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WEEKLY REFLECTION IN MICROTEACHING CLASS OF THE ENGLISH

LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM OF SANATA DHARMA

UNIVERSITY: THE IMPLEMENTATION AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION

A Thesis

  

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

  

By

Amri Nuryadin

Student Number: 021214056

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

  

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2007

  WEEKLY REFLECTION IN MICROTEACHING CLASS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM OF SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY: THE IMPLEMENTATION AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION Chairperson : Secretary : Member : Member : Member :

  

ACKNOLEDGEMENTS

  As always, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the God Almighty for all blessings, grace, and faith have been devoted to me; and also to the Prophet PBUH for all of the inspirations.

  For sure, I am greatly indebted to my major sponsor, the one and only, Mr.

  

Ouda Teda Ena, S.Pd., M.Pd, for all of his great patience, valuable times, and

  priceless suggestions from the beginning to the accomplishment of this thesis; without all of his precious devotions, I would never make this far.

  I would also like to sincerely thank Mr. Agus tinus Hardi Prasetya, S.Pd.,

  

M.A., for the opportunity given to me to conduct this study on one of his classes, the

  Microteaching class (Class B). I would also thank all of the students of that Microteaching class, for all of their remarkable willingness.

  Further, I would like to deeply thank all lecturers of PBI (Pendidikan

  

Bahasa Inggris ) of Sanata Dharma University, whose names I could not mention one

  by one. My gratitude also goes especially to the PBI secretary office staffs, and generally to all staffs of Sanata Dharma University.

  I present this accomplishment to the greatest people in my life; my parents and all members of my big family, for their endless love, supports, prayers, and encouragements. My special gratitude also belongs to the best friend I have ever had, Amrita Saraswati Sasongko, for all of her cares and true friendship.

  Finally, I would like to thank all friends and relations, for all experiences and moments shared together. May God always be with them.

  Amri Nuryadin

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ....................................................................................................... i

PAGE OF APPROVAL ...................................................................................... ii

PAGE OF BOARD OF EXAMINERS .............................................................. iii

PAGE OF STATEMENT OF WORK ORIGINALITY .................................. iv

ACKNOLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... v

TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... vi

ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... ix

ABSTRAK ............................................................................................................. x

  CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background ............................................................................................... 1 B. Problem Identification ............................................................................... 3 C. Problem Limitation ................................................................................... 3 D. Problem Formulation ................................................................................. 4 E. Objective of the Study ............................................................................... 4 F. Benefits of the Study ................................................................................. 4 G. Definition of Terms ................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW A. Theoretical Description ............................................................................. 8

  1. Reflection ............................................................................................ 8

  a. Designing and Structuring Reflection Process .............................. 11

  b. Reflection and Courses .................................................................. 14

  2. Perception ............................................................................................ 17

  a. Selection of stimuli ........................................................................ 21

  b. Organization .................................................................................. 21

  c. Situation ........................................................................................ 22

  d. Self – concept ................................................................................ 22

  3. Microteaching ...................................................................................... 24

  B. Theoretical Framework ............................................................................. 26

  CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Method ...................................................................................................... 28 B. Research Participants ................................................................................ 30 C. Setting ........................................................................................................ 31 D. Research Instruments ................................................................................ 31 E. Data Gathering Technique ........................................................................ 34 F. Data Analysis Technique .......................................................................... 35 G. Research Procedure ................................................................................... 38 CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS A. Data Presentation and Analysis ................................................................. 40

  1. Weekly Reflection Implementation in Microteaching Class .............. 40

  2. Students’ P erceptions towards the Implementation of Weekly Reflections in Microteaching Class ..................................................... 43

  a. Students’ Perceptions on the Microteaching Class ....................... 43

  b. Students’ Perceptions towards the Implementation of Weekly Reflection in the Microteaching Class .......................................... 53

  c. The Analysis of the Respondents’ Classifications of Perceptions, Based on Their Total Scores on the Questionnaires ............................................................................... 58

  CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESSTIONS A. Conclusions ............................................................................................... 60

  1. The Implementation of Weekly Reflections in Microteaching Class .................................................................................................... 60

  2. Students’ P erceptions towards the Implementation of Weekly Reflections ........................................................................................... 62

  B. Suggestions ................................................................................................ 63

  1. Students ............................................................................................... 63

  2. Lecturers .............................................................................................. 64

  3. Future Researchers .............................................................................. 66

  

REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 67

APPENDICES ..................................................................................................... 71

  

ABSTRACT

NURYADIN, AMRI. 2007. Weekly Reflection in Microteaching Class of the

English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University: The

Implementation and Students’ Perception. Yogyakarta: English Language

Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

  Student autonomy in learning, where students have set up perceptions and mental or psychological attitudes to have self-motivation on their learning process, is the main purpose of every teaching-learning process that EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students have to obtain. In order to enable the students to acquire this mind setting and reflective habits, a lecturer may place the students in a class with certain condition, where they are unconsciously directed and led to have this autonomy. One of the techniques a lecturer may use is through reflection. As a key of psychological components of autonomy, reflection has important roles in the teaching-learning process, especially when student autonomy is the general objective of the course.

  This study was intended to investigate the implementation of weekly reflection in Microteaching class of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University, as well as the perceptions of the students towards the use of weekly reflection itself. This study was conducted using qualitative method. The participants of this study were 22 students of Microteaching class (Class B), who originally belonged to the sixth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program, Sa nata Dharma University, academic year 2003/2004. The data were gathered from the result of direct observations and questionnaires.

  The data analysis showed two major general conclusions. Firstly, the implementation of weekly reflection in the Microteaching class was effective to lead students of that class to have autonomy in their learning process. This could be seen from the two-way-directed communication which occurred between the lecturer and the students, during the implementation of the weekly reflection. At the end of the course, students were also guided, through the weekly reflection, to reflect on themselves whether or not they had achieved the main purpose of their learning process, besides the autonomy on their learning. Secondly, most of the students in this Microteaching class had positive perception towards the implementation of weekly reflection in the Microteaching class, as well as towards the Microteaching class itself. Only a small part of the students had negative perception towards the implementation of the weekly reflection in that Microteaching class and the Microteaching class.

  In summary, the implementation of weekly reflection was effective to lead students to have autonomy on their learning process, and that students give positive responses to this technique. Some suggestions to improve the implementation of weekly reflection were presented.

  

ABSTRAK

NURYADIN, AMRI. 2007. Weekly Reflection in Microteaching Class of the

English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University: The

Implementation and Students’ Perception . Yog yakarta: Program Studi

Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  Otonomi siswa dalam pembelajaran, dimana siswa memiliki persepsi dan kondisi mental atau psikologis yang didasari motivasi diri dalam proses belajarnya, merupakan tujuan utama dari setiap proses pembelajaran yang harus dicapai oleh pelajar bahasa asing. Guna memungkinkan para siswa memiliki pola berpikir dan kebiasan merefleksikan kembali tersebut, dosen bisa menempatkan para siswa didalam sebuah kelas yang memiliki kondisi tertentu, dimana mereka secara tidak sadar telah diarahkan kedalam pencapaian otonomi tersebut. Salah satu cara yang dapat digunakan oleh pihak dosen adalah dengan menggunakan tehnik refleksi (reflection). Sebagai inti dari komponen-komponen psikologi otonomy, refleksi memiliki peran penting dalam proses pembelajaran, terutama jika otonomi siswa merupakan tujuan umum dari pembelajaran tersebut.

  Studi ini bertujuan untuk meneliti penggunaan refleksi mingguan didalam sebuah kelas Microteaching , dari Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta. Selain itu studi ini juga dilakukan guna meneliti persepsi siswa terhadap penggunaan refleksi mingguan itu sendiri. Dalam studi ini penulis menggunakan metode kualitatif. Studi ini sendiri dilakukan terhadap 22 orang siswa semester 6 program studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma, tahun akademik 2003/2004 yang mengikuti kelas Microteaching (kelas B). Data untuk studi ini diperoleh dengan metode observasi langsung dan menyebarkan kuesioner, untuk kemudian dianalisis secara kualitatif.

