Students` perception of project-based learning of exposition text using audio-visual media - USD Repository
STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
OF EXPOSITION TEXT USING AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIA
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By
Monica Trias Wida Arumi
Student number: 031214006
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
OF EXPOSITION TEXT USING AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIA
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By
Monica Trias Wida Arumi
Student number: 031214006
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
A Sarjana Pendidikan Thesis on
STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
OF EXPOSITION TEXT USING AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIA
Prepared and Presented by
Monica Trias Wida Arumi
031214006
Approved by:
Date
Dr. FX. Mukarto, M.S. Yogyakarta, 13August 2008
Sponsor
“ Throughout our life, even if trials lead us to question ourselves, to discover our limits, that irreplaceable gift remains.
You can have confidence in yourself.” (Fr. Roger) I dedicate this thesis to Jesus Christ My mother, father, sister, and brother My beloved boyfriend My Friends who always love and support me
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that the thesis, which I wrote, does not contain the works or part of the works of other people, except those cited in the quotations and references, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, 26 August 2008 The writer,
Monica Trias W. A 031214006
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : MONICA TRIAS WIDA ARUMI Nomor Mahasiswa : 031214006
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :
STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING OF
EXPOSITION TEXT USING AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIAbeserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, me- ngalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 26 Agustus 2008 Yang menyatakan ( Monica Trias Wida Arumi )
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all I would like to thank to my beloved Jesus Christ for His enormous blessing, guidance, love, and salvation during the accomplishment of this thesis.
Thank you for always live in my heart whoever I am, in my happiness and sadness.
I would like to address my sincere gratitude to my major sponsor Dr. FX. Mukarto, M.S. for his patience, support, and his willing to guide me in accomplishing this thesis. Thank you for giving the biggest contribution to my thesis through your comments, corrections, and suggestions.
I would also like to address my deep gratitude to Mr. Heru S.Pd., the English Teacher of SMA Negeri 2 Yogyakarta, for the permission to conduct the survey in his classes. I sincerely thank the students of XI Science 1, XI Science 2, for their willingness to work on my questionnaire and interview.
I dedicate this thesis to my parents, FX. Subroto and Mariana Sumartiyah, my elder sister, Mbak Inez, my brother in law, Mas Estee, my elder brother, Mas Itok, and my little nephew, Teto. I would like to thank them for their support and encouragement for me to finish this thesis.
I would also like to express my gratitude to my beloved boy friend, Lukas Juniarsa, for his love, care, support, and for being my sharing partner.
I would also like to thank Ardi, Ratri, Gaby, Timur, Mas Kowoek, Mas Angga, Ayu, Yessi, Titin, Layung, Tika, Emil, Netty, Pak Kebo, Marga, Gurit, Mas class A and other people that I could not mention one by one that helped me during my study. I thank them for their information, data, support, advice, encouragement, and spirit of joy to finish this thesis. May God bless them always.
Monica Trias Wida Arumi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page TITLE PAGE ................................................................................................... iAPPROVAL PAGES ....................................................................................... ii
BOARD OF EXAMINERS ............................................................................. iii
DEDICATIONAL PAGE ................................................................................ iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY .............................................. v
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS ….…………………………..……… vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. ix
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................... xiii
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................... xiv
LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................. xv
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................... xvi
ABSTRAK .......................................................................................................... xvii
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION ..................................................................1 A. Background of the Study ...............................................................................
1 B. Problem Formulation......................................................................................
4
D. Research Objectives .......................................................................................
5 E. Research Benefits ...........................................................................................
5 F. Definition of Terms ........................................................................................
6 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................
8 A. Theoretical Description ................................................................................
8 1. Perception ...............................................................................................
8 a. The Perceptual Process .....................................................................
10 b. Factors that Affect Person in Forming Perception ...........................
11 2. Project-Based Learning ..........................................................................
13 a. Project-Based Learning Focus .........................................................
15 b. Project-Based Learning Benefits ......................................................
17 c. The Students in Project-Based Learning ..........................................
19 3. Audio-Visual Media ...............................................................................
23 a. The Role of Audio-visual Media in Education ................................
23 b. Students and Audio-Visual Production ............................................
24 4. Exposition Text ......................................................................................
