Observation Research Instruments and Data Gathering Technique

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1. Qualitative Data Analysis

Qualitative data analysis is strongly characterized by text and interpretation. Cohen, Manion, and Morrison 2011 states: “Qualitative data analysis involves organizing, accounting for and explaining the data; in short, making sense of data in terms of the participant’ definitions of the situations, noting patterns, themes, categories and regularities” p.537. Unlike quantitative data analysis, there is no one single or correct way to analyze and present qualitative data because it is heavy on interpretation. A researcher should abide the issue of fitness for purpose, which is to choose the best way to present and analyse the data based on the research purpose in qualitative data analysis Cohen, Manion, and Morrison, 2011. The research used narrative discourse analysis as the particular qualitative data analysis. According to Cohen, Manion, and Morrison 2011, narrative discourse analysis “reports personal experiences or observations and brings fresh insights to often familiar situations” p.581. As a Kemmis model action research, the researcher analyzed the data in form of narrative discourse by reporting and interpreting each stage of the action research from the observation sheets: planning, action, observation, and reflection. This type of qualitative data analysis is strongly interpretative, since it sometimes brings difficulty to separate facts from observations Cohen, Manion, and Morrison, 2011.

2. Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive statistics present and describe scores without making inferences or predictions. The scores is reported, analyzed, and interpreted to get the meaning 38 of the descriptions Cohen, Manion, and Morrison, 2011. Two types of descriptive statistics were used in this research: 1. Mean scores from measures of central tendency Central tendency is descriptive statistics which describes the majority of scores in a set of scores. According to Cohen, Manion, and Morrison 2011, “Central tendency of a set of scores is the way in which they tend to cluster round the middle of a set o f scores, or where the majority of scores are located” p.627. The researcher used only the mean scores from the measures of central tendency to analyze the result of the writing test. The mean scores are the average scores of all scores. The formula is: X = Total mean score ∑X = Total scores of all participants N = The number of participants The mean scores were calculated from the result of peer assessment among the students; the first two scores from two meetings in cycle one came from peer assessment in group, and the last scores from the third meeting in cycle two came from peer assessment in pair. There were seven sets of scores based on the categories of critical writing and the final scores in the scoring rubric: arguments, evidences, target audience, organization, sources, total raw mean scores, and final Figure 2: Formula of total mean score