  Analisis dari data yang ada menghasilkan dua kesimpulan umum. Pertama, penggunaan refleksi mingguan di kelas Microteaching efektif dalam menuntun dan mengarahkan para siswa di kelas tersebut didalam pencapaian otonomi dalam proses pembelajaran mereka. Hal ini dapat dilihat dari terjadinya komunikasi dua arah antara pihak dosen dan para siswa selama penggunaan refleksi mingguan tersebut. Pada akhir proses pembelajaran, siswa juga dibimbing untuk menilai diri mereka sendiri, apakah mereka sudah mencapai tujuan utama proses pembelajaran tersebut, disamping otonomi yang diharapkan sudah dicapai oleh para siswa. Kedua, sebagian besar siswa memiliki persepsi positif, baik terhadap penggunaan refleksi mingguan di kelas Microteaching tersebut, maupun terhadap kelas itu sendiri. Hanya sebagian kecil siswa yang memiliki persepsi negatif terhadap refleksi mingguan dan terhadap kelas Microteaching tersebut.

  Pada intinya, selain para siswa juga memberikan respon yang positif terhadap penggunaan metode refleksi ini, refleksi mingguan merupakan cara yang efektif untuk mengarahkan para siswa guna memiliki otonomi dalam proses pembelajarannya. Akhirnya, beberapa usulan juga disampaikan dalam studi ini, guna meningkatkan kualitas penggunaan refleksi mingguan ini.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background Weekly reflections technique is used as a method to evaluate students’

  achievements and to encourage them on their learning process. Reflection itself, as what has been defined by Burden & Byrd as a way of thinking about educational matter that involves the ability to make rational choices and to assure responsibility for those choices (1999), is believed will make students be responsible for any choices they choose on their learning process. Therefore, students also have to prepare for the consequences of their preferences. Those choices, with all the consequences that come along, for example to be active students or just as passive students, are definitely their responsibilities they have to take.

  Furthermore, the method which employs weekly reflections is expected to lead the students to have autonomy on their learning process. Considering reflection and autonomy on students’ learning process, a number of researchers have described reflection as a key of psychological component of autonomy. Reflection is one of the ways to set up students’ perceptions and psychological attitudes to have self- motivation on their learning process.

  Reflections can be in the form of written or spoken. However, it seems that the first form is more widely used rather than the later form. Written reflections can be in the form of Case studies , Journals, Structured journals , Team journal, Portfolios, or Papers. Each of these forms has its own ‘faces’ and ‘characteristics’, which distinguish them one another.

  2 Since there have not been many studies on this technique, the use of these weekly reflections to evaluate students’ achievements and class atmosphere, as well as the lecturer’s proficiency, is still an important issue to discuss. The implement ation of this method needs to analyze further whether it gives beneficial effects for the students or not. That is the reason to do some investigations to find out the students’ general view towards the implementation of this method on their class, Microte aching class.

  This study is an attempt to investigate how the Weekly Reflections technique is implemented on one of Microteaching classes of English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University and to figure out the perceptions of the stude nts of that Microteaching class towards the use of weekly reflections on that class. In order to achieve those purposes, Chapter I presents the discussion on the background of the study, problem identification, problem limitation, problem formulation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study, and the definition of terms.

  In Chapter II, theories of the related field will be reviewed as a theoretical foundation upon which this study is undertaken, covering the theoretical description and the theoretical framework of the study. Chapter III will give detailed discussion of the method, the participants, the setting, the instruments, the data gathering and analysis techniques, and also the procedure of this study. Later on, the data presentation and data ana lysis will be described on Chapter IV. Finally, the conclusions and suggestions drawn from this study will be presented on the last chapter, Chapter V.