26 a. Characters of Exposition Text ..........................................................
27 b. The Structures of Exposition text .....................................................
27 5. Cooperative Learning .............................................................................
29 B. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................
31
CHAPTER III ..................................................................................................
33 A. Method .........................................................................................................
33 B. Research Participants ....................................................................................
34 C. Research Instruments ....................................................................................
34 D. Data Gathering Techniques ..........................................................................
37 E. Data Analyses Techniques ............................................................................
38 F. Research Procedures .....................................................................................
38 CHAPTER IV ...................................................................................................
40 A. Data Presentation and Analyses ...................................................................
40
1. The Students’ Perception on the Use of Project-Based Learning Using Audio-Visual Media in Learning Exposition Text …...................
40 a. Close-Ended Questions ……………………………………...…....
41 b. Open-Ended Question …………………………………………….
57 c. Summary ……………………………………………………..........
66
2. The Students’ Strategy to Organize Audio-Visual Project in Learning Exposition Text …………………..………………...…………………..
68 B. Other Findings …………………..………………………………………….
72 CHAPTER V ....................................................................................................
74 A. Conclusions ..................................................................................................
74
REFERENCES .................................................................................................
79
LIST OF TABLE
PageTable 3. 1. Questionnaire Blueprint ..……………………………….….……...
38 Table 4. 1. The Questionnaire Results of Knowledge Category ...………...........
44 Table 4. 2. The Questionnaire Results of Skill Category …………………….....
49 Table 4. 3. The Questionnaire Results of Attitude Category ..………………….
57
LIST OF FIGURE
PageFigure 2. 1. The Person’s Perceptual Process by Gibson (1985: 61)………..….
12 Figure 2. 2. The Working Process of Project-Based Learning ……………..…..
23
LISTS OF APPENDICES
PageAppendix A: Questionnaire Sheets…………….…………………….……..…
83 Appendix B: Interview Guideline …………………………………………….
86 Appendix C: Students’ Responses on Close-Ended Questionnaire ...…….......
88 Appendix D: Students’ Responses in Open-Ended Question ……...................
93 Appendix E: The Students’ Strategy to Carry Out the Audio-Visual Project ……………………………………………………….....
98 Appendix F: The Students’ Suggestion……………………...………………. 101 Appendix G: Permission Letter to Conduct Research in SMA Negeri 2
Yogyakarta ...………………………………………………..…. 103
ABSTRACT
Trias, Monica. W. A. (2008). The Students’ Perception of Project-Based Learning of
Exposition Text Using Audio-Visual Media. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Teachers Training and Education Faculty, Sanata Dharma University.
The development of technology has given significant influence to the educational system as seen in the eleventh grade students’ learning activity in SMA
Negeri 2 Yogyakarta
through the audio-visual project. For that reason, the researcher intended to conduct research in purpose of investigating the students’ perception of Project-Based Learning of exposition text using audio-visual media. There are two problem formulations in this research: (1) What is students’ perception of Project- Based Learning of exposition text using audio-visual media? (2) How did students carry out the audio-visual project?
In this research, the researcher employed qualitative method in the form of survey research. In gathering the data, the researcher distributed questionnaire contained close-ended question and open-ended question to answer the first research question and conducted interview to dig out information related to the second research question.
The finding of the research shows that in general, the students have positive perception on audio-visual project. Technically, they did not have enough skill to operate audio-visual equipment, but they were happy because they could do the project in relax and fun condition, learn authentically besides learning together in group, have new information related to audio visual matter, learn how to work in group, and be motivated to participate actively in carrying out the project. Nevertheless, there were also students who had negative perception because they considered that audio-visual project was difficult, confusing, and also time and energy consuming. Moreover, students also had limitation of equipment and knowledge of audio-visual. Generally, students were well managed in carrying out the audio-visual project which began with deciding the theme and making the script which was good and easy to understand. After that, they did casting section, and continued by shooting and editing. However, some students were still tended to delay their work and some others were still misunderstood on the given assignment. Another finding was the suggestions given by students toward audio-visual project which supposed to be continued and developed.
