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were accumulated and divided to get the means. The means were used as the quantitative data and they were compared to get some findings of the research
study.
H. Data Validity and Reliability
According to Anderson et al. in Burns 1999: 161-162, there are five validity criteria that should be fulfilled to get the data validity in an action
research. They are democratic validity, outcome validity, process validity, catalytic validity, and dialogic validity.
1. Democratic Validity
In order to build this validity, I allowed the ones who involved in the research to voice their opinion or view. I conducted discussions with
the teacher and my collaborator about how the classroom would run according to the lesson plans. We discussed our job in the class. I invited
the teacher’s and collaborator’s critics and suggestions to plan, implement, evaluate, and reflect the action. In addition, I accepted any
comment from the students to deepen my understanding about what really happened and students’ expectations were during the action.
Furthermore, I used those participants’ inputs to avoid bias when conducting the action and analyzing the data. After the actions are
implemented, I asked for my collaborator’s help to collect and analyze the data.
2. Outcome Validity
In order to validate the outcome, I evaluated periodically whether the objectives of the actions were suitable with the existing problems,
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especially when designing syllabus and lesson plans. In addition, during the reflection, I evaluated whether outcome of the actions met the
objectives of the actions. In order to do so, I used students’ document to check their progression. Furthermore, I evaluated some facts that became
proves of the progression of class situation by comparing the targets of class situation and the real class situation.
3. Process Validity
In order to build this validity, I conducted the action based on the syllabus and the lesson plans. However, I designed the syllabus and
lesson plans with my supervisors, my collaborator, and the teacher. I used the syllabus and lesson plans as the guidance in conducting the
action. By sticking on the syllabus and lesson plans, I could conduct the action more focus, accurate, contextual and systematic. However, during
the action, I could modify the class action if there was something happened outside what have been arranged in the lesson plan. The
modification was conducted in order to respond to the actual situation and to overcome the on-the-spot problem appeared which were different
from the lesson plan. Although the modification was different from the lesson plans, I stuck on the objectives of the research. Besides keeping
the rundown of the class relevant to the lesson plans and actual situation, I reported the process of class action in the form of field notes and
observation sheets.
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4. Catalytic Validity
In order to build this validity, I gave opportunities to the students for expressing their understanding about the change which had happened
in their attitude and cognition. I checked the changes in their knowledge, feeling, attitude and learning techniques which implied improvement of
their learning. My collaborator and I conducted interviews and distributed questionnaires or surveys. The expectation was there was an
improvement in terms students’ attitude in learning English, especially speaking. Moreover, we wished that the teacher could broaden his
understanding about the real function of English, i.e. for communication so he could teach English as the means of communication.
5. Dialogic Validity
In order to build this validity, I had discussions with the colleagues, practitioners or experts who had understanding about speaking,
cooperative learning, or action research. I asked for their criticisms, suggestions, or other ideas which were worthy for the sake of the process
of English instruction and research themselves. I had the discussion during and after I conducted the research.
Besides analyzing the validities of the research, I used triangulation to build the reliabilities of the data analysis. The triangulations were time triangulation,
researcher triangulation, and theory triangulation.
1. Time Triangulation
In order to build time triangulation, I analyzed whether the research result remained constant during different times of analysis. In doing so, I