  3

  B. Problem Identification

  One of the results from a successful teaching-learning process is when the students have autonomy on their learning process; that is when the students have set- up-perceptions and psychological attitude to have self-motivation on their learning. Having autonomy of the students on their learning process a s the main purpose of the teaching-learning process, a technique that uses weekly reflections to evaluate the whole class’ achievements is applied. In order to find out how Weekly Reflections technique is implemented on Microteaching class and to figure out the students’ perceptions, especially those on that Microteaching class, towards the using of the technique, an investigation is apparently needed.

  C. Problem Limitation

  There are several subjects in English Language Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. However, the writer limits his research only in one subject, and that is Microteaching class. The writer chooses the Microteaching class; since, on this class, the students are to practice their teaching skill as well as to learn how to manage a class. Good teacher is believed as that who has reflective-thinking habits, which is a result of autonomy on learning process. Since the use of weekly reflections seems to lead the students to have autonomy on their learning process, the implementation of weekly reflections technique in Microteaching class will be the most appropriate one to produce good skilled-teachers.

  On this technique, the students have to recall their learning experiences during the class, by making reflection in written form; and, they have to prepare themselves for weekly simulations, whether as the trainees or the participants.

  4 Those are the reasons for the writer to choose Microteaching class as the research object; and, limit his study on how weekly reflection is implemented in

  Microteaching class and also on the students’ perceptions towards the use of weekly reflections to evaluate the whole class’ achievements.

  D. Problem Formulation

  Based on the above discussion, there are two problems formulated for this study. The two problems are:

  1. How is weekly reflection implemented in Microteaching class?

  2. What are the students’ perceptions towards the implementation of weekly reflections to evaluate, mainly, their performances in Microteaching class?

  E. Objectives of the Study

  In the light of the problem formulation previously stated, the objective of this study is to seek for the information about how a teaching learning process evaluation method that use weekly reflections is implemented in Microteaching class. This study is also to find out the students’ perceptions towards the use of weekly reflections estimating their performances and achievements in Microteaching class.

  F. Benefits of the Study

  The investigation of this study is aimed to give beneficial contributions, hopefully for the students, lecturers, other researchers, and generally for all the readers.

  5

  1. Students For the students this study hopefully gives further comprehension about the effect of the method and shows what actually the general perception of the students towards the using of weekly reflections is. And by knowing the effect of the method, hopefully the students will not hesitate to do the weekly reflection, or to implement this technique on their future class. This will lead them to have autonomy and reflective -thinking habits on their learning process, which are some of the characteristics of good teacher, the students are also expected to have a more positive perception towards weekly reflection.

  2. Lecturers This study may give evaluation of the method and also may give contribution to the lecturers for their strategy to improve their students’ achievements.

  3. Other Researchers For other researchers, this study is expectantly to be beneficial and be very helpful for those who will conduct similar research and further discussion on the use of weekly reflection on teaching-learning activities.

  4. General readers For all of the readers, this study might broaden their knowledge of language teaching, especially on the implementation of Weekly Reflections technique.

  6

G. Definition of Terms

  To avoid misleading to occur, and to make common conception with the readers about some terms used in this study, the writer defines them as follows:

  1. Perception According to Gibson (1975), “perception is the process of extracting information from stimulation emanating from the objects, pla ces, and events in the world around us” (p. 13). Meanwhile, Huffman (1997) stated, “perception refers to process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory data into useful mental representations of the world” (p. 97). Molkowitz and Orgel considere d perception as a global or wide range response to a stimulus or a set of stimuli (1969: 138). In this study, perception deals with the main thought and view of the students about particular things or events around them.