ABSTRAK
Trias, Monica. W. A. (2008). The Students’ Perception of Project-Based Learning of
Exposition Text Using Audio-Visual Media. Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma. Perkembangan teknologi telah memberikan pengaruh penting dalam sistem pendidikan seperti yang terlihat pada aktivitas belajar siswa kelas sebelas di SMA
Negeri 2 Yogyakarta melalui projek audio-visual. Oleh karena itu, peneliti mengadakan penelitian yang bertujuan untuk mengetahui persepsi para siswa tentang pembelajaran teks eksposisi melalui projek yang menggunakan media audio-visual. Ada dua permasalahan yang dirumuskan dalam perumusan masalah: (1) Apa persepsi siswa-siswi terhadap projek pembelajaran teks eksposisi menggunakan media audio- visual? (2) Bagaimana siswa-siswi melaksanakan projek audio visual tersebut?
Pada penelitian ini penulis menerapkan metode kualitatif dengan bentuk penelitian survey. Dalam ppengumpulan data, penulis membagikan kuesioner yang terdiri atas close-ended question dan open-ended question untuk menjawab pertanyaan nomor satu dan mengadakan wawancara untuk mendapatkan informasi mengenai pertanyaan kedua.
Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa secara umum siswa mempunyai persepsi yang positif terhadap projek audio-visual. Secara teknis mereka belum mempunyai kemampuan yang memadai dalam mengoperasikan alat-alat audio-visual, akan tetapi mereka senang karena dapat mengerjakan projek dalam kondisi rileks dan menyenangkan, dapat belajar secara mandiri selain dengan teman kelompok, mendapat pengetahuan baru tentang audio-visual, belajar bekerjasama dalam kelompok dan mereka termoitivasi untuk terlibat secara aktif dalam pengerjaan projek. Namun, ada pula siswa-siswi yang mempunyai persepsi negatif karena projek audio-visual dianggap sulit, membingungkan, serta menguras banyak waktu dan energi. Selain itu mereka juga memiliki keterbatasan alat dan pengetahuan tentang audio-visual. Secara umum, para siswa juga dapat melaksanakan projek audio-visual dengan baik dimulai dengan menentukan tema dan membuat naskah yang baik serta mudah dimengerti, kemudian mengadakan pemilihan actor dan aktris, dilanjutkan dengan shooting dan editing. Beberapa siswa masih tampak menunda pekerjaan dan mengalami kesalahpahaman akan tugas yang diberikan. Tetapi mereka tetap bersemangat dalam menyelesaikan projek ini. Penemuan yang lain adalah berupa saran yang diberikan oleh para siswa supaya projek audio-visual ini dapat dilanjutkan dan dikembangkan.
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
2 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 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 it's 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 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
In this study, the writer has two problems and intends to formulate the answer of the problems below:
1. What is the students’ perception of learning exposition text through audio-visual project?
2. How did the students carry out audio-visual project to learn exposition text?
C. Problem Limitation
The use of audio-visual project in learning exposition text was generally the first experience for students in SMA Negeri 2 Yogyakarta. Since audio-visual project was uneasy assignment, it might direct students into various perceptions. However, this new way of learning is expected to eliminate the students’ boredom in learning English and to support them to express the idea creatively. Therefore, in order to limit perception on learning exposition text through audio-visual project and digging out information on how students carried out the audio-visual project to learn exposition text.
D. Research Objectives The purpose of conducting this research is answering those two problems.
First, the researcher aimed to investigate the students’ perception of learning exposition text through audio-visual project. The second, the researcher intends to dig out some information on how students carried out the audio visual project. This study intends to investigate the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 2 Yogyakarta.
E. Research Benefits
It is hoped that this research will give benefits for students, the English teachers, and other researcher.
1. Students Students who have good understanding of the contribution of PBL using audio visual media in applying exposition text toward their English language learning hopefully have high motivation in the learning process. This condition will lead students to get the maximum achievement and also to increase their proficiency in applying their creativity in composing exposition text not only in the school framework but also involving their surround community.
2. English teacher The research may give contribution to the English teacher for their strategy to improve his students’ performance in applying their creativity in composing exposition text through audio visual. The teacher can enrich his students’ knowledge about English as a foreign language through the technology. Besides, he can notice the students’ perceptions on the use of project based learning using audio visual media in applying exposition text since each student may have different perception.
