Students` perception toward the implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class.

(1)

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDTHE IMPLEMENTATION OF PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT IN WRITING CLASS

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Yenny Setyawati Student Number: 061214100

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA


(2)

i

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDTHE IMPLEMENTATION

OF PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT IN WRITING CLASS

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Yenny Setyawati Student Number: 061214100

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA


(3)

A-Thesis on

ST$DEFFTS' -FERCEPTION TIOW*RD fiffi ,Iil/FIEAfiENTATION

UT'FC'RTFOLTO

CLA,SS

a,.J,

Sponsor

tu

ii

{"" ?fi*"*

c?


(4)

(5)

iv

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.

Yogyakarta, November 22, 2010 The Writer

Yenny Setyawati 061214100


(6)

v

This thesis is dedicated to:

-

Jesus Christ and Holy Mary

-

My Wonderful Family


(7)

vi

ABSTRACT

Setyawati, Yenny. 2010. Students’ Perception toward the Implementation of Portfolio Assessment in Writing Class. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

In this modern era, writing seems to be an important skill that people should possess. As global community, people need to have the ability to write effectively since writing plays an important role in people’s life. That is why

writing should be taught and assessed well in language teaching. The assessment of writing using a test seems to be inadequate because writing test has some disadvantages. Therefore, teacher needs to find an alternative assessment which can cover the disadvantages of writing test. Portfolio is considered to be one of the alternative assessments. Basically, portfolio is a good assessment tool but in fact a lot of students do not realize it. Because of that, the researcher conducted this

study which is intended to investigate students’ perception toward the

implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class. This study had one research problem formulated: What is students’ perception toward the implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class?

In this study, the researcher used survey method. To gather the data, only one instrument used, that is questionnaire. The questionnaire included twenty six statements and three open ended questions about portfolio assessment. The questionnaires were distributed from May 12th, 2010 until May 18th, 2010 to the students of Paragraph Writing Class B, Paragraph Writing Class C, Short Essay II Class A and Short Essay II Class F in Sanata Dharma University. Those four

writing classes were chosen because they were suitable with the researcher’s

criteria about portfolio assessment–students did the writing assignment regularly during the semester and at the end of the semester, they have to collect all their assignment they have made and submit it to the lecturer. Total respondents in this study were eighty students.

The data analysis showed that most of the respondents had positive perception toward the implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class. All the respondents had a notion that portfolio assessment is useful and beneficial and is good to be implemented in writing class. Although portfolio gives so many benefits, still it has some weaknesses. However, portfolio assessment helped students to improve their English well, especially in writing.

This study concluded that students have positive perception toward the implementation of portfolio assessment because it gives so many benefits for the students: (1) Portfolio helps students to identify their strengths and weaknesses, (2) Portfolio gives students the opportunity to revise their assignments, (3) Portfolio lets students monitor their own progress and assess their own learning,


(8)

vii

ABSTRAK

Setyawati, Yenny. 2010. Students’ Perception toward the Implementation of Portfolio Assessment in Writing Class. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Dalam era modern, menulis merupakan sebuah keterampilan yang harus dimiliki oleh masyarakat. Sebagai komunitas global, masyarakat harus memiliki kemampuan menulis secara efektif karena menulis memegang peranan penting dalam hidup manusia. Oleh karena itu, menulis harus bisa diajarkan dan dinilai dengan baik dalam pembelajaran bahasa. Penilaian menulis menggunakan test nampaknya kurang memadahi karena test memiliki beberapa kelemahan. Maka, guru harus bisa menemukan sistem penilaian alternatif yang dapat melengkapi kekurangan ini. Portfolio dianggap dapat menjadi salah satu dari sistem penilaian alternatif tersebut. Pada dasarnya, portfolio merupakan sistem penilaian yang bagus namun kenyataannya banyak siswa tidak menyadari akan hal ini. Oleh sebab itu, peneliti mengadakan penelitian ini yang bertujuan untuk meneliti persepsi siswa terhadap implementasi portfolio dalam kelas menulis. Penelitian ini memiliki satu permasalahan yang difurmulasikan yaitu: Bagaimanakah persepsi siswa terhadap implementasi portfolio dalam kelas menulis?

Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti menggunakan metode survey. Untuk mengumpulkan data, hanya satu instrument penelitian yang digunakan yaitu kuesioner. Kuesioner yang digunakan memiliki dua puluh enam pernyataan dan tiga pertanyaan terbuka tentang portfolio. Kuesioner dibagikan sejak tanggal 12 Mei 2010 hingga 18 Mei 2010 kepada siswa-siswa dari Paragraph Writing Class B, Paragraph Writing Class C, Short Essay II Class A and Short Essay II Class F di Universitas Sanata Dharma. Keempat kelas menulis tersebut dipilih karena keempatnya memenuhi kriteria-kriteria yang ditetapkan oleh peneliti mengenai portfolio yaitu selama satu semester, siswa secara rutin menulis karangan-karangan dan pada akhir semester, mereka harus mengumpulkan semua tugas yang telah mereka buat selama satu semester dan mengumpulkannya kepada dosen. Total jumlah responden dalam penelitian ini adalah delapan puluh siswa.

Dari analisis data dapat dilihat bahwa sebagian besar responden memiliki persepsi yang baik terhadap implementasi portfolio dalam kelas menulis. Bahkan seluruh responden berpendapat bahwa portfolio sangat berguna dan menguntungkan bila diimplementasikan dalam kelas menulis. Walaupun portfolio memiliki beberapa keunggulan, namun tetap saja portfolio memiliki beberapa kelemahan. Namun, bagaimanapun juga, portfolio tetap saja dapat membantu siswa dalam meningkatkan kemampuan bahasa Inggris mereka khususnya kemampuan menulis.

Penelitian ini memiliki kesimpulan bahwa siswa memiliki persepsi yang baik terhadap implementasi portfolio karena portfolio memiliki beberapa keunggulan yaitu: (1) Portfolio membantu siswa untuk mengidentifikasi kelebihan dan kekurangan mereka, (2) Portfolio memberikan kesempatan kepada siswa untuk merevisi tugas mereka, (3) Portfolio membuat siswa dapat memonitor kemajuan belajar mereka dan menilai pembelajaran mereka sendiri, and (4) Portfolio mengembangkan kemampuan siswa dalam menulis.


(9)

viii

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:

Nama : Yenny Setyawati

Nomor Mahasiswa : 061214100

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDTHE IMPLEMENTATION

OF PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT IN WRITING CLASS

beserta 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 royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada tanggal: 22 November 2010 Yang menyatakan


(10)

ix

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Foremost, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to God Almighty for all his blessing, grace, and love. From the beginning, He has guided me to finish my study in English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University and finish this thesis. He has also helped me to overcome all the problems and strengthened me when I started to feel desperate and stressful.

In finishing this thesis, I also received some helps and supports from these following people to whom I would like to express my gratefulness. Without helps and supports from these people, this thesis would never completed.

First, I would like to thank the chairperson of English Language Education Study Program, C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. as my major sponsor for spending her time for me and giving me beneficial advices and corrections, helpful assistance, great support and encouragement from the beginning when I first joined her RELT class, Thesis Writing class, until I finished this thesis.

Second, I would also like to express my gratitude to all PBI lecturers for guiding me and teaching me well during my study in English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University, especially Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. for guiding and helping me during my study. I also thank Henny Herawati, S.Pd., M.Hum. and Drs. Antonius Herujiyanto, M.A., Ph.D. for doing their job well as my academic advisor, Gregorius Punto Aji, S.Pd., M.Hum., Fidelis Chosa Kastuhandani, S.Pd. and Chrysogorus Siddha M, S.Pd. for allowing me to distribute questionnaires in their classes, and Yuseva Ariyani Iswandari, S.Pd., M.Ed. for answering all my questions and proofreading this thesis. I also send my gratitude to Maria Martarina Pramudani and Chatarina Artilantari who have helped me a lot during my study.

