a. Definition of Perception
According to Borger and Seaborne 1966, perception is an awareness of environment, through which a person processes incoming sensory data in a certain
way to arrive at useful impression of his surrounding. Mozkowitz and Orgel 1969 argue that perception is a global response to a stimulus or a set of stimuli.
Moreover, Kreitner and Kinicki 1992 add that perception is mental and cognitive processes that enable people to interpret and understand the
surroundings. Perception is also defined as processes of interpreting messages of our senses to provide order and meaning to the environment Johns, 1996.
There are other definitions of perception. According to Stenberg 1988, perception is the way human perceives the world. Hornby 1995 defines
perception as the way of seeing, understanding, or interpreting something. Altman et al 1985 state that perception is the way stimuli are selected and grouped by a
person in such a way that the stimuli can be meaningfully interpreted.
b. Perceptual Process and Teaching-Learning Activities
In order to form perception, three steps are needed. The steps consist of having awareness or attention to the incoming stimulus, recognizing and
interpreting the incoming stimuli into some messages, and translating or deciding the appropriate action or behavior to respond the message.
The following is the diagram that shows how the perceptual process happens.
10 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Figure 1. The perceptual process Altman et al, 1985 From the perceptual process shown in Figure 1, it is seen that perception
comes from the stimuli. The stimuli then are selected in the brain. The selected stimuli will result in the form of information. The information will be organized
and interpreted by the brain. After interpreting the information, the brain then translates the information into meaning. The results of the meaningful information
of the translation are then called perception. Furthermore, perception will create behavior responses. If someone has positive perception of something, he will
create positive behavior toward that thing as the behavioral responses follow the perception, organization and interpretation of stimuli. For students, if they have
positive perception of the English teaching-learning activity, they will create positive behavior toward that activity.
Biggs as cited by Atutiningsih 2006 states that perception on learning deal with belief about knowledge which influences students’ approaches to
learning. It means that perception on learning deal with concepts as stimuli which come from environment, therefore, there is a system that relates the concepts with
the environment, and it is called interactive system Biggs as cited by Astutiningsih, 2006. It is called interactive because the concepts as the stimuli
interact with the environment. This system has three components. Those components are presage, process, and product or learning outcome.
stimuli sensors’
selection of stimuli
perception, organization, and
interpretation of stimuli
behavioral response
11 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Presage is a factor that includes students’ belief about knowledge and learning conception. Presage also includes learning context, such as teachers and
school attributes. The examples of presage according to Biggs and Dart Clarke as cited by Astutiningsih 2006 are educational practices, students’ preparations,
approaches to learning, and changes to assessment product. Process is a factor that includes students’ perceptions of a given learning
situation and specific learning strategies that they, consequently, adopt for learning tasks whereas learning strategies are factors that influence the process of
learning Biggs as cited by Astutiningsih, 2006. An example of process is the process of how students learn target materials during English teaching-learning
activities. Product or learning outcome is influenced by implementation of certain
teaching-learning strategies. Students’ perceptions on English learning are influenced by the implementation of English teaching-learning activities Perry,
1981. More specifically, Champbell 2001 spelled out the three components in
five elements of language teaching-learning activities implementation that shape students’ perceptions. Those are 1 how the teacher teaches the students, 2 what
the teacher wants the students to learn, 3 how the students learn in class, 4 what the students learn, and 5 what the purposes of learning the language are.
Those five elements are affecting the students’ perceptions of the teaching- learning activities. Based on the perceptual process diagram on page 12,
perception can be described as the factors which influence the creation of 12
someone’s behavior. If the students have positive perception concerning those five elements, they will also create positive behavior toward the teaching-learning
activities.
c. Factors that Affect Someone’s Perception
Kategori