3. Future researcher It is hoped that this research will be beneficial for the future researcher who would like to conduct the similar research. It also will be useful for those who would like to conduct further discussion about the use of the project-based learning as one method in English language learning process.
F. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misconception, the researcher provides some terms used in this study as follows:
1. Perception Perception is the person subjective experience through his or her own field of observation. Each person might have different perception about something and it is influenced by their different psychological factors such as their needs, interest, and motivation. Perception is defined as the cognitive process by which an individual gives meaning to the environment (Gibson, 1985: 61).
2. Audio-Visual Media Referred to Rinanto (1982: 21) audio-visual media is a media consisting of visual media which is synchronized with audio media and creates possibilities of communication. In other words, audio-visual is the combination of pictures and sound which supports one another and able to gain the audience motivation to watch such as sound slide, TV, film, etc.
3. Project-Based Learning Project-based learning (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 as stated by Barron (1998). PBL focuses on the learners and affords learners the opportunity for in-depth investigations of worthy topics. The learners are more autonomous as they construct personally-meaningful artifacts that are being the representations of their learning.
4. Exposition Text Exposition text is a technique by which background information about the characters, events, or setting is conveyed in a novel, play, movie or other work of fiction. This information can be presented through dialogue, description, flashbacks, or even directly through narrative. It is used to persuade the reader or the listener that
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW Chapter two presents a discussion of theories which are used to develop the
study. It contains the discussion of the theoretical description and the theoretical framework. The theoretical description is to describe the theoretical review of the issues, while the theoretical framework provides the theories to formulate the orientation of the study.
A. Theoretical Description
The researcher provides some theories and the concepts behind the terms that are used in this study. Therefore the theories of perception, project-based learning, audio-visual media, and exposition text are presented in theoretical description. The followings are the explanation in some details of related theories.
1. Perception
Perception, according to the definition that is found in Webster’s Encyclopedia (1989: 1069), it is mentioned that perception is a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present. This definition is also completed by Kreitner and Kinicki (1992: 126), who propose that perception is a mental and cognitive process that enables us to interpret and understand our surroundings. Thus, it could be simplified as a mental process of observing, comprehending, and responding on particular thing.
Other expert, Gibson (1985: 61), states that perception refers to the acquisition of specific knowledge about object or events at any particular moment. It occurs whenever stimuli activate the senses. Thus, perception involves receiving stimuli, organizing the stimuli, and translating or interpreting the organized stimuli so as to influence behavior and form attitudes.
According to Walgito (1983: 50) the aspects which build perception can be specified into three parts. They are cognition aspect, affection aspect, and conation aspect. The three aspects of perception could be explained as follows:
Cognition Aspect It has relation with expectation or hope, the way to think and obtain the knowledge, and past experience. In building perception, a person is back grounded by cognition aspect. It is how person views something based on self willingness or expectation upon what he /she has heard or seen in his /her daily activities.
Affection Aspect Affection is related to the persons’ emotion. A person builds perception through this aspect because of the existence of moral and ethic education. This moral education therefore is the basic of person’s consideration in perceiving what has happened in his /her surrounding.
Conation Aspect Conation aspect relates the person’s attitude, behavior, activity, and motivation. Through conation aspect, perception could be built based on person’s point of view toward something. This perception is convicted to motivation and behavior in his/ her daily life.
a. The Perceptual Process
To explain how the perception exists, the writer uses Gibson’s theory. Gibson (1985: 60) proposes that perception is the cognitive process by which an individual gives meaning to the environment. Because each person gives his or her own meaning to stimuli, different individuals will “see” the same things in the different ways. To make clear our understanding about how the perception exists, figure 1 is provided.
