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3
The National Examination and empathy to students:
The definition of National Examination and its meaning to the World Bank and the government,
showed less empathy to students. Their elaboration on the National Examination did not involve students‟ insight. Indeed, their elaboration involved the
significance of the examination for students. However, this significance was designed by them without involving students. Different from the World Bank and
the government, the elaboration on the definition and meaning of the National Examination for the teacherscritics and researchers, showed more empathy to
students. Their elaboration involved students. Three of six research reports found had students as the participants.
4 A
controversial examination:
Especially since the National Examination was used to determine graduation, the government and the criticsteachers were
always in the different directions. They kept arguing on many aspects regarding the National Examination. The following table shows the difference between the
arguments of the government and the criticsteachers on the National Examination.
The Government The Critics and Teachers
The National Examination functioned to map education quality.
The National Examination alone was not enough to be used to map education
quality. The National Examination could
improve students‟ intelligence. The National Examination could not
improve students‟ intelligence. What improves students‟ intelligence is input
and process. The National Examination could
improve st udents‟ motivation.
The National Examination could improve students‟ motivation but what
improve motivation the most is social and economic factors. The National
Examination, on the other hand, gave more pressure to students.
The National Examination was to evaluate students‟ achievement.
The National Examination should have evaluated the government performance.
Table 2.2 The Goverment and CriticsTeachers on the National Examination
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For the government, the National Examination is important in helping them map education quality. Meanwhile, the criticsteachers thought the National
Examination alone was not enough to be used to map education quality. For the government, the National Examination would be able to be used to improve
students‟ intelligence. Meanwhile, the criticsteachers thought the National Examination could not improve students‟ intelligence. What improves students‟
intelligence is input and process. The government thought the National Examinat
ion would be able to be used to improve students‟ motivation. The criticsteachers also thought that the National Examination could improve
students‟ motivation. However, according to them what improve motivation the most is social and economic factors. The National Examination, on the other
hand, gave more pressure to students. The government thought the National Examination should function to evaluate students‟ achievement. However, the
criticsteachers thought, instead of evaluating the students, the National Examination should have evaluated the government performance.
5
Significant visions, failing implementation
: For the World Bank, national assessment was important in helping them to achieve inclusive and sustainable
globalization. Meanwhile, the government also thought National Examination was important to map quality of students and schools, select university student
candidates, determine graduations, and to be the support to improve education quality. It was also considered important by the govern
ment to improve students‟ intelligence, motivation, and achievement. The visions from the parties,
unfortunately, were not in line with the implementation of the National PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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Examination in the field since cheating cases had always happened during the implementation of the National Examination.
For the critics, the pressure from the National Examination made students cheat. One research showed that there were dishonest practices during test
administration. The cheating cases before 2015 involved answer key smuggling to the classroom, cheating by using mobile phones, teachers giving away answers to
students, and schools which did not carry cross supervision. In 2015, even though decreasing, cheating cases still happened. The cheating was done by using cell
phone or small sheets of paper. Answer key selling practice was also still done. In 2015, there was even a fatal case which firstly happened in the history of the
National Examination: the leak of the National Examination materials in Google Drive.
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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
This chapter delivers the process carried in empirical truth discovery. The trustworthiness of research procedure can be testified from the discussion of
method, research design, data acquisition, and data analysis techniques.
A. METHOD
The research aims to seek the meaning of the lived experience of the 2015 English Senior High School National Examination to Senior High School
students. In order to reach its aim, phenomenological research is conducted. Phenomenological research is chosen because its intention is relevant with the
research aim. It is a research to study the nature and meaning of phenomena as lived experiences.
B. RESEARCH DESIGN
The summary of the process conducted in this research before data acquisition up to data analysis is relevant to the steps proposed by Ary et al. 2010. This
design is relevant with the discussion on phenomenology design proposed by Merleau-Ponty and van Manen in Chapter II. The design is as follows:
1. Identify a problem by examining shared experience
2. Specify and examine broad philosophical assumptions with the personal
experience 3.
Collecting interview data will later be called „text‟ and other data sources
4. Analyzing by horizonalization identifying significant statements and
quotes and developing groups of meaning PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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5. Providing composite description by examining textural description and
structural description
1. Research Setting
Since the 2015 English National Examination was only conducted in Indonesia, the research also took place in Indonesia. Even though the research
participants were from Western Indonesia, the interview took place in Yogyakarta. It was not difficult to find participants from the west part of
Indonesia in Yogyakarta since in this city many senior high school students were continuing their study in universities.
