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people and to find out things that he or she cannot observe by himself or herself. In this research, the interview was done by myself so that I could
know how the Engl ish teacher and students’ responses, opinion, suggestion,
and expectation while and after doing the implementation of Peer Assisted Learning Strategies PALS in the teaching and learning process of reading,
clarify their idea about the technique being implemented, and reflect the students’ practices.
3. Test
In this study, I used tests to know the improvement of using Peer Assisted Learning Strategies PALS technique in teaching reading. There
were the pre-test and the post-test. The pre-test was conducted before I did the action. Meanwhile, the post-test was held after the last cycle was done.
The tests were in the form of filling the blanks, answering questions, and true or false statements. There were 20 items for each test. I tried the tests
out before he used them for the pre-test and the post test. I
focused on the goals to find the students’ reading comprehension by asking them to find details of information in the texts, to find main idea, and to
guess meaning of some words.
G. Techniques of Data Analysis
The data collected were in the form of qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data were collected from the observation and the interviews.
They were in the form of field notes, interview transcripts, and photographs. Then, all the data were interpreted and analyzed. Next, they were connected to
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the relevant theories. After that, the results of the data were reported from the beginning to the end.
Meanwhile, quantitative data of this research were obtained from the tests conducted. In analyzing the quantitative data, descriptive analysis was used. It
was the mean which was used as a represent from central tendency. The mean was used to know the improvement of the students before and after the actions.
H. Validity and Reliability of the Data
Data that were obtained from the research must be valid and reliable. As this study was action research, there were five criteria of validity that must be
achieved by the researcher as follows as suggested by Burns 1999: 161-162: 1.
Democratic validity It is related to the extent in which the research was truly conducted
collaboratively and includes multiple voices. In gaining the democratic validity, I conducted the interviews with the stakeholders i.e. the students
VII C of SMP N 1 Jogonalan, the English teacher, and the collaborator to tell their opinions about the research conducted.
2. Outcome validity
Outcome validity was related to the notions of actions leading to outcomes that were successful within the context. To achieve this validity, I
did maximally in doing the action. I did not only find solutions of the problem but also reframe the problem in a certain way into questions. I did
reflection in every meeting.