Evaluation Response Observati Factors and behavior
Stimuli on of the influencing interpretati
→ stimuli perception on of
Attitudes reality formed
Figure 2.1 The Person’s Perceptual Process by Gibson (1985: 61)From the Figure 1, we can see how the perception is formed. It is begun with the stimuli in which each person selects various signals that influence his or her perceptions of people, objects, and symbols based on the individual needs. After selecting the various signals, he or she observes those signals or stimuli considering the factors that influence the perception. Here, someone processes the stimuli in his or her mind which is called as the cognitive processing. When the cognitive process is finished, it will continue with forming evaluation and interpretation on reality. Through the evaluation and interpretation, it would affect the response behavior and form the attitudes. The Figure 1 makes us understand that there might be any possibilities of different perception among the second grade students of senior high school about the use of portfolio in writing class.
b. Factors that Affect Person in Forming Perception
According to Gibson (1985: 64), there are six factors that influencing the perception in the perceptual process. They are stereotype, selectivity, self-concept, situation, need, and emotion. Those factors will be explained as follows. 1) Stereotype
Stereotype is a set of beliefs about the characteristics of people in a particular group that are generalized to all members of the group (Gibson, 1985: 64). For example most Sumatrans like eat the highly seasoned and spiced food. But in fact, not all Sumatrans like to eat that kind of food. Most of the stereotypes are the wrong environment. Gibson (1985: 65) also says that stereotyping could result in implementing improper programs.
2) Selectivity Not all stimuli that exist in our environment are taken and processed in our mind. Thus, we select what is important and relevant in fulfilling the person needs. In selecting the stimuli, it depends on our interest of the stimuli. It is supported by Gibson’s statement (1985: 66) that people tend to ignore the information or cues that might make them feel uncomfortable. For example, a girl who takes blue as her favorite color will select many things of which the color is blue and ignore other things which are not blue although they might be more beautiful. That is why people have different perception. 3) Self-Concept
Mouly (1973: 92) says that we perceive only those things that are consistent with our motives and goals and interpret our experiences to make them compatible with our present self-concept. The way we see ourselves in the form of self-concept will affect our perception about something in our environment. For example, if people always see something pessimistically, they will also see everything around them pessimistically. The person’s self-concept will perform the attitude which is as the result of his/ her felling towards particular things. 4) Situation
Situation can affect people in perceiving something, for example in the matter manager to overlook some details, to rush certain activities, and to ignore certain stimuli such as request from other managers or superiors. People tend to work quickly when they do not have much time. The limitation of time makes people less careful. Therefore, the outcome of their work will also be affected. In students’ audio-visual project, time is considered important because this project needs to elaborate many things to make a good product. 5) Need Perception is significantly influenced by needs and desires (Gibson, 1985: 6).
There are always many considerations in choosing something based on the persons’ needs and expectations. People tend to perceive something positively if they feel that it can satisfy their needs and expectations. 6) Emotion
Emotion is someone’s strong feelings that influence his or her in forming perception. Kreitner and Knicki (1992: 212) state that emotions have significant effect on our perception. The person’s positive perception such as happiness, gladness, contentment, and so on may cause good perception toward something. In the contrary, the person’s negative emotions, such as anger, jealousy, envy, disappointment toward something could cause bad perception on that thing.
2. Project-Based Learning
Nowadays, project-based learning is very common in some high schools or organizes learning around projects; in which the project itself is defined as a complex task, based on challenging questions and or problems, that involves learners in design, problem solving, decision making, or investigation activities. It gives learners the opportunity to work relatively autonomously over extended periods of time and culminate in realistic product or presentation (Johns, Rasmussen, & Moffitt, 1997; Thomas, Mergendoller, & Michaelson, 1999). Another definition is stated by Solomon (2003). He proposes that in project-based learning, students work in groups to solve challenging problems that are authentic, curriculum-based, and often interdisciplinary. It means that the learners decide how to approach a problem and what activities to pursue by themselves. They gather information from a variety of sources and synthesize, analyze, and derive knowledge from it. Their learning is inherently valuable because it is connected to something real and adult skills are involved such as collaboration and reflection. At the end, the students demonstrate their newly acquired knowledge and are judged 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 and manage, students’ work. Otherwise, Solomon’s statement is also supported by Moursund (1999), said that the feature of the project- based learning includes authentic content, authentic assessment, teacher facilitation but not direction, and explicit educational goals. It is also supported by Diehl, Grobe, Lopez, & Cabral (1999) who included cooperative learning, reflection, and incorporation of adult skills.
Furthermore, Bransford and Stein (1993) unfold that project-based learning is a comprehensive instructional approach to engage students in sustained, cooperative investigation. Within its framework, students work together on the project and collaborate their ideas to make sense of what is going on. Since it is part of social activity, therefore, it takes place within the context of culture community and past experience.
