The Definition of Action Research

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B. Research Method

This research will be conducted as classroom action research in order to improve students’ vocabulary mastery by using word webs. The vocabulary in this research is limited in the topics which are taught for the third grade student of SDN Sidorejo Lor 1 Salatiga, those are, “Things in My House” and “Food and Drink”. After the students’ words knowledge improves, they are expected to be able to apply those words in sentence, paragraph, and even real communication.

1. The Definition of Action Research

There some definitions given by some experts. According to Burns 1993: 30, “Action research is the application of fact finding to practical problem solving in social situation with view to improve the quality of action within involving the collaboration and cooperation of researchers, practitioners and laymen”. According to Little 2001: 4 action research is a process to identify and solve classroom instructional concerns within teacher’s own classrooms. Kemmis in Hopkin, 1993: 44 defines action research as: “…………. A form of self reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social including educational situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of a their own social or educational practices, and, b their understanding of these practice, and c the situation ins in which the practices are carried out. It is most rationally empowering when undertaken by participants collaboratively, though it is often undertaken by individual, and sometimes cooperation with ‘outsiders’. In education, action research has been employed in school based curriculum development, professional development, school improvement programs, and systems planning and policy development.” commit to user Bodgan and Biklen in Burns, 1999: 30 propose action research as the systematic collection of information that is designed to bring about social change. Wallace 1998: 18 says that action research is one method to develop the teachers professionally on a continuing basis by reflecting on interesting andor problematic areas in a structured way to facilitate the ‘reflective cycle’. Bramble and Mason 1997: 43 say that the results of action research have direct application to real-world problem. Classroom action research is kind of problem solving in the class to improve students achievement. According to Kemmis and McTaggart 1998 in Burns 1999: 32, action research is a dynamic and complementary process which consists of four fundamental steps in a spiraling process. They are as follows: 1 Planning Developing a plan of critically informed to improve what is already happening. 2 Action Act to implement the plan. 3 Observation Observe the effects of the critically informed action in the context in which it occurs 4 Reflection Reflect these effects as the basis for further planning The spiral model can be illustrated as follows: commit to user Table 3.2 An illustration of Action Research Spiral Based on the definition proposed by some experts above, classroom action research is not only a problem solving in teaching learning process, but also a reflection for the teachers of the way of their teaching in their class in order that the quality of their teaching and students’ achievement improve. In this research, the writer conducts classroom action research as a way of problem solving being faced in teaching vocabulary for third year students of ZĞĨůĞĐƚŝŽŶ WůĂŶ ĐƚŝŽŶĂŶĚ KďƐĞƌǀĂƚŝŽŶ ZĞĨůĞĐƚŝŽŶ ĐƚŝŽŶĂŶĚ KďƐĞƌǀĂƚŝŽŶ ZĞĨůĞĐƚŝŽŶ ĐƚŝŽŶĂŶĚ KďƐĞƌǀĂƚŝŽŶ ZĞǀŝƐĞĚWůĂŶ ZĞǀŝƐĞĚWůĂŶ ƚĞƉ ƚĞƉ ƚĞƉ EĞdžƚ commit to user SDN Sidorejo Lor 1 Salatiga; moreover, this research is conducted to make social and educational change and improvement of students’ vocabulary mastery.

2. The Feature of Action Research