  2. Microteaching McKnight (1971) defined Microteaching as “a scaled– down teaching encounter designed to develop new skills and refine old ones.” While on their book,

  Program Pengalaman Lapangan (Microteaching), Gilarso and Suseno (1986)

  considered Microteaching as, “Cara latihan ketrampilan keguruan atau

  praktek mengajar dalam lingkup kecil/terbatas .” (A method of teacher–skills

  practice or teaching practice, conducted on a small scope/limited area). Here, the teaching-learning situation is deliberately restricted, i.e. the ‘students’/ partic ipants for this condition are the classmates of the student-teachers/ trainees, and the number of the ‘students’ is not as many as on the real teaching-learning situation or real class. Therefore, the practice is much easier

  7 to control, and in this situation, it is much more effective to intensively develop the professional teaching competencies of the trainees.

  3. Reflection Burden and Byrd, on their book, see reflection as a way of thinking about educational matter that involves the ability to make rational choice and to assume responsibility for those choices (1999). This is the based for the students to have autonomy and reflective-thinking habits on their learning process, and later on when they have become a teacher.

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is to discuss the related literature as the theore tical base in

  doing the study on the perception of the students of the Microteaching class, as it is outlined in the Chapter I. On this literature review, the theoretical description and the theoretical framework of the study will be discussed further. The theoretical description itself is divided into three main points, i.e. the discussion on reflection, discussion on perception, and the discussion on Microteaching.

A. Theoretical Description

  This part discusses the description of reflection in teaching, the description of perception, and the description of Microteaching.

  1 . Reflection

  Implementing reflection for the students in teaching– learning activities is a big decision to make. That is the reason for many researchers to always try to give the description of reflection as clear and easy to understand as possible. Reflection is defined as a way of thinking about educational matter that involves the ability to make rational choices and to assume responsibility for those choices (Burden, P. R., & Byrd, D. M., 1999). It will make the students be responsible for any choice they have in their learning process, and be prepared for the consequences of their choices.

  This principle will lead them to have autonomy in their study.

  Concerning reflection and autonomy in learning process, a number of researchers have described reflection as a key of psychological components of

  9 autonomy. One of the purposes of implementing reflection is to set up students’ perceptions and mental or psychological attitudes to have self– motivation on their learning processes. Little (1997) considers conscious reflection on the learning process is a distinctive characteristic of autonomy in learnin g. It is a complex construct we cannot easily describe.

  Reflection itself is implemented as teaching strategies since it has the power to change students’ behavior, as well as their psychological attitudes. Reflection gives opportunity to the students to look at what they did in the class room, thinking about why they did it, and thinking about if it works – a process of self -observation and self -evaluation. By collecting information about what goes on in the classroom, and by analyzing and evaluating this information, students identify and explore their own practices and underlying beliefs. This may then lead to the changes and improvements on their learning.

  To come to the level where students have autonomy on their learning, they have to through long and complex stages. And teacher must have the understanding on these stages of change. As what can be seen from the following Table 1.1, to come to the expected levels of feeling and attitude, students have to through many stages of their feeling. To come to the level of feeling called permeation, where students able to perceive themselves and notice that they are “different”, creative and flexible, students have to be able to conquer and perceive themselves positively. When students have come to this stage of feeling, they will get themselves more easily have autonomy on their learning.

  Discussing about reflection, Benson (2001) stated that reflection is a mental process involving rational thought, emotion and judgment. It may be consciously

  10 initiated by the reflector, by others, or by other feelings and events. It is context- bound, we must reflect on something in some specific situation and under specific constraints. Reflection is goal-oriented, although the goals of reflection vary, but they generally involve learning. It may or may not lead to action or deep change in the learner. Reflection leading to deep change is liable to be difficult even painful.

