A STUDY OF LEARNING STYLES USED BY DIGITAL NATIVE LEARNERS AT SMP NEGERI 2 SUKAPURA, PROBOLINGGO

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A STUDY OF LEARNING STYLES USED BY

DIGITAL NATIVE LEARNERS

AT

SMP NEGERI 2 SUKAPURA, PROBOLINGGO

T H E S I S

This Thesis is Submitted to Meet One of the Requirements

to Achieve Sarjana Degree in English Education

Written By:

Rohana Mei Syaro

NIM.

05360037

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY MUHAMMADIYAH OF MALANG

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This thesis is written by Rohana Mei Syaro was approved on November 11, 2011

By:

Advisor II, Advisor I,

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This thesis was defended in front of the examiners of faculty of Teacher Training and Education of University Muhammadiyah Malang

And accepted as one of requirements to achieve Sarjana Degree in English Education

On November 11, 2011

Approved by:

Faculty of Teacher Training and Education University of Muhammadiyah Malang

Dean,

Drs. H. Fauzan, M.Pd

Examiners: Signatures:

1. Fardini Sabilah, M.Pd ………

2. Bayu Hendro.W, M.Ed. Ph.D ………

3. Drs. Soeparto, M.Pd ………

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MOTTO AND DEDICATION

MOTTO

“Life must go on not as contemplation”

“When You Fall Down, Just Try Again”

DEDICATED TO:

Allah SW T alw ays gives me new experience in my life,

M y beloved Parents w ho alw ays make me strong and pray for me, M y beloved Husband w ho alw ays support me, give all the best,

M y beloved Baby w ho alw ays make me survive, M y beloved Little Sister that alw ays make me smile

and

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Bismillahirrohmanirrohim

Alhamdulillah, all praise is to Allah SWT who has bestowed us mercies and blessing the writer in finishing her thesis. Shalawat and Salam always delivered to Prophet Muhammad SAW. Peace is upon him who teacher us to know the good and bad one.

First of all, the writer would like to address her sincere gratitude to her first advisor, Drs. Soeparto, M.Pd and her second advisor Mrs. Rina Wahyu Setyaningrum, M.Ed, for their given great patience, idea, guidance, suggestion and comment on this thesis without real understanding and strong motivation, this thesis would never found its completion.

Finally, her thank also goes to her parents Sugeng Hariyadi and Tutik Kuswatini, her parents in law Mr. Cemplon and Mrs. Suryati who have given their help, supported and loved during the thesis writing process, her beloved husband Saiful Efendi for his whole love and support the writer full, her beloved little sister Rizky Adelia who always make her smile to face it all. Her special thank goes to the principle of SMP N 2 Sukapura for his cooperation, the English teacher of SMP N 2 Sukapura, and the first grade students for their participation in this thesis. And also the writer would like to give the deepest thanks for all friends who have great contributions during thesis writing process, Ayu ‘kemriyek’ (thanks for being “senasip & se-perjuangan”) Dwi, Die-die, Kokom, Arif and all friends that she can not be mentioned one by one.

Eventually, may Allah SWT always keep them in save and peace condition and give them appropriate rewards.

Malang, November 2011

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TABLE OF CONTENT

APPROVAL ……… i

LEGALIZATION………. ii

MOTTO AND DEDICATION………. iii

ACKNOWLEDMENT……….. iv

ABSTRACT………..……. v

TABLE OF CONTENT……… vi

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1Background of the study………... 1

1.2Statement of problem……….. 7

1.3Purpose of study………... 7

1.4Scope and limitation………. 7

1.5Significance of study……… 8

1.6Definition of key term……….. 8

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Clarification of generation……… 10

2.1.1 Digital native vs. digital immigrant…………... 11

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vii

2.2.1 Definition of learning style…….……… 13

2.3 Learning style modalities………….………... 14

2.3.1 Visual learning style……….……….. 14

2.3.2 Auditory learning style…..……….. 14

2.3.3 Kinesthetic learning style….……… 15

2.3.4 Individual learning style..………. 15

2.4 Learning style of digital native…...………... 16

CHAPTER III RESEACH METODOLOGY 3.1 Research design……….………... 18

3.2 Population and sample……….………. 18

3.3 Research instrument………. 19

3.1.1 Questionnaire…….……… 19

3.1.2. Observation…….……….. 20

3.4 Data collection……….………. 21

3.5. Data analysis……….……… 22

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Research finding……….. 23

4.1.1 The kinds of learning style used by digital native learners at SMP N 2 Sukapura………. 23

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viii

4.1.2.The most dominant learning style used by digital native learners at SMP N 2 Sukapura………. 25 4.2 Discussion……… 26