Third, I would like to give many thanks to my parents, Dewi Epri Indriasari and YS. Saktiawan, for praying for me and giving me big affections, endless supports, and priceless advices. Also, to my brother, Roni Setiawan, and my sister, Debby Cinthya Dewi, for reducing the stress during finishing this thesis. Then, I also thank my boyfriend, Edy Nurmono, for all the love and care he


(11)

x

has given to me and for always supporting me and giving me a hand.

Finally, I would like to thank my best, best friends, Ayum, Rika, Susan, Idoeth, Rina, Ruzna, Deinza, and Danny for their help, support, cooperation and for the beautiful friendship they have given to me. The last, I thank all off my respondents to whom I was so indebted because they were willing to cooperate with me in finishing this thesis by filling out the questionnaires.

Yogyakarta, August 20, 2010


(12)

xi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE ... i

APPROVAL PAGES ... ii

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... iv

DEDICATION PAGE ... v

ABSTRACT ... vi

ABSTRAK... vii

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS... viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... xi

LIST OF TABLES ... xv

LIST OF FIGURES ... xvi

LIST OF APPENDICES ... xvii

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ... 1

1.1 Research Background…... 1

1.2 Problem Formulation ... 4

1.3 Problem Limitation ... 4

1.4 Research Objectives…... 5

1.5 Research Benefits…... 5


(13)

xii

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ... 10

2.1 Theoretical Description ... 10

2.1.1Perception ………... 10

2.1.2 Assessment in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Classes ... 12 2.1.3 Assessing Writing ... 13

2.1.4 Portfolios ... 15

2.1.4.1 Definition ... 16

2.1.4.2 The advantages of implementing portfolio assessment in assessing writing ... 17 2.1.4.3 Traditional Assessment vs Portfolios Assessment ... 18

2.1.5 Self-Assessment in Assessing Writing ... 20

2.1.5.1 Definition ... 20

2.1.5.2 The advantages of self-assessment ………..………… 21

2.1.5.3 Self-assessment in portfolio assessment ………….……… 22

2.2 Review of Related Studies ... 23

2.2.1Teachers’ Perception on the Use of Portfolio... 23

2.2.2Students’ Perception on The Use of Portfolio... 25

2.3Theoretical Framework ………... 25

CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY ... 27

3.1 Research Method ... 27

3.2 Research Instrument ... 28

3.3 Research Participants ... 32

3.4 Data Gathering Technique ... 32

3.5 Data Analysis Technique ... 33

3.5.1 Analyzing the Close-ended Questions ... 33

3.5.2 Analyzing the Open-ended Questions ... 34

3.6 Research Procedure ... 35

3.6.1 Identifying the Problem ... 35


(14)

xiii

3.6.3 Identifying the Research Method ... 36

3.6.4 Identifying the Research Participant ... 36

3.6.5 Preparing the Research Instrument ... 36

3.6.6 Asking Permission To Conduct The Study ... 37

3.6.7 Gathering and Analyzing the Data ... 37

3.6.8 Drawing Conclusion ... 38

CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ... 39

4.1 Research Result ... 39

4.1.1 Students’Opinion on the Advantages of Portfolio ... 41

4.1.2 Students’Opinion on Portfolio as Self-Assessment Tool ... 44

4.1.3 Students’Opinion on the Use of Portfolio Assessment ... 46

4.1.4 Portfolio Assessment Class Scenario ... 50

4.2 Discussion ... 53

4.2.1Students’Opinion on the Advantages of Portfolio………… 53

4.2.2 Students’Opinion on Portfolio as Self-Assessment Tool ... 54

4.2.3 Students’Opinion on the Use of Portfolio Assessment ... 55

4.2.3.1 Portfolio gives students the opportunity to write more…... 55

4.2.3.2 Portfolio helped students to identify their strengths and weaknesses ………... 56 4.2.3.3 Portfolio gives students the opportunity to revise their work……… 56 4.2.3.4 Portfolio makes students to be autonomous learners…….. 57