2. Research Participants
According to
Moustakas, when
choosing research
participants, phenomenological researcher needs to consider general and essential criteria
1994. General criteria include “age, race, religion, ethnic and cultural factors, gender, and political and economi
c factors” Moustakas, 1994, 107. Essential criteria include participant experience in the phenomenon researched, participant
interest in u nderstanding the lived experience‟s nature and meaning, participant
will to participate in interview, participant permission for the researcher to record the interview, and to publish the research for academic purpose Moustakas.
For this research, there is only one general criterion considered. It is the participant educational background. The participants must have experienced
studying in senior high school and the National Examination. All essential criteria proposed by Moustakas 1994 are taken as consideration
for the participant choosing in this research. The participants for this research had experience the phenomenon researched: the 2015 English National Examination.
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They are interested in understanding the nature and meaning of the phenomenon they experienced. They are also willing to participate in interview, permit the
researcher to record the interview, and to publish the research for academic purpose.
C. TEXT
In phenomenological study, instead of using the term data, the researchers use the term text. Literally, text is “written or spoken words” meanwhile figuratively
text is “social acts” Alvesson Sköldberg, 2000, 61. The results of the interpretation of the text are then called facts Alvesson Sköldberg.
Instead of
data,
van Manen 1990 prefers to use the term
lived-experience material.
According to van Manen,
lived-experience material
is not only gathered and collected as how data in behavioral or positivistic social science approach is
treated. In this research it is also transformed thus is not identical to the lived experience itself.
According to van Manen 1990, in phenomenology study, the techniques which are usually used in lived-experience material acquisition include
“interviewing, eliciting written responses, participant observation” 62. In this research, interview was used. “Interviewing multiple individuals is the typical
data collection approach” in phenomenological study Ary et al., 472. According to Ary et al. 473, “the distinguishing data collection method in a
phenomenological study is the personal, unstruct ured interview” Ary et al., 473.
Thus, the interview which was used for this research is the personal, unstructured interview. The interview was conducted for 1 to 2 hours. Each participant was
interviewed twice. The interview was then recorded and transcribed. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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D. DESCRIPTION AND INTERPRETATION
To discover the meaning of the phenomena, I implemented the steps proposed by Moustakas 1994. It included: 1 Horizonalization, 2 Invariant Constituent
Clustering and Thematizing, 3 Individual Textural Description Stories, 4 Individual Structural Description Interpretations, 5 Individual Textural-
Structural Description Stories and Interpretations, 6 Composite Textural Description Stories, 7 Composite Structural Description Interpretations, and
8 Synthesis of Textural and Structural Description Meaning. Step 1 and 2 were not presented in Chapter IV since Chapter IV only focuses
on description and interpretation presentation. Step 1 and 2 were techniques needed to help the researcher wrote stories which were then interpreted.
1. Horizonalization
Horizonalization is the process of “identifying significant statements or quotes”
Ary et al., 2010, 472. In this process, I did what was suggested by Moustakas 1994,
120: listing “every expression relevant to the experience”. Moustakas suggest a researcher to consider “every horizon or statement relevant to the topic
and questions as having equal value” Moustakas, 1994, 118.
After conducting the interviews, I transcribed them. From the transcription, significant statements are identified and listed.
2. Invariant Constituent Clustering and Thematizing
After horizonalization, invariant constituent clustering and thematizing were carried out. In this step, as proposed by Moustakas 1994, 118, I listed the
horizonalized statements into meaning units invariant constituents. Moustakas PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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suggested the following questions to be answered in order to be able to do this process: Is it necessary and sufficient? Can it be abstracted and labeled?
Each horizonalized statement in each meaning unit was coded. The code name is based on the participant initial and the order of the statement in the clustered
table. For example, if the statement was stated by Dylan and it was listed in the first order of the clustered table, the code was named D1. Since Dylan and
Dolores have the same initials, the code for statements stated by each of them is differentiated. For Dylan, the code is D and it is followed by the statement order.
For Dolores, the code is DO and its followed by the statement order. The table of the invariant constituent clustering and thematizing can be seen in Appendix 2.
3. Individual Textural Descriptions Stories
Textual description “is used to illuminate what was experienced” Ary et al., 2010, 472. Textural description was developed from meaning units or invariant
constituents Moustakas, 1994. In textural description, “verbatim examples from the transcribed interview”
were included Moustakas, 121. The textural description was presented in the form of stories in Chapter IV.
4. Individual Structural Descriptions Interpretations
Structural description “illuminates the context that influenced the experience, how it was experienced, in what conditions and si
tuations” Ary et al., 2010, 472. “The individual
structural
description provides a vivid account of the underlying dynamics of the experience, the themes and qualities that account for “how”