4.2.1 The kinds learning style used by digital native

learners at SMP N 2 Sukapura………. 26 4.2.2 The most dominant learning style used by digital native learners at SMP N 2 Sukapura………. 27

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION

5.1 Conclussion………..……… 29 5.2 Suggestion………..………... 30

REFERENCE……… 32

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REFERENCES

Ary, Donald. et. al. 2002. Introduction to Research in Education, 6th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth-Thomson Learning.

Brown, Lankard B.1998. Learning Styles and Vocational Education Practice. Ohio: College of Education, The Ohio State University.

http://www.calpro-online.org/eric/docs/pab00007.pdf. Accessed on March 18, 2011

Bordelon, Allen. 2010. Digital Native Learning Framework. La Vernia: ESC Region 20 Tech Fiesta.

http://listentothenatives.wikispaces.com/file/view/Digital+Native+Learnin g+

Framework.pdf. Accessed on March 28, 2011

Cobb, Jeff. 2010. Definition of Learning. Tagoras: Serpent. http://www.tagoras.com/2010/03/02/definition-of-learning/.

Accessed on March 18, 2011

David, A Koontz. 2001. The Digital Generation: Teaching to a Population that Speaks an Entire New Language. Redmond: Willows Road N.E

http://david.koontz.name/digital/Presentation_files/THE_DIGITAL_GEN ERATION.pdf. Accessed on December 13, 2010

Dunn, Lee. 2002. Theories of Learning. Oxford: The Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Oxford Brookes University

http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/rid=1J4FF136Q-1L5Y11C-1HZ/learning_theories.pdf. Accessed on March 18, 2011

Gravett, L., & Throckmorton, R. 2007. Bridging the Generation Gap: How to Get Radio Babies, Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers to Work Together and Achieve. Franklin Lakes, NJ: Career Press

http://www.brighthub.com/education/k- 12/blog/archive/2007/10/08/bridging-the-gap-between-the-natives-and-the-immigrants.aspx. Accessed on March 29, 2011

Johnson, JRonnie. 2003. Memeletics Learning Style Inventory. (online),(www. Memletics.com)

http://www.ronniejohnson.info/files/Creative%20Teaching/Memletics-Learning-Styles-Inventory.pdf). Accessed on May 15, 2011

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Kurniawati, Tri. 2008. The Students’ Learning Style in Learning English at SMA Negeri 1 Kawedanan Magetan. Malang: Unpublished Thesis.

Rhozi, Fahrur. 2008. The Student’s Learning Style in Learning English at SMP N 3 Bangkalan. Malang: Unpublished Thesis.

Pondra, Arya. 2004. The Techniques of Teaching Speaking to the Second Year Students on Private SMAs in Malang. Malang: Unpublished Thesis.

Prashnig, Barbara. 2007. The power of Learning Styles: Memacu Anak Melejitkan Prestasi Dengan Mengenali Gaya Belajarnya. Bandung: Kaifa-Mizan Pustaka

Prensky, Marc. 2001. Digital Native, Digital Immigrant, Part 1and Part II. From on the Horizon: NCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5_. http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-Digital.

Accesssed on February 15, 2011

Tapscott, Don. 2009. Grown Up Digital. New York: Mc Graw Hill Company

Technoteach. 2010. Prensky (2010), Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning. London: Technoteach

http://tecnoteacher.blogspot.com/2010/12/prensky-m-2010-teaching-digital-natives.html. Accessed on March 9, 2011

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses background of the study, statement of problem, purpose of study, scope and limitation, significances of the study and definition of key terms.

