xiv
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Bloom revised taxonomy table by Anderson et al.
11 2.
Research schedule 32
3. Tabulation of mean scores and percentage differences
40 4.
Research timeline 41
5. Students scores and change percentage in cycle 1
54 6.
Students scores and change percentage in cycle 2 64
7. Students scores and change percentage from cycle 1 to cycle 2
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figures Page
1. Kemmis’s model of the action research
29 2.
Formula of total mean score 38
3. Formula of percentage difference
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LIST OF CHARTS
Charts Page
1. Scoring rubric result in cycle 1
53 2.
Scoring rubric result from cycle 1 to cycle 2 65
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendices Page
A. Research Instruments
83 1. Observation Sheet Cycle 1 Meeting 1
84 2. Observation Sheet Cycle 1 Meeting 2
87 3. Observation Sheet Cycle 2
90 4. Questionnaire
93 5. Scoring Rubric Small Group Schematic
94 6. Scoring Rubric Pair Schematic
95 B.
Lesson Plan and Teaching Material 96
C. Students’ Writing Score
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter gives the introduction of the research. The research background explains the issues on higher education contributions to society,
globalization era, and critical thinking, which are considered as the background of the research. This chapter also formulates the research problems and the problem
limitation, determines the research objectives, explains the research benefits, and describes specific terms on the research.
A. Research Background
People nowadays have become a learning society. People are facing lots of problems in many aspects: poverty, economical crisis, increasing demands of
business and industry, global warming, and many other problems to be solved. This situation gives certain effects to higher education. Apps 1988
mentions that learning society demands higher education to be an integral part of the society in order to make applied solutions to solve the problems and make a
better society. As Apps 1988 states: Society expects colleges and universities to serve business and industry.
And communities often turn to colleges and universities for help with local problems, ranging from economic development to training courses for local
officials p.1. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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Within the situation, it is not enough for higher education only to conduct research and produce scholarships. Society demands higher quality of scholars in
order to serve and contribute to the society. Therefore, universities need to improve their student
s’ quality by improving not only their knowledge, but also their way of thinking.
The demand from the society for the scholars to contribute in many aspects of human life is not the only reason for universities to improve students’ quality,
particularly their way of thinking which affect the way they work and contribute to the society in the future. The enormous amount of available information in this
globalization era is also considered as a concern. Meyers 1986 states, “The amount of information available through computers and the media seems to have
outstripped people’s abilities to process and use information” p.1. The enormous amount of information also exceeds people’s ability to think critically upon the
information Meyers, 1986. This situation leads higher education to improve essential skills for their students: critical thinking skills.
Slavin 2012 defines critical thinking as “the ability to make rational
decisions about what to do or what to believe” p.242. Critical thinking is also defined as suspended judgement or healthy scepticism Dewey, 1982. In language
learning context, critical thinking is defined as being healthy sceptical in assessing claims and arguments in a text, whether the claims are supported by valid relevant
evidences and logical justifications, and building strong claims and arguments with valid-relevant evidences and logical justifications to convince sceptical
people Wallace and Wray, 2011.
3
English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University has realized the need of critical thinking skills for their students. In order to
improve their students’ knowledge and their critical thinking skills on the four language skills listening, speaking, reading, and writing, ELESP makes four
courses which focus on that concern each course contains two language skills, a pair of perceptive and productive: Critical Listening and Speaking I CLS I in
semester 3, Critical Listening and Speaking II CLS II in semester 4, Critical Reading and Writing I CRW I in semester 3, and Critical Reading and Writing II
CRW II in semester 4. According to Panduan Akademik Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Universitas Sanata Dharma
2012, “Critical Reading and Writing 1 is
designed to give students practice to write responses critically based on the given texts or passages
” p.47, while Critical Listening and Speaking is described as follow,
On completing the course, the students will be able to employ strategic skills, to comprehend intermediate extended discourse such as news
reports, narratives, expository passages; paraphrase, take notes and summarize intermediate extended discourse such as news reports,
narratives, and expository passages. Afterwards, the students will be able to give oral critical response and reflection based on the given topics in the
form of short individualgroup presentation p.47.
To improve students’ critical thinking skills has become the main goal of both CLS and CRW. Learning activities are conducted by the lecturers to improve
students’ critical thinking skills in those classes. The students of CRW II still had some difficulties in improving their
critical thinking skills in the classroom. Based on the preliminary study of this PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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research, the students still had difficulties in getting more perspective in reading and criticizing a text, which was indicated by similar arguments stated by the
students during the classroom discussion. They also needed opportunities to have arguments with their peers in more organized discussions to practice building
cri tical arguments, evaluating other people’s arguments, and to improve their
critical thinking skills; it was indicated by the lack of organized discussion for the students to have better arguments with their peers in the classroom. The students
had to answer the demands of critical reading and critical writing; in critical reading, students have to identify the claims and arguments of a text and be
healthy sceptical in evaluating the claims and arguments by considering the underlying values and assessing the sources and evidences. In critical writing,
students have to build strong arguments with valid-relevant evidences and logical structured text in order to convince the readers with the claims and arguments
Wallace and Wray, 2011. These demands and studen ts’ difficulties had to be
answered to help the students improve their critical thinking skills. The researcher tried to implement collaborative learning as a solution to
help students improve critical thinking skills in CRW II. Collaborative learning is an instructional learning method which allows students at various performance
levels to work together in small groups to reach a common goal in their learning. Students are responsible for one another’s learning, so that they can reach
successful learning together by helping each other in their learning process Gokhale, 1995.
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The basis of collaborative learning method is constructivism; knowledge is constructed, and transformed by students Dooly, 2008. Vygotsky’s socio-
cultural theory is the cornerstone of it, with Zone of Proximal Development ZPD as the main core which explains that learners can achieve higher intellectual level
and enhance their critical thinking skills by doing collaborative learning rather than individual learning Gokhale, 1995. Collaborative learning is also important
for the students to learn how to contribute to the society. Slavin 2012 states: In the 21
st
century, teamwork and the ability to solve problems and learn in groups are increasingly important in the world of work, and every student
should know how to work productively with others p.235.
This research was a Classroom Action Research. According to Kemmis and McTaggart 1988, Classroom Action Research is a dynamic and reflective cycle
which consists of four essential processes: planning, action, observation, and reflection. Classroom Action Research was chosen as the research design in order
to an swer students’ difficulties in improving critical thinking skills which became
an immediate concern in Critical Reading and Writing II class.
B. Research Problem
According to the research background, there are two research problems to be answered through this research:
1. How is collaborative learning method implemented to improve students’
critical thinking skills in CRW II? 2.
What are the difficulties for the students to improve critical thinking skills in CRW II?