  Table 1.1: Stages of Feeling changes

  Stages Feeling

  Entrenchment Uninterested, dismissive Opposition Irritated, argumentative, resistant Possibility Doubtful, skeptical, private wondering Dabbling Uncommitted, interested, ‘give it a go’ Agreement Acceptant, ‘like the ideas’ Commitment Enthusiastic, hopeful, talkative Clarification Puzzling, ‘what does it really mean/involve?’ Introspection Self questioning, self- doubt, ‘what I have been doing?’ Planning Innovative, ‘what can I try out?’ Experimentation Nervous, feeling ‘odd’, excited Reaction Surprised, disappointed Deflation Disheartened, second thoughts, ‘stuff it’ Projection Angry, blaming, betrayed, misled Reappraisal Objective, ‘sense of proportion’, ‘not so simple, but…’ Recuperation Recharged, encouraged, ‘feeling better’ Reaffirmation Persistent, more realistic, more solid commitment Extension Inconsistent, fragmented, double standards Evangelism Preaching, over-enthusiastic, bumptious Limitation Judicious, perceiving limits of new approach Consolidation Confident, integrated, ‘I’ve really got it’ Permeation ‘I’m different’: flexible, creative

  Claxton, (1989: 120-1)

  So, though reflection is a process depending on the students’ eagerness to make changes in their learning process, reflection is mostly initiated by the lecturers and people out of the students who have the right to imple ment this technique to them. It is a context-bond activity and is goal-oriented. Reflection sometimes is hard to do, even can be painful.

  11

a. Designing and Structuring Reflection Process

  Reflection itself has three functions for the teache r. First, it helps to replicate effective classroom practices and continue to use effective teacher behaviors. It means that reflection can help the students of Microteaching class, who are further called trainees, to replicate the effective behaviors of the lecturer, and then to have those behaviors on their teaching. Second, it helps teacher deliberate among competing views of teaching, which enables teachers to be informed about events within a context. It will lead the trainees to contextualize their teaching activities on their future class. Last, reflection helps teachers reorganize or reconstruct experiences. Reflection is useful for the trainees to help them reorganized and reconstruct their experiences, to prepare them to face their future classes. Those in effect can help transform practice (Burden & Byrd: 9-10).

Figure 1.1 below is based on the design framework of Rama et al. (2000) and focuses specifically on the design of reflection. As shown in the figure, lecturer must

  consider the context of the reflection activities (student characteristics, course characteristics, and service characteristics) in establishing learning results and in structuring the reflection process. As an example, frequent reflection and timely feedback can improve the effec tiveness of reflection. However, a large class size may limit the ability of the lecturer to organize frequent reflection and to provide frequent feedback.

  From Figure 1.1, it can be concluded that one of the factors that determines the students’ achievement is the students’ characteristics factor. A variety of student characteristics (including students’ preparation and goals, students’ motivation,

  12 students’ learning styles, and students’ intellectual development) gives effects to students’ learning process.

  

Figure 1.1: Important Factors in Designing Reflection

Rama et al. (2000)

  Lecturers have to know the level of students’ preparation as well as students’ prior experiences. Lecturers must consider student readiness for self-learning technique, especially when designing appropriate preliminary exercises. Assignments might be needed to help students acquire required knowledge, prepare students for solving real– world problems, and help students understand the community.

  Students' motivation and goals should also be considered. External motivators (grades) and internal motivation to learn must be considered in designing reflection activities. Unless reflection activities are given a reasonable weight in grading, students may not spend adequate time and effort. Grading methods must be consistent with reflection. If frequent reflection is required then the time and effort spent on reflection activities versus time spent on other course activities must be

  13 weighed in deciding on grading methods. Furthermore, reflection activities emphasize higher order problem-solving skills.

  Lecturers should also consider internal motivation. Students are motivated by factors such as relevance, appropriate level of difficulty, active involvement of students, and interaction between students and lecturers. Thus lecturers can motivate students by designing reflection activities that help students see the relevance of the activities to their course, by ensuring that reflection activities are at an appropriate level of difficulty and by giving more opportunities for communication between students, lecturers and the community.

  Lecturers should also consider the constraints on students’ participation in the self– learning technique and reflection activities. Lecturers must think the constraints dealing with student time and schedules. If most students work for a significant amount of time every week, time available for working with teams outside of class may be limited. Lecturers may need to provide some class– time for group planning and reflection activities.

  Another students’ characteristic lecturers should regard is the students' learning styles. Students' learning styles must be considered in designing appropriate reflection. Learning style refers to how students prefer to deal with a learning task. Students learn best when their learning style is matching with the teaching style.

