28 stated that vocational education is a high school that prepares its graduates to work
in a specific field. In short, it appears that vocational education prepares their graduates directly for the working world.
Kumaat 2010 points out a perception spreading among the society that VHS is the “second class” compared to the senior high school SHS. He continues
that it is because the government designs VHS for the graduates to be ready directly for the working world. The perception becomes so reasonable because the amount
of parents who send their children to VHS came from the middle to low society, based on his observation in North Sulawesi. It is so logical then, and if their children
cannot extent their education to colleges, their children have already had the ability to work or even be an entrepreneur. It is what happens, since individuals who go to
SHS to be certain want to go to colleges. This study focuses on studying the washback of National Examination
preparations in that school.
B. Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework summarizes and synthesizes the relevant theories explained above. In this section, the researcher relates the study matter to the
theories. To answer the research problems, the researcher implements the theories
that are appropriate for the topic of this study. The first section of the theoretical description focuses on the nature of washback and how washback works in
education. The concept of washback is first constructed by the origin and the
29 definition of washback. Then, the scope of washback illustrate the tremendous
impact and power of testing on teaching and learning in school. It focuses mainly on the micro level of washback, but it also still opened with the macro level of
washback. Meanwhile, the washback defined in this study will give picture of the focus of washback effect studied in this study. Cheng 2005 states that washback
effect, whether it is negative or positive, is still debatable and needs to be studied further. Furthermore, negative and positive washback also provide notions on what
situation it can be whether negative or positive. At last, the function of washback functions to find the meaning and the mechanism of how washback works in
teaching and learning through the framework proposed by Hughes as cited in Bailey, 1996
, namely the Hughes’ trichotomy. The second section of chapter consists of two interconnected parts, namely
influences of high-stakes testing and measurement-driven instruction. It explores how and why washback can work to influence other components in educational
system, trace the rationale the use of NE, and its powerful function to change teaching and learning.
The third section of this chapter is used to put washback phenomenon studied under the microscope and into the specific area of educational context. It
presents the nature of the vocational education and the issues commonly follows. It will be used later to construct the logic and rationale to examine the washback effect
in this study.
30
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the methodology used in this study. This chapter consists of six subchapters, namely research method, research setting, research
participants, instrument and data gathering technique, data analysis technique, and research procedure.
A. Research Method
The research method used in this study was qualitative research. Lichtman 2013 defines qualitative research as a way for a researcher to gather, organize,
and interpret information obtained from humans by using their eyes and ears as filters. Ary, Jacobs, and Sorensen 2010 state that by using qualitative research, a
researcher is able to look for the understanding of the phenomenon by emphasizing on the holistic picture. It does not rely heavily on hypothesis testing, cause and
effect, and statistical data. Lichtman 2013 says that the researcher plays important role in qualitative research. A qualitative researcher uses his or her eyes and ears to
collect and gather the data and information. Ary, et al. 2010 say that qualitative research aims to get a full and in-depth understanding of a picture. Hence, it
concerned with the question “why” to analyze the phenomena instead of relying on
measuring and counting. In addition, Lichtman 2013 points out that the goal of qualitative research is to understand and interpret social interactions. Furthermore,
qualitative research will assist the researcher to investigate what washback
31 phenomenon occurs and how it can occur. Thus, the researcher used qualitative
research in this study. This study used case study as the method. Ary et al. 2010 state that a case
study focuses on a single unit to produce a rich and holistic in-depth description. Th
e “unit” mentioned before could be a group, an individual, a class, a site, a program, a policy, a process, a community, or an institution. The unit should be
defined within a specific bounded system for its uniqueness or special characteristic. The unit focused on this study was the washback phenomenon of a
religion-based VHS in the preparation for NE. The researcher considered case study can be the best method used to answer the research questions. Ary et al. 2010
point out that case study gives possibility of depth. It seeks to understand the holistic case in the environment. It was not limited only the present actions, but also possible
to the past, emotions, thoughts, and environment. Thus, the holistic data would be optimally obtained through case study.
B. Research Setting
This study was conducted in a private religion-based VHS in Yogyakarta. Due to the consideration of ethical conduct, the researcher must not mention the
school. The setting of time in this research was divided into two phases. The first phase was used for observation. It occurred during the researcher had the Program
Pengalaman Lapangan PPL from July to December 2013. The second phase was
data gathering. It occurred from March to April 2014.