I.1 Background of the study

Nowadays technology began to enter popular topics, the rapid period of technological transformation when it comes to information. Few people could deliver the printed books by presses for another several centuries. In contrary, the invention and adoption of digital technologies by more than a billion people worldwide has occurred over a few decades. Despite the saturation of digital technologies in many cultures, no generation has yet lived from cradle to grave in the digital era.

They were different from any other generation because they were the first to grow up surrounded by digital media. Today’s kids are so bathed in bits that they think its all part of the natural landscape. They related to technology in a different way than the boomers did. For them, the digital technology is no more intimidating than a VCR or toaster. According to Don Tapscott (2009) there are three generation that develops by the transformation era named Baby Boom, Boomer Adult, and Net Generation.

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The first is baby boomer (Don Tapscott: 2009) one of the most common questions that are posed regarding baby boomers is ‘what the baby boomer age is?' Many people are just not aware of when a person is considered to be a baby boomer and how many of them are out there today. Well there are a few different things that are important to learn when it comes to baby boomers, but basically the baby boomer age refers to when baby boomers were born, which was after the soldiers returned from World War II. The baby boomer age range started in 1946 which was about nine months after the end of the war, and it continued until about 1964. The range was told differently in some cases, but this is the average age range and so anyone who was born in between those years is considered as being part of the baby boom. That means that today the youngest baby boomers would be around 45 years old, with most older than that.

Baby boomers set a precedent of being an important generational threat to their elders. Previous generations did not have the luxury of a prolonged adolescence, after a brief childhood, kids go straight into the workforce. But baby boomers grew up in a time of relative prosperity and attended school for many more years than did their parents. They had time to develop their own youth culture. They also had a new medium through which to communicate their culture television.

The second is Boomers adult (Don Tapscott: 2009), they are force for social transformation, these kids are learning, playing, communicating, working, and creating communities very differently than their parents. In the 1985 study of US generational cohorts by Schuman and Scott, One of the contributions made by the

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Boomer adult generation appears to be the expansion of individual freedom. Boomers adult often are associated with the civil rights movement.

Boomer adult grew up at a time of dramatic social change, which social change marked the generation with a strong cultural cleavage, between the proponents of social change and the more conservative. Some analysts believe this cleavage played out politically since the time of mid-2000s, to some extent defining the political landscape and division in the country. It is precisely because of these experiences that many believe those born in the second half of the birth boom belong to another generation, as events that defined their coming of age have little in common with leading or core boomers.

The third is net generation (Don Tapscott: 2009), they was born in the 1980s and 1990s, the Net Generation children and teens are in elementary school, middle school, and high school. They were born surrounded by technology, and with every passing year they add more tools to their electronic repertoire. They will develop and lined its culture on the rest of society, optimistic, positive and driven to succeed. High achievers, they crave rewards and accolades for their hard work. They are aware of the many significant problems affecting the world, but they are confident that through youthful innovation and ever-improving technology, these problems will be solved.

Net Generation students are no stranger to community service. Volunteer projects have been a part of their academic and extracurricular life since kindergarten. Because of this, they value work that has meaning and improves the lives of others. They reflect the values of high-profile celebrities who have taken on international

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causes, and youthful billionaires who have embraced philanthropy. In 2005, the Peace Corps recorded its largest influx of applications in 30 years. Among the Net Generation, it is cool to be smart, and successful.

According to Marc Prensky (2001), digital Immigrants are those of us who were not born into the digital world. The Digital Immigrant teachers assume that the students today are the same as they have always been, and they use the same method that they got when they were students to teach their students today. Digital immigrants also do not believe that their students can learn successfully while watching television or listening to music because they think that learning can not be fun.

Unlike most Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives live much of their lives online, without distinguishing between the online and the offline (Marc Prensky: 2001). Instead of thinking of their digital identity and their real-space identity as separate things, they just have an identity (with representations in two, or three, or more different spaces). They were joined by a set of common practices, including the amount of time they spend using digital technologies, their tendency to multitask, their tendency to express themselves and relate to one another in ways mediated by digital technologies, and their pattern of using the technologies to access and use information and create new knowledge and art forms.

