Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher elaborates six underlying issues. They are background of the study, problem formulation, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definition of terms. Thus, the introduction explains the general reason for choosing the topic of this study.

A. Background of the Study

The new curriculum, namely School-Based Curriculum has been established by the Minister of Education by the year 2006, and many schools compete one another to implement this curriculum. It is stated that School-Based Curriculum is an operational curriculum that is arranged and carried out in each school level Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan, 2006: 5 . This curriculum emphasizes on the students’ competencies as the measurement of achieving the target learning and it is being developed by considering the relevancy of each school level under the coordination and supervision of the National Department of Education. In this curriculum, teachers are given the opportunity to conduct teaching and learning process by arranging and developing their own curriculum. The most important aspect, School-Based Curriculum has to do with developing the topic of the materials optimally based on their local wisdom and reducing the unimportant subjects to strengthen the students 1 learning target. For that reason, every teacher needs to create teaching and learning activities optimally as creative as possible. In order to implement creative activities in teaching and learning, a media is absolutely needed. Nowadays, the most widely used media is related to technology. Thus, it cannot be denied that nowadays the development of technology has been being a breakthrough for human life and it opens to be used for various and creative ways and purposes. Hence, this technology development has given significant influence to the educational system. For some educational context, technology has been used to support teaching and learning activities, to help students do presentation, and do the laboratory research. Since technology plays an important role in the educational life, the government involved the target of technology mastery, it is then, mentioned in one of School Based Curriculum Principles that students are expected to be able to follow the development of science, technology, and arts attentively. Referring to the Principle of School-Based Curriculum in Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan 2006, students of SMA Negeri 2 Yogyakarta were introduced the new learning activity, namely project-based learning PBL. PBL is a model for classroom activity that shifts away from the classroom practices of short, isolated, teacher-centered lessons and instead emphasizes learning activities that are long-term, interdisciplinary, and student-centered. PBL, as stated by Solomon 2003, it is designed to engage and empower students with responsibility for their own education in ways different from traditional classrooms. Meanwhile, project-based learning let students work in groups to solve challenging problems that are authentic, curriculum- 2 based, and often interdisciplinary. Learners decide how to approach a problem and what activities to pursue. They gather information from a variety of sources and synthesize, analyze, and derive knowledge from this information. Their learning is inherently valuable because its connected to something real and involves adult skills, such as collaboration and reflection. Students are also invited to demonstrate the knowledge they have just acquired and they are evaluated by how much they have learned and how well they communicate it. Throughout this process, the teacher’s role is to guide and advise rather than to direct or manage the students’ work. In implementing PBL, the teacher lets the students create a project of composing exposition text which is applied through audio-visual media or in the form of film. Although students are familiar enough with the film, however this is kind of new learning approach for students in the second grade of SMA Negeri 2 Yogyakarta since their role is not only being a consumer of the film but also being a producer of it. Composing an exposition text through audio-visual media is an excellent tool for developing students’ performance, skill and knowledge. However, the way the students perceive this kind of project could vary, as remarked by Altman, Valenzi, and Hodgetts 1985: 86, that whether students perceive in positive or negative way, influences the students’ behavioral responses. According to Gibson 1985:61, perception is defined as the cognitive process by which an individual gives meaning to the environment. Students will give their opinion into many things that excite them since different person would see the same thing in the different point of view. He said that perception involves four things such as receiving stimuli, organizing the stimuli, 3 and translating or interpreting the organized stimuli so as to influence behavior and form attitudes Gibson, 1985: 61. Every person selects various cues that influence his or her perception of people, objects, and symbol. Based on the background of the problem above, the researcher focuses the discussion on investigating the perception of the eleventh grade students’ of SMA Negeri 2 Yogyakarta of audio-visual project to learn exposition text in English subject and also to find out more information related how students carried out audio-visual project.

B. Problem Formulations