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RESEARCH METHOD
The research design used in this research is classroom action research CAR. In the spiral model proposed by Kemmis and McTaggart, CAR has to be conducted with several
cycles, with each cycle consisting of four phases: 1 planning, 2 action, 3 observation, and 4 reflection Muhadi 2011, 69-70.
This study was conducted to 12 Kindergarten students within the age of 4-7 years old for about 2 weeks 24
th
May - 6
th
a. First cycle
June during the unit study of “Plants”. In this research, there are several data collection techniques that were used. These
include observation, documentary, and reflection. In supporting these techniques, researcher used several data collection instruments such as checklist, rubrics, pre-test and post-test,
field diaries, and photographs. The research methods used in this study was qualitative method, where the analysis of data was done descriptively. Data collected were analyzed and
interpreted using the triangulation technique.
RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION
The findings of this study can be seen from the first cycle up to
the fourth cycles consecutively, as followed:
In this cycle, researcher conducted a lesson on the parts of plants and its functions. At the beginning of the lesson, researcher explained to the students that they were
evaluated based on their team performance. Hearing this, students were excited with the thought of receiving team reward.
During the presentation on lesson content, students were interested with the lesson as there were many pictures on the presentation slides. However, as teacher used direct-
instruction approach the whole time, teacher noticed that some students were bored and did not pay attention. Reflecting on this, teacher realized that lesson should be designed to attract
students attention and active learning. After presentation, students were divided into various groups of heterogeneous
characteristics. In each group, they were expected to work in pairs. However, there was high level of individuality as students did not work in group but seek teacher’s help when they had
problems.
113 Therefore, there was minimum level of interaction between group members. Where there was
interaction, students did not remember to use appropriate voice level. Therefore, teacher saw the need to remind students about the appropriate use of voice level for the next lesson.
After completing the group work, each student was given a post test to see what they had learnt from the lesson. However, there was heavy reliance on teachers to read the
questions for them. Therefore, to have a better gauge of students’ understanding, researcher decide to re-teach the current topic after making various adjustments to the content, and
question structures. Through this incident, teacher is also reminded the importance of making materials that is according to students capability.
After students had completed the post-test, researcher conducted a short discussion with all the students to get their feedback on the teaching and learning processes.
At the end of the day, teacher graded students’ post-test and found out that each team should receive a “super” team certificate as recognition. However, in reflecting on today’s
lesson, teacher concluded that each team members could do well because of the help from the teachers instead of team members helping out one another to master the lesson content.
Therefore, teacher decided not to reward team recognition for this cycle because doing so would make cooperative learning insignificant and decided to re-teach current topic for the
next lesson. Also, to account for this weakness, teacher decided to introduce another form of group evaluation through team performance chart to encourage students to be active in
learning, motivated and to socialize well with others. In this case, when every group members help in making the classroom conducive for learning by achieving the three factors as a
group, the group will receive a star sticker on their team performance chart. Then, when group members performed well in their post-test, group will receive another form of
recognition such as star badges for every member within the group.
b. Second cycle In the beginning of this cycle, teacher gave a revision on parts of plants through