4.2.3.5 Portfolio helped students to be critical……… 57

4.2.3.6Portfolio improves students’ writing skill ………... 57

4.2.4 Portfolio Assessment Class Scenario ... 58

4.2.4.1Explain about the portfolio ……….. 59

4.2.4.2 Provide folder to keep the portfolio ……… 59

4.2.4.3 Give feedback and correction/revision on students’ portfolio ………..


(15)

xiv

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 62

5.1 Conclusions ... 62

5.2 Suggestions ... 63

5.2.1 Suggestions for Teachers ... 64

5.2.1.1 Explaining the students about portfolio itself ... 64

5.2.1.2 Giving clear feedback for the students ... 64

5.2.1.3 Discussingstudents’ mistakesin class ... 65

5.2.1.4 Providing a folder or file manager for students to keep their portfolio ... 65 5.2.1.5 Creatingclear scoring rubric for students’ portfolio ... 65

5.2.1.6 Combining portfolio assessment with traditional assessment ... 67 5.2.2 Suggestions for Students ... 67

5.2.2.1 Studying about the portfolio itself ... 67

5.2.2.2 Doing and keeping the portfolio well ... 68

5.2.2.3 Cooperating well with other students ... 68

5.2.3 Suggestions for Future Researchers ... 69

REFERENCES ... 71


(16)

xv

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

2.1 The Difference between Traditional Concept and New Concept of Assessment ...

15

3.1 List of Statements and Questions Used for the Questionnaire ... 30

3.2 Table Used to Present Close-ended Questions Result……….. 34

3.3 Table Used to Present Open-ended QuestionsResult ………... 34

3.4 Table Used to Analyze Open-ended QuestionsResult ………. 35

4.1 The Result of the Close-Ended Questions ... 40

4.2 The Result of the Open-Ended Questions (Number 27-28) ……... 50

4.3 The Result of the Open-Ended Questions(Number 29) …... 52


(17)

xvi

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

2.1 The perceptual Process by Altman, Valenzi, and Hodgetts ………….. 11 2.2 The Ongoing Process of Assessment According to Suskie ... 12


(18)

xvii

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix Page

I. Letter of Permission ... 76

II. Examples of Questionnaire ………. 80

III. QuestionnaireBlueprint ………..…... 83

IV. Questionnaire ... 85


(19)

1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter includes six main parts which are research background, problem formulation, problem limitation, research objective, research benefits, and definition of terms that are going to be discussed as follows.

1.1 Research Background

Writing seems to be an important skill that we should possess in this globalization era. We as global community need to have the ability to write

effectively since it is “becoming widely recognized as an important skill for educational, business and personal reasons” (Weigle, 2002). Therefore, in language teaching, writing should be taught effectively. In addition, a teacher should also find the appropriate assessment to measure the skill of writing.

Writing is a process. Teacher should realize that teaching writing means introducing this process to the students and making them accustomed to do this process. Since writing is a process, the evaluation of writing should be able to measure the whole process instead of assessing the result only. The most commonly used assessment in assessing writing is the traditional one which is paper-and-pencil test. Paper-and-pencil test for example, standardize tests, multiple choices tests, essay-type tests, and impromptu writing measures only a portion of the result instead of measuring completely the entire development of the learners during the process. According to Law and Eckes (1995) as cited in


(20)

Dikli (2003, p. 15) traditional assessment measures what students can do at particular time instead of measuring students’ progress from time to time.

However, test scorecannot be used to show students’ progress over time.

Many teachers seem to understand this situation that traditional assessment has some weaknesses and is not enough to measure their students’ learning. Therefore, teachers start to find a good alternative assessment which can cover the limitation of traditional assessment (test). A good alternative assessment according to Hatfield, Edwards, and Bitter (1997: 107) as cited in Lee, P. Y. (2006: 345) should have one or more of these characteristics: (1) Students perform, create, and produce; (2) Tasks require problem solving or higher-order thinking; (3) Problems are contextualized; (4) Tasks are often time-consuming and need days to complete; (5) Scoring rubrics or scoring guides are required.