  Most of students acquire better understanding of the theory when they are exposed to the direct concrete experience. By designing reflection appr opriately, lecturers can provide adequate direct concrete experience for these students. Using appropriate reflection techniques, lecturers may lead the students to understand

  14 knowledge through concrete experience and to process it through active experimentation.

  Lecturers should also consider how students behave in a classroom; dependent, collaborative or independent. A student may be dependent when starting a new subject and become collaborative or independent as they obtain knowledge and become more conf ident. This information can be useful in designing and implementing appropriate reflection activities.

b. Reflection and Courses

  One of the goals of reflection is to connect the reflection to the course. The intended results from reflection activities must reflect and reinforce the established course goal. Frequent reflection may be necessary to create strong connection between the reflection activities and the course. Thus, lecturers need to provide frequent feedback to facilitate reflection and to help students connect their reflection activities and other course. Frequent reflection and timely feedback may be necessary to provide a balance between challenge and support. A reflection in the end of each semester will not provide lecturers with specific inf ormation about the areas where students may need additional guidance or further reflection.

  Lecturers should consider the use of certain forms of reflection (e.g. journals, portfolios, logs). These forms of reflection activities can be used by lecturers to monitor student progress weekly, and allow them to give feedback and support students as needed.

  A variety of activities can be used to motivate students in making their reflections. Lecturers can ask students to keep journals, organize presentations,

  15 encourage students to discuss with their friends about their experiences in the learning process, or to ask students to prepare reports about their learning progress.

  When designing the reflection activities, lecturers should consider certain factors. Lecturers should aware that reflection activities should involve each student in a contact with their friends, and their community. Students with different learning styles may prefer different types of activities. Lecturers should select a range of reflective activities to meet the needs of different students. Different types of reflection activities may be appropriate at different stages of the students’ experiences. Reflection activities can involve reading, writing, doing and telling. Some examples of reflective activit ies are briefly described below.

  One of the forms of reflective activities is Case-studies. This form can help students think about what can be expected from the reflection. This reflective activity may use published case-studies or lecturers developed case-studies based on past teaching– learning activities.

  Another form of reflective activities is Journals. In this activity, students are asked to record thoughts, observations, feelings, activities and questions in a journal throughout the teaching– learning activities. The most common form of journals is free form journals. The journal should be started early and students should make frequent entries. Meanwhile, lecturers are to provide feedback.

  The other form, Structured journals , can be used to direct student attention to important issues and to connect the experience to the course. Some parts of the journal may focus on affective dimensions while others relate to problem-solving activities. Lecturer may also use Team journals to promote inter action between

  16 team members and to introduce students to different perspectives and to give responses to each other.

  Meanwhile, Portfolios may also be used. Lecturer can ask students to select and organize evidence related to accomplishments and specific learning results in a portfolio. Portfolios can include drafts of documents, analysis of problems, and activities. In this activity, students are to organize evidence by learning objectives.

  Other forms can be used in reflective activities are Papers , Discussions ,

  

Presentations, and also Interviews . Lecture can ask students to write an integrative

  paper on the course. Journals and other products can serve as the building item for developing final paper. Lecturer can also encourage students to conduct formal/ informal discussions with teammates, other volunteers and staff to introduce students to different perspectives , and to challenge students to think critically about the course. After that, lecturer can ask students to present their experience and discuss it in terms of concepts discussed in class during the presentations activities.

  And last, lecturer may conduct interviews with the students on experiences and the learning that occurred during the teaching-learning process.

  Lecturers should also consider other factors in choosing the most appropriate form of reflection activities. While frequent reflection and feedback may be desirable, the frequency of reflection and feedback may be limited by factors such as class size and the grading system of the class.

