Validity and Reliability RESEARCH METHODS

44 collaborative effort in this research. The researcher held discussion with the English teacher in the 4 stages of this research: planning, action, observation, and reflecting. The researcher also took the opinions, ideas, comments, suggestions from the students of class VIII A regarding to the application of the technique. The perspective from multiple voices helped the researcher designing the action that can create an effective teaching and learning process. b. Outcome validity is related to the result of this study. In this study, the outcome is the improvement of the students’ reading comprehension in English teaching and learning process. This research can also be considered valid if the achievement of this research can appear new questions in the subsequent research cycle. c. Process validity is related to the “dependability” and the “competencies” of the research. To gain this criterion, the researcher collected the data by observing the teaching and learning process and noted down everything that happened in the teaching and learning process. The observation was not only done by the researcher, but also the English teacher and a student of English Department of Yogyakarta State University as a collaborator. d. Catalytic validity is related to the changes of the stake holder and their response towards the changes. This criterion was assessed by identifying the changes that occured during and after the action was done. The researcher observed the implementation of the action to see the changes of the students. The researcher also held pre-test and post-test to know whether there are changes in 45 students’ reading comprehension. The researcher interviewed both students and teacher to know the changes occurring to themselves after implementation of the study and how the changes affected their life especially in English teaching and learning process. e. Dialogic validity involves peer review process with others about this research findings and practices. To gain this validity, the researcher asked the English teacher as the stake holder to participate in the process of this research by giving critiques and suggestions. The researcher used the triangulation technique to ensure the reliability of the data. This kind of technique required multiple perspectives on the situation being studied. The researcher used three perspectives from teacher by interview, individual pupils by interview and neutral third party by observation. The researcher also compared the data from the reading comprehension test, interview and documentation to gain the trustworthiness of the data. Meanwhile, the researcher also used the validity and reliability for the instrument that was designed to obtain quantitative data. The instrument was the reading comprehension tests. The reading comprehension tests consisted of the pre-test and the post-test. To enhance the validity of this instrument, the researcher used the content validity. Content validity determined whether the questions of the instruments and the scores of the questions were representative of all the possible questions that the researcher could ask about the contents or skills. 46 Two steps that are suggested by Brown are used to evaluate the content validity of the tests. The first step, according to Brown 2004:32, is by identifying the test whether it has been based on the classroom objectives or not. This reading comprehension tests were developed based on the School Based Curriculum of grade VIII in the first semester of the English subject in the Junior High School. They were designed based on the standard of competence and basic competence of School Based Curriculum. The texts used are descriptive, narrative and recount text. The second steps relates to the concept of the test specification. The tests followed the guidelines for designing multiple-choice items that is claimed by Groundlund and Brown. Groundlund and Brown in Brown 2004:56-61 states there are four guidelines for designing multiple-choice items. These guidelines include three indices to measure the appropriate selection and arrangement of suitable multiple-choice items. They are item facility, item discrimination and distractor analysis. The researcher held a try-out in other class that was class VIII D to find out the appropriate selection and arrangement of multiple-choice items. After getting the result of the try-out, the researcher analyzed the item quality of those three indices which include item facility, item discrimination and distractor analysis by using ITEMAN 3.00 program. Based on the result of the item quality of the test, there were 30 valid items out of 50 items that can be used in the reading comprehension test. The valid items of the tests were used to know the students’ reading comprehension ability. 47 In order to be the consistent and dependable tests, the researcher assessed the reliability of the tests using internal consistency methods especially the Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha. The researcher used the results of the ITEMAN results which also included the Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha to determine the reliability of the tests.

H. Data Analysis Techniques

There were two kinds of data that were gathered. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The qualitative data were the data gathered through observation and interview. The other kind of data, the quantitative data obtained through the reading comprehension pretest and posttest. The qualitative data were analyzed with content analysis proposed by Richards in Burns 2010: 113. He suggests four steps in a basic analysis, such as providing a general characterization, identifying grossly apparent features, focusing in on structural elements and developing a description. In analyzing the qualitative data, the researcher first got a general sense of the data, identify the grossly apparent features of the data. Then, the researcher began to examine the details of the data and related it with the description of the result. Meanwhile the quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The researcher would compare the students’ score between the pre-test and the post-test. The mean were used to know the improvement of the students before and after the actions. The quantitative data were presented in the form of table. 48

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This research was aimed to improve students’ reading comprehension for the students in the 8 th grade at SMP Negeri 13 Yogyakarta using the Multiple Intelligence-based technique. This chapter deals with the research processes and results. This chapter is divided into three sections. They are the reconnaissance, the implementation of the technique to solve the problems and the results, and the research general findings and discussion.

A. Reconnaissance

The researcher conducted several activities to collect data about the English teaching and learning situation in the 8 th grade at SMP Negeri 13 Yogyakarta in this phase. First, the researcher conducted an interview with the English teacher. Then, an observation was also done to know the real situation of the English teaching and learning of reading at VIII A class of SMP Negeri 13 Yogyakarta. Another interview was also conducted to know from the students’ perspectives with regard to the English teaching and learning process especially in reading and their own understanding about their ability in English. Next, a pre-test was held to get information about students’ achievement in English, especially in reading ability. Finally, the researcher gave questionnaire for the students of VIII A class of SMP Negeri 13 Yogyakarta. This questionnaire was aimed to know the students’ intelligence in order to design an English teaching and learning process that best suits with their intelligences.