Thus, from the definition above the project-based learning could be summarized as the central framework upon which the teaching and learning of core concept is built, and not a supplementary enrichment activity which should be undertaken after the hard work of learning is done. Within the PBL process, learners not only give response by feeding back information, but they also actively use what they know to explore, negotiate, interpret, and create a product. In addition, the PBL model encourages teachers to rely on their experience and expertise to blend projects and conventional methods of instruction into cooperative activity that provides students with a rich integration of content, skills, and opportunities for academic and personal growth.
a. Project-Based Learning Focus
As noted above, much of existing work in PBL has been based on inductive account derived from empirical experience (Schindler and Eppler, 2003), or has focused exclusively on either generation of learning within Project (Huber, 1999), or Thomas (1999) theorizes that standard-focused PBL is a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks. This definition encompasses a spectrum ranging from brief projects of one to two weeks based on a single subject in one classroom to yearlong, interdisciplinary projects that involve community participation and adults outside the school. Thus, the careful development and planning of effective project are crucial for the successful and effective application of a project-based learning paradigm. The basic properties of such effective project might be focused as follows (Thomas, Mergendoller, & Michaelson, 1999) :
To recognize students' inherent drive to learn, their capability to do important
work, and their need to be taken seriously by putting them at the center of the learning process.
To engage students in the central concepts and principles of a discipline. The project work is central rather than peripheral to the curriculum.
To highlight provocative issues or questions that lead students to in-depth exploration of authentic and important topic.
To require the use of essential tools and skills, including technology, for learning, self-management, and project management.
To specify products that solve problems, explain dilemmas, or present information generated through investigation, research, or reasoning.
To include multiple products that permit frequent feedback and consistent opportunities for students to learn from experience.
To use performance-based assessments that communicate high expectations, present rigorous challenges, and require a range of skills and knowledge.
To encourage collaboration in some form, either through small groups, student-led presentations, or whole-class evaluations of project results.
Projects have been used as fun or change-of-pace events completed after students have been pushed through homework assignments, lectures, and tests. In standards-based PBL, students are pulled through the curriculum by an authentic problem that creates a need to know the material. The authentic problem is tied to content standards in the curriculum, and assessment is explicitly designed to evaluate the students' knowledge of the content. Similarly, project-based learning is sometimes equated with inquiry-based or experiential learning. Though PBL shares some overlapping characteristics with these two terms, standards-focused PBL is designed to acknowledge the importance of standards and evaluation of student learning.
b. Project-Based Learning Benefits
Practicing PBL is the unique way that it can motivate students by engaging them in their own learning. This provides opportunities for students to pursue their own interests and questions and make decisions about how they will find answers and solve problems. It is also clear that PBL teaches students complex processes and procedures such as planning and communicating (Mergendoller, 1999). Accomplishing these goals, however, requires time for both teachers and students to master the behaviors and strategies necessary for successful PBL.
Recently, numerous research papers on PBL have been published to show the benefits of this paradigm for both learners and teachers. Above all the benefits, empowering critical thinking is the mainly benefit of PBL (Rogers, 2002). Here is a sample list of such benefits: tremendous gains in learners achievements, as a number of research project show (Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound [ELOB], 1999a; Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound [ELOB], 1999b); large gain in learners’ problem-solving capabilities (Gallagher, Stepien, & Rosenthal, 1992; Williams, Hemstreet, Liu, & Smith, 1998); gains in learners’ understanding of the subject matter (Boaler, 1997); gains in understanding relating to specific skills and strategies introduced in the project (Boaler, 1997); perceived changes in group problem- solving, work habits, and other project-based learning process behaviors (Tretten and Zachariou, 1995). The other benefits of PBL for today’s students have been reported by Thomas (1999). He reports that PBL:
Overcomes the dichotomy between knowledge and thinking, helping students
to both "know" and "do."
Supports students in learning and practicing skills in problem solving, communication, and self-management.
Encourages the development of habits of mind associated with lifelong
Integrates curriculum areas, thematic instruction, and community issues.
Assesses performance on content and skills using criteria similar to those in
the work world, thus encouraging accountability, goal setting, and improved performance.