Digital Natives are constantly connected (Marc Prensky: 2001). They have plenty of friends, in real space and in the virtual worlds indeed, a growing collection of friends they keep a count of, often for the rest of the world to see, in their online

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social network sites. Even as they sleep, connections are made online, in the background, they wake up to find them each day. Sometimes, these connections are to people the Digital Native would never have had a chance to meet in the offline world. Through social network sites, Digital Natives connect with and IM and share photos with friends all over the world. They may also collaborate creatively or politically in ways that would have been impossible thirty years ago. Digital Natives do not just experience friendship differently from their parents, they also relate to information differently.

According to (Brown: 1995), learning style is the way of people comes to understand and remember information. Recognizing how the students learn is important for the teacher to determine the appropriate the teaching techniques. It is because every student has different learning style in learning. Learning styles are not abilities but they are the preferences in how the people use their abilities. There is no the best or worst learning style in individual.

According to (Derekeb: 2008), today’s students want to control how, what, and when a task is completed. They use social media and other web-based technologies are well suited to provide ways for students to engage in a social, collaborative, and active dialogue in the online learning environment with their peers and instructor. In this way, students can utilize social technologies to share their thought processes and provide feedback to their learning community, they are able to help each other work, modify their perceptions, and negotiate their own views.

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Technoteach: 2010 stated that in Marc Prensky’s book: 2010: 10 wrote about what the students want from the school. They are not to be lectured, respected, trusted, follow own interests and passions, create, work collaboratively, connect and real education.

This research is close to Risa Rosandi (2005) with the title “a study on the students’s learning style at SMU 2 Batu”, she found three kinds of learning style, there are visual learning style, auditory learning style, and kinesthetic learning style. And the style mostly used by the students was kinesthetic. The second is Tri Kurniawati (2008) with the title “a study on the student’s leaning style in learning English at SMA N 1 Kawedanan, Magetan”, the result of her study is the students learn English based on their own preference, the students could employ multiple learning style, this is because they could employ all the kinds of learning style in learning English. And the last is Fahrur Rhozi (2008) in title “the student’s learning style in learning English at SMP N 3 Bangkalan”, he also found three kinds of learning style, the major learning style is visual, while their minor learning style are kinesthetic and auditory learning style. From the explanation above, the researcher wants to know more about the learning style used by digital native learners especially in the junior high school level with the title “A Study of Learning Style Used by Digital Native Learners at SMP N 2 Sukapura, Probolinggo”.

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I.2 Statement of Problem

Based on the background of the study above, the problems are:

1. What is the learning style used by digital native learners in SMP N 2 Sukapura, Probolinggo?

2. What are the dominant learning styles used by digital native learners in SMP N 2 Sukapura, Probolinggo?

I.3 Purpose of Study

Based on the problems above, the purpose of the study are:

1. To know what is the learning style used by digital native learners in SMP N 2 Sukapura, Probolinggo.

2. To know what are the dominant learning styles used by digital native learners SMP N 2 Sukapura, Probolinggo.

I.4 Scope and Limitation

The writer limits the research only English learning style that used by the digital native learners, because the researcher believe that it will be different by the other learners. In addition, the researcher limits this study only in SMP N 2 Sukapura, Probolinggo as an example. Furthermore, the scope of this research was the study of learning style used by digital native learners at SMP N 2 Sukapura, Probolinggo.

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I.5 Significance of Study

After this study has ben completed, theorytically the researcher attemps to provide a real description about the kind of lerning styles. Practically, it helps the students to balance their learning style effectively. Only few learners know that learning style can help them to learn everything easier and effectively. To clarify the significance of this study, the researcher stated as follows:

1. For the students

By recognizing the learning style it will help the students to balance their learning style, so that the student will learn better.

2. For the teacher

It will give the teacher a real description about the learning style of their students, so that the can find an effective approach for almost all their students just by serving information in different way (De Potter: 2001 in Karmi: 2005).

1.6 Definition of Key Terms

To avoid ambiguities and misinterpretation of some terms and content of this study, it is necessary to define the key term.

 Learning : The act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skill, is the permanent change in the ability to exhibit a behavior as a result of successful or unsuccessful experiences (Klein, 1997).

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 Learning style: how elements from basic stimuli in current and past environment affect an individual’s ability to absorb and retain information (Kenneth, 1997).

 Learners : a person formally engaged in learning.

 Digital native: all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet (Prensky: 2001).

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