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“In the deep approach, the intention to extract meaning produces active learning processes that involve relating ideas and looking for patterns and
principles on the one hand a holist strategy - Pask, 1976, 1988, and using evidence and examining the logic of the argument on the other serialist.”p.3
The learning type also involves monitoring the development of one’s own understanding Entwistle, McCune Walker, 2000. On the other hand, the surface
learning is just coping with the task and seeing the course as unrelated bits of information which leads to much more restricted learning processes, in particular to
routine memorization Weimer, 2012. This description indicates that complex understanding will help the students to
solve complex problems. In order to do it, students should use their micro knowledge Weimer, 2012. Otherwise, “attempting to work with more complex principles
without a good grasp of the more basic principles from which they are built can only lead to frustration” Warren, 2004, p.3. Unlike the surface learning which can be
learned easily, getting into deep learning needs stairs Rhem, 2010, or in the other words, the teachers need to provide brief introduction about the topic. After that, the
teachers could give assessments that encourage and require the students to solve the problems, in a way that the students will be encouraged to use and apply their
knowledge Warren, 2004. Why is it important to apply deep learning in the classroom? First, this
learning type will push the students beyond memorization of procedures and facts a report from the National Research Council, Education for Life and Work: Developing
Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21
st
Century. It will put the students into a
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condition where they can put or transfer their recent knowledge to think of a solution of a new problem. Furthermore, Laird and his colleagues 2008, in their study found
that the more frequent deep learning practices improved the students’ self-reported learning. From these two reasons, it can be concluded that deep learning helps the
students to develop themselves.
2.2 Theoretical Framework
Writing skill is the most difficult among four skills Tiedt, 1989. Especially for senior high school students, they encounter a lot of problems in their writing
Megaiab, 2014. It is most likely because they write about something new or different; the topic that is not related directly to themselves Davis Winek, 1989.
The researcher believes that by applying GAIL in the classroom, the students’ writing skill can be improved as shown from the experiment conducted during the
study. In addition to the aforementioned reason, GAIL can be utilized to strengthen each writing step in the Eclectic Approach. Another advantage is that GAIL promotes
deep learning in the teaching-learning process. Deep learning itself is a type of learning which helps the students to solve complex problems through several steps of
processing and analyzing which in the end will change the way the students think, act, and behave Jensen Nickelsen, 2011. In the process of learning, the students use
their prior knowledge to work on any new material in a writing activity Weimer, 2012.
To apply deep learning, Jensen and Nickelsen 2011 suggest that the teachers utilize the applicable classroom activities. The researcher adapted the materials into
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new material that later on were used in the teaching process during the study. To support the process, the Instructional Design Theory by Kemp 1997 was
implemented. There are eight steps of designing a material: goals, topics, and general purposes, learner characteristics, learning objectives, subject content, pre-assessment,
teaching-learning activities and resources, support services. Out of these eight steps, the researcher only took six steps: goals, topics, and general purposes, learner
characteristics, learning objectives, subject content and teachinglearning activities and resources. The reason for doing so is because the other two steps are integrated in
the six steps chosen by the researcher. The clear relation between the Eclectic Approach, Instructional Design and
Material Development, is presented in figure 2.2.
Figure 2.2. Theoretical Framework of the Research
Pre-Test Make a new materials GAIL
by using Kemp’s Instructional Design 1997
GAIL Group of Activities for In-depth Learning
Eclectic Approach Brown,2001
Better Writing
St re
n gt
h e
n Group of Activities for In-depth Learning GAIL
Adapted from Jensen and Nickelsen 2011
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2.3 Hypothesis
The conceptual hypothesis of this study is stated as follows: The use of GAIL in senior high school will improve the students’ writing skills. The improvement can
be seen in the significant difference between the pre-test and post-test of the experimental group.
After having the solid, relevant and related theories to construct the research, the researcher needed to gather the data of the research. The questions about what
kind of research method used, what the population is, and also what kind of instruments used will be answered in the next chapter.
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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the researcher discusses the methodology of the research. The discussion covers five major sections: research method, research setting,
research population and sample, instrument, and data gathering technique. In research method section, the writer provides the explanation of the method used.
Research setting covers the explanation of the setting chosen by the researcher. Then, the research population and sample provides the researcher’s consideration
for choosing the population and sample. The researcher also explains the instruments that are used to collect the data in one particular section. At last, the
researcher presents the technique to collect the data.
3.1 Research Method
In order to answer the research problem, quasi-experimental research was used. There are two characteristics of the research. The first one is the direct
manipulation of one or more independent variables by the researcher Fraenkel Wallen, 2006. The manipulation is the treatment given to the groups. For
example, one group gets no treatment, and another group gets special or different treatment. This difference then would provide data for the researcher. Using the
collected data, the researcher could determine the “treatment effect” by subtracting the result of each group Kothari, 2004.
This research has two variables. The first one is independent variable. This variable will affect or change the dependent variable Kothari, 2004. The
independent variable in this research was the use of GAIL. These activities were
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applied to those in treatment group, while the control group got ordinary teaching- learning activities. The dependent variable is the variable that will be affected by
the independent variable Fraenkel Wallen, 2006. The dependent variable in this research was students’ writing skill.
The particular feature of quasi-experimental design is the lack of random assignment Gal, Joyce Borg, 2007. Actually, the function of random
assignment is to ensure the balance in both groups. Eliminating it means the researcher cannot randomly put the participants into the control and treatment
group. In the other words, the participants were already grouped. Quasi-experimental research needs two groups to compare: the control
group and the experimental group Ary, Jacobs, Sorenson, Razavieh, 2010. Treatment group is the group that receives the special treatment, whereas control
group is the group that receives either no or alternate treatment Gal, Joyce, Borg, 2007. Between these two groups, the one that was observed was actually
the experimental group. It was because the experimental group received the special treatment. However, the control group was also important. This group
provided the data for comparison. Later on, this data was calculated to determine the significance of the test result.
To see the significant difference between two groups, the researcher compared the mean of the pre-test level of phenomenon before treatment and the
post-test level of phenomenon after treatment Kothari, 2004. The pre-test was given to both groups before the students got the treatment. The purpose was to
measure the students’ writing skill. After the students got the treatment, they had
