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Table 2: Research Schedule Cycle
Meeting DayDate
Time Materials
Activities
1 1
Wednesday March 23
rd
07.00 –
09.00 a.m. Argumentative
essay Group discussion, peer
assessment and peer feedback on students’ essay
in small groups 2
Wednesday March 30
th
07.00 –
09.00 a.m. Argumentative
essay
2 3
Friday April 1
st
11.00 a.m. –
01.00 p.m. Argumentative
essay Discussion, peer
assessment and peer feedback on students’ essay
in pairs
C. Research Participants Subjects
The participants were twenty seven 27 PBI students class B batch 2014 in Critical Reading and Writing II class, the lecturer, and three observers including
the researcher as an observer. The qualifications of the observers were: 1 semester 8 students of English Language Education Study Program Sanata
Dharma University and 2 those who had taken Micro Teaching and Research Methodology. The qualifications were determined by the researcher based on the
capability on conducting classroom observation, and semester 8 students have been taught the theories on conducting classroom observation in Research
Methodology and have practiced the theories in Micro Teaching. Nineteen 19 students participated in the research consistently by submitting the result of their
peer assessment in each meeting from cycle one up to cycle two. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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D. Research Instruments and Data Gathering Technique
The researcher used three techniques to help the researcher collect the data during the research. The techniques were observation, writing test, and
questionnaire. Observation was used to record teaching-learning activities in the classroom, as Burns 1999 states that Classroom Action Research is done by
observing and recording events and behaviour in the classroom. Writing test was used to measure students’ progress in improving critical thinking skills in writing
argumentative essay. Scoring rubric was made by the researcher to help the students in doing peer assessment on their argumentative essay. The criteria in the
scoring rubric were considered as a standard to measure students’ progress and the
indicators in improving their critical thinking skills. Questionnaire was employed to find the data on students’ difficulties in improving critical thinking skills. The
questionnaire consisted of open ended questions. Below are the instruments and the data gathering techniques in details:
1. Observation
Observation was employed in cycle 1 and cycle 2 to record teaching- learning activities in the classroom. Burns 1999 states
, “It observation enables researchers to document and reflect systematically upon classroom interactions
and events, as they actua lly occur rather than as we think they occur” p.80. The
observation type was direct and non-participant observation. The researcher watched and recorded the teaching and learning activities in the classroom without
personal involvement in the classroom. The purpose was to remain distant and make no contact with the subjects of the research to get natural behaviour in the
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classroom Burns, 1999. Observation sheet see Appendix A was employed as the instrument in doing the observation. The observation sheet consisted of three
columns: teaching-learning activities based on the lesson plan, lecturer and students’ attitude and response, and evaluation from the observer; the observers
wrote the events in the lecturer and students’ response and attitude column, and the evaluation in the evaluation column. There were three observers in the research
including the researcher. The teaching and learning activities were recorded using a digital camera.
2. Writing Test
Writing test was employed in cycle 1 and cycle 2 t o assess students’
process and progress in improving critical thinking skills. The type of writing performance was extensive writing. Brown 2004 states that the focus of
extensive writing are: ...on achieving a purpose, organizing and developing ideas logically, using
details to support or illustrate ideas, demonstrating syntactic and lexical variety, and in many cases, engaging in the process of multiple drafts to
achieve a final product p.220.
The writing product was academic writing in form of argumentative essay. Argumentative essay was chosen because it gives students opportunity to improve
their critical thinking skills as a writer by building strong arguments and justifiable claim with valid, adequate and relevant evidences and justifications. It also gives
students opportunity as a reader in doing peer assessment to be sceptical in a positive way by assessing other students’ arguments whether the arguments are
justifiable claim with valid, adequate and relevant evidences and justifications PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
35
Wallace and Wray, 2011. It gave an opportunity for the researcher to assess students’ critical thinking skills by assessing the quality of students’ argumentative
essay. The quality standard and criteria
of students’ argumentative essay writing was determined in the scoring rubric, which was employed as an instrument to
measure students ’ critical thinking skills. As a performance assessment, the most
suitable instrument in writing test is scoring rubric. “Performance assessments are typically scored according to rubrics that specify in advance the type of
performance that is expected for each activity” Slavin, 2012, p.433. The scoring rubric was presented as a form of analytic scoring. The criteria of critical writing
were mentioned in the scoring rubric to be scored; the criteria were arguable arguments, relevant evidences, particular target audience, effective logical
organization, and reliable sources. Analytic scoring will help the students to recognize their weaknesses and their strengths Brown, 2004. The criteria of
critical writing were determined by summarizing the elements of critical writing from the book “Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Brief Guide to
Argument” by Barnet and Bedau 2011 and from the book “Critical Reading and Writing
for Postgraduates” by Wallace and Wray 2011, which can be seen in the scoring rubric see Appendix A. The scoring rubric was used by the students in
peer assessment.
3. Questionnaire
Questionnaire was employed in the end of the research after cycle 2 was conducted
to gather data related to students’ difficulties and the use of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
