when she was about to teach listening. It was seen in these two excerpts: “…the students disperse when listening activities are started… they said that they cannot hear anything… they even asked the teachers to turn off the tape recorder…” – ET … ketika listeing bubar gitu..muridnya bilang kalo itu dimatiin aja bu k… saya gak denger apa - apa… “…some students, mostly boys, even prefered to sleep in the classroom in the listening practices… it was itching me for what they did…” – ET …pas listening itu dia pasti cuman tidur pak. .. ih... gregeten banget rasanya pak.. a ku gak denger sama sekali e Bu… These two excerpts showed that students responded negatively toward the listening materials. In response to such situation, the teacher rather dismissed the listening materials than taught it. It was because she realized that she would need more time 52 to encourage her students to learn listening rather than the others. She preferred to optimize the left time for reading, speaking, and writing. The surrounding environments did not support to teach listening. The teacher described that a supermarket, a hospital, and a university surrounded the school. Besides, the school itself was located in the in the middle of them. It lied directly at the side road. When you enter the farthest point in the school from the road, you could still hear the traffic clearly. In addition, the tryout tests weeks coincided with political campaign time. It was obvious how bad the nuisance distracted the teaching-learning process and the tryout tests when the campaigns passed by. 2. Teaching Materials Teachers were highly dependent to exercises as teaching materials. The table below showed that fact: Table 4.1 Students’ dependence on exercises Students Answer S1 “First, the teachers give exercises… then we are asked to do it by ourselves. The teachers invite us to ask if we do not understand… But the teachers give the key answers after that.” …pertama dikasih soal… lalu disuruh jawab dulu… nah kalo gak bisa nanti disuruh tanya. Tapi terus setelah itu dikasih kuncinya. S2 “…practice doing excercises…” …latihan mengerjakan soal - soal… S3 “…Teachers focus us on practicing exercises now…” … kal o sekarang lebih fokus ke soal… S4 “…doing exercises all the time…” …mengerjakan soal terus… S5 “…mostly doing excercises…” …kebanyakan sih latihan soal… S6 “…the teachers emphasize to practice doing exercises…” … emang udah ditekanka n untuk mengerjakan soal- soal… S7 “…the teachers give many copies of excercises…” … sekarang juga banyak dikasi foto kopi soal-soal …” 53 Table 4.1. confirmed that all the students who participated in the research were given exercises as the main materials in preparing to the NE. The materials gere referred to exam-related textbooks, teacher-made materials, or past papers. Exam- related textbooks here was the commercial textbooks used by the teacher to prepare her students for NE. The teacher herself also compiled exercises from vary sources to enrich the materials she gave for preparing her students. From her own experiences, the teacher knew the materials that highly related to NE. Meanwhile, past papers were the authentic papers from previous NE. Relying highly on exercises gave an impact to the narrowing down the curriculum. Both teachers and students agreed that exercises were the best way to prepare students to NE. It was because they believed that having exercises from such materials would bring parallel result to the NE ahead. Teachers did understand that NE was made based on the graduate standard competence. It meant that such materials had the same framework with the NE ahead. This comprehension lead teachers and students to rely highly on those materials. Unfortunately, this impact was of the narrowing down of the curriculum to those areas most likely to be tested.

3. Teaching Methods

Teachers promoted teaching about the test as response to prepare their students to NE. To give picture of what methods used by the teacher, look at these excerpts: “First, our teachers usually give exercises and let us to do by ourselves. The teachers invite us to ask if we are stuck. Then, the teachers give the key answers and the shortcut to solve the exercises. The teachers emphasizes on the shortcuts to solve the exercises.” – ET … kalo guru-guru di tempat kita tu, pertama dikasih soal, lalu disuruh jawab dulu, nah kalo gak bisa nanti disuruh tanya. Tapi terus setelah itu dikasih kuncinya. 54 Cara-cara jawabnya...yang penting kalo soalnya kayak gini, cara jawabnya kayak gini...dapet trik buat mengerjakan soal... “...in the last two years, the teachers emphasized on understanding concepts, but exercises are emphasized now…” – ET … dulu lebih ke teori.. kalo sekarang lebih focus ke soal... “...approaching the NE ahead, we are practicing with exercises all the time…” – ET … menjelang UN ini... cuma mengerjakan soal terus... “...we make discussion from exercises… it was started since the beginning of twelfth grade… and the teachers give the shortcuts as well…” – ET … kita bahas soal-soal...dari semester satu sudah dikasih soal-soal...sama gurunya itu dikasih cara cepetnya... These excerpts showed that teachers focused on giving students strategies, shortcuts, and tricks to engage with NE. Teachers argued that this way gave some benefits. This way could engage with the limited time since it was more practical. Teachers just needed to discuss what needed to answer the question instead of explaining the whole concept. Besides, students also preferred this method since it went directly to the point. Teaching about the test was one notion from measurement-driven instruction MDI. MDI was actually a positive view in general education. MDI would be beneficial if a test was properly implemented and conceived, then teachers assessed what they taught. On the other hand, the instruction would run effectively if it meshed with how students thought. MDI perspective was match with cognitive- constructivists view. It was because cognitive-constructivists viewed that teaching was likely to be holistic, long-term, integrated, project-based, and discovery-based. It meant what assessed should be what taught. Hence, cognitive-constructivists considered performance-based assessment was the best assessment model since simulated assessment was used to elicit original responses. In addition,