According to Dikli (2003: 14), there are two common types of alternative assessment which are project and portfolio. Project requires students to display what they know about certain topics for example in the form of presentation multimedia, artwork, role-play, etc. Project may have some characteristics of good alternative assessment stated by Hatfield, Edwards, and Bitter (1997: 107) above but when we look up the definition of project and the explanation above, project may not be suitable to be used as an alternative assessment in assessing writing

because it does not measure students’progress during the lesson.

Portfolio is students’ collection of their works that shows their progress

during the course and their mastery of the skill given. Portfolio promotes self-assessment which enables students to identify their own strengths and


(21)

weaknesses. From the definition of portfolio above, we know that portfolio is suitable to be used as an alternative assessment in assessing writing because by using portfolio, it is possible for teachers to focus on both the process and the result.

Moreover, portfolio also has some characteristics of a good alternative assessment. Portfolio requires students to create and produce. Using portfolio, students are obligated to create and produce a set of compositions on various topics during the course. Not only that, portfolio is often time consuming. Producing a good portfolio, students must use more time rather than creating a composition on an examination day. Students need some time to develop their ideas, produce their compositions, check their portfolio, revise their portfolio, check it again, and revise it again. Then, portfolio requires scoring rubrics. Teachers must have scoring rubrics/scoring guides so that the assessment become clear and the teachers will be able to assess their student objectively. It is clear that portfolio is one of the good alternative assessments that is suitable to be implemented in assessing writing.

Furthermore, portfolio also focuses on the process instead of the result. During the process of producing, checking, and revising the portfolio, both teacher and students can monitor the development and progress that have been made by the students over a period of time. Moreover, portfolio assessment has a lot of advantages such as portfolio assesses both cognitive and affective domains, portfolio enables self-assessment, portfolio motivates students to write more, and portfolio gives students the opportunity to revise their composition. Thus, teachers


(22)

and future teachers can consider using portfolio as an alternative assessment in assessing writing.

Although portfolio is believed to be one of the suitable alternative assessments to be implemented in assessing writing, still portfolio seems to be less accepted by the students. Students seem to underestimate this kind of assessment. Students do not know what actually portfolio is and what the functions of portfolio are. That is what the writer is going to study in this research. This research focuses on the students’ perception toward the implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class. Through this study, the researcher wants to

figure out students’ attitude and theiropinion toward portfolio assessment.

1.2 Problem Formulation

There is only one problem that the writer formulates in this study. The problem of this study is: what is students’ perception towardthe implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class? From this problem formulation, the researcher expands the discussion to students’ perception toward portfolio assessment in writing class, students’ reason of having good or bad perception toward portfolio assessment and students’ suggestions for the better implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class.

1.3 Problem Limitation

The problem of this study is limited to the discussion on the definition of


(23)

the end of the lesson including all the drafts of each work. Then, the discussion

continues to the discussion on students’ perception toward the implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class. Students here refer to the students of Sanata Dharma University especially students from the year 2008 and 2009 who took writing class at even semester in academic year 2009/2010 which uses portfolio as assessment tool.

1.4 Research Objectives

The objective of this study is to describe whether students have good perception toward portfolio in writing class. Then, the next objective is to find out why students have good/bad perception toward portfolio. This study also has an objective to make students state some suggestions for the implementation of portfolio assessment in assessing writing so that the next implementation of portfolio will be better.

1.5 Research Benefits

This study is expected to give contribution to: 1.5.1 The English Teachers

The benefit of this study is to give an overview for the teachers and/or

future teachers about portfolio assessment and students’ perception toward the implementation of it. The writer hopes that the teachers and/or future teachers will be well-informed about portfolio assessment, also, understand the English


(24)

teachers of English can manage well how to use portfolio in their assessment and how to make portfolio well-accepted by the students.

1.5.2 Other Researchers

The result of this study might give other researchers clear description of portfolio assessment and the implementation of portfolio in assessing writing. This study, also, hopefully will encourage other