23 Carr and Kemmis 1986, as cited in McNiff and Whitehead 2003, p.
46, design map of steps of Classroom Action Research in the form of ‘Kemmis’ action research spiral’ or The Kemmis diagram. This diagram becomes the basis
to design the steps involved in Classroom Action Research. Kemmis and McTaggart add that the steps described in the spiral are developing a plan of
critically informed action to improve what is happening, acting to implement the plan, observing the effects of the critically informed action, and reflecting on the
effects as the basis for further planning Burns, 1991, p. 32. Those steps are applied in one cycle.
Figure 3.1 The Action Research Spiral Burns, 1991, p. 33
Based on the Action Research Spiral in Figure 3.1, the researcher developed planned steps to conduct the research to improve paragraph writing
skills of XA students in SMA Santo Mikael Sleman, academic year 20112012.
24 These planned steps were adapted from Elliot’s plan in conducting research
Elliot, 1998, p. 70 Step 1 : The researcher developed the general idea about the problem by
identifying the problem which occured in the class. The researcher identified the root of the problem through observation and planned an action to improve the
students’ ability in writing paragraphs. Step 2 : The researcher carried out the action planned to help the students reach
their writing goals. During this process, the researcher collected the data in the form students’ writings, questionnaire, observation checklist, and field notes.
Step 3 : The researcher reflected the implementation of the planned action in the class. The researcher needed to analyze whether it helped the students or not by
paying attention to the changes in students’ writing scores. If it worked well, the researcher would use the same method in the next cycle.
Step 4 : The researcher planned the next implementation of the same technique in the class to confirm that the technique was the best solution to the problem. The
researcher could revise the plan if needed. Step 5 : The researcher implemented the planned action. This was used to see the
evidence of development made by the students through their writings. Steps 6 : The researcher collected the data. The data would be used to obtain the
evidence that the method was the effective solution to the problem. To give the evidence of the effectiveness of arranging jumbled paragraphs activity, the
researcher would distribute questionnaire and interviewed the students.
25 Step 7 : The researcher analyzed the results of students’ writings, questionnaire,
and interview. From students’ scores in the writing exercises, the researcher could reflect whether the students made improvement or not. The researcher was also
able to identify the improvement from the result of the questionnaire and interview.
3.2 Research Setting
This research was conducted in SMA Santo Mikael in class XA in the 20112012 academic year. The research was conducted on April 18th, 2012 to
May 30
th
, 2012.
3.3 Research Participants
The participants of this research were 15 students of XA in SMA Santo Mikael in 20112012 academic year. There were seven girls and eight boys in the
class. The range of age was from 14 to 17 years old. The students came from various provinces in Indonesia and their level of knowledge of English differed.
3.4 Research Instruments and Data Gathering Technique
The researcher collected data using various instruments in order to obtain data from many sources. Mills 2003, as cited in Ary, Jacobs, and
Sorensen 2010, p. 525, suggests three data gathering techniques called three E’s: experiencing, enquiring, and examining. Before the researcher carried out an
26 action in the classroom, experiencing and enquiring techniques were applied to
collect data. Experiencing technique was a technique of gathering data through the
researcher’s own experience. The suitable instruments for the technique were observation checklist and field notes. If the researcher planned to collect data by
asking questions in the form of questionnaire or interview, the enquiring technique was useful. In this research, the researcher used both techniques to
gather data which supported problem analysis. The last technique to gather the data was examining. The examination
was in the form of writing assignment. The researcher gave writing exercises to see the evidence of the problem. The students would be given the writing exercise
twice. For preliminary study, the researcher could analyze students’ writings obtained from writing exercise given by the English teacher.
3.4.1 The Research Instruments before the Implementation
The researcher used observation checklist, field notes, and students’ writing assignment before the implementation, and questionnaire.
1 Observation Checklist
When the researcher did an observation in the class, the researcher used the observation checklist to help the researcher analyze the problem. This
contained a list of questions used by the researcher to observe the class. Observation checklist gave a structure and framework for the researcher
when observing the class, because the researcher focused on the information which must be collected by looking at the list of questions. The questions included
27 the students’ condition and teacher’s method in teaching writing. This observation
helped researcher to know students’ characteristics, problem experienced by students, and the teacher’s teaching method.
This observation checklist was used when the researcher observed the class at the beginning of the research as the first step of implementing
experiencing techniques. This checklist provided some elements to be analyzed. They were the physical setting, the participants, the activities and the interactions
Merriam, 2009, p. 120. 2
Field Notes Field notes refer to the notes researchers take in the field. In educational
research, the notes focus on the educational setting. The notes are about the reflection of the problem experienced by the students in the class. The researcher
followed field notes strategy suggested by Ary, Jacobs, and Sorensen 2010, p. 527. The field notes used in this research contained the setting, participants,
activities, events, purposes, and time of observation. The contents of field notes had to be highly descriptive Merriam, 2009, p. 130. From the field notes, the
researcher was able to identify the source of the problem experienced by students in analyzing the texts organization and writing texts based on the correct
organization. Field notes were used together with observation checklist when the
researcher observed the class. They were used together because field notes enabled the researcher to record the teaching and learning steps, students’
questions, and teacher’s answers to the questions which could not be found in the
