situation was related to the students’ enthuasiasm, involvement, understanding, and the students’ responses towards the techniques and
activities used by the researcher and so forth. The results of the observation during the research were in the form of field notes.
4. Data Analysis Techniques
In this research, the data were qualitative in nature and supported by the quantitative data. The researcher assessed the students’ writing
skills based on the writing rubrics that had been consulted with the English teacher. The rubrics were used during the writing test, in the pre-test and in
the post-test. The results of the students’ writing performances were analyzed to find out the means of the students’ writing performances.
Meanwhile, the qualitative data were analyzed based on the data analysis proposed by Miles and Huberman 1994. It was done through
these steps: data collection, data reduction, data display, and conclusion. The first step were done by collecting the data such as the interview
transcripts and field notes. In the second step, the researcher selected limited, simplified and transformed the data by summarizing or
paraphrasing the interview transcripts and field notes. In the data display, the data was reduced then organized and compressed. The data display of
this research was in the form of texts, field notes, and interview transcripts and field notes. Then, the last step was making conclusion drawing and
verification. The conclusion were gained based on the results of the
students’ writing perfomances, field notes, and interview transcripts. In making conclusion, the researcher collaborated with the collaborators to
obtain the valid findings.
5. Research Validity
To obtain the vaild data, the researcher used four kinds of validity. They were democratic validity, outcome validity, process validity, and
dialogic validity stated by Anderson et al. 1994 in Burns 1999: 161. Each of the criteria is presented in the following discussion.
a Democratic Validity
The democratic validity has something to do with involving students to give their opinions, ideas, and comments about the
implementation of the action research. It was obtained through interviewing the English teacher and the students to find out their ideas
and comments the action or activities during the implementation of cooperative learning carried out in the writing process.
b Outcome Validity
Outcome validity refers to the actions during the research. The action can be sucessful if it is within the context of the research. In this
research, the processes were related to the improvement of students’ writing skill through the use of cooperative learning.