  Lecturers can use reflection to encourage students to learn independently, while providing feedback and support as needed to develop student autonomy in learning. Reflection not only offers lecturers an opportunity to reinforce the students but allows the lecturers to see whether their teaching techniques are appropriate for

  17 the certain level and type of students or not. Reflection is the heart of effective teaching and learning

  2 . Perception

  Perception is one of the oldest fields within scientific psychology, and there are many theories about its fundamental processes. One of the descriptions about perception is which has stated by Huffman, that perception refers to process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory data into useful mental representations of the world (1997: 97). While, Leontiev (1981: 31) defines perception as the process in which the existence of objects and phenomena are reflected in a person’s consciousness. This process happens with the help of the person’s sensory organs, i.e. eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and skin. Students may perceive objects, surroundings, and events around them consciously with the help of their sensory organs. Thus, we can abridge the concept of perception as a conscious mental process of acquiring, selecting, organizing, and interpreting information with the help of sensory organs, and then, followed by the process of responding towards the information.

  Perception is a process in which the individual recognizes information, fits the information, and compares the information with the previous one which is stored in the person’s memory (Haire, 1956: 40). Here, the Microteaching class students recognize and fit the information, i.e. the practice of teaching skills, and compare it with the previous information about the theory of teaching skills stored in their memory, which they got from , for example, Language Teaching Strategies class, Language Teaching Methodology class, etc. They will consider that their teaching

  18 skills practice is good, or they have good perception on their teaching skills practice, when the practice is suitable with the teaching skills theory they have already got.

  Perception is also the way stimuli are selected and grouped by a person in such a way that the stimuli can be meaningfully interpreted (Altman, Valenzi, and Hodgetts, 1985: 85). It is clear that perception is triggered by the stimuli, i.e. the sensory and cognitive information from the surroundings. It means that students, after receiving the stimuli, will identify the stimuli. Then, they will recall their memory whether the stimuli are the same with the previously received stimuli/experience or not. If they have received the stimuli, they will recognize the stimuli/ information. Students then match the information, and compare it with the previous information/experience the y get in the past.

  All of those processes happen within an individual, and involve the feeling of subjectivity. This is the factor that causes each person will have different perception in perceiving particular things. It is factual that two people will perceive the same thing differently. Other factors that affect people in perceiving stimuli are their likes and dislikes, their experiences, and their environment. There is a mutual relationship between perception and experience, in which perception is our response to the experience we are facing.

  Gibson (1985:60) defines perception as cognitive process people use to interpret and understand the world around them. Here, it can be said that organizing perception is involving cognitive process. It means that it happens in our mind. The process itself can be influenced by the past experiences. As an instance, a student has ever learnt (undergoes cognitive processes in his mind), and had experiences with weekly reflection. Since in his past experience he could not get any beneficial from

  19 the weekly reflection, and could not achieve the goal had been set, he would have bad perception towards weekly reflection. In other occasion, once again, he faces other class which uses weekly reflection. Due to his experience in the past, he still has bad perception towards the new weekly reflection. Thus, as the result of the cognitive processes, people past experience affects their perception in the future.

  To make the description of the perception clearer, let us examine the following example-case. “A five-year-old little boy sees an iron, and then he uses his sensory receptors to translate the iron to form a perception of the object, an iron. He will not use his sensory receptors to form a perception of a grinder.” This occurs because previously he has experienced of looking that kind of object. He translates that iron into the perception of an iron, not other. He processes the stimuli (an iron) in some ways, not in certain way, to arrive at the useful information of his surroundings (the perception of an iron).

  Perception may change, depends on the stimuli someone experiences with. “As an example, that five -year-old little boy percepts that an iron is not a dangerous tool and it is okay to play. It happens because he experienced recognizing an iron when it was not used. But, his perception change after he experiencing touching a hot iron which burned his skin. His perception towards an iron is changed, and he has new perception towards an iron, that it can burn his skin and it is not okay to play with. ” This stimulus affects the little boy to form his new perception on an iron.

  Similar to what happened to that little boy, the students’ perception towards the use of weekly reflection may change when they get new stimuli/experiences. This gives us opportunity to revise students’ bad perception towards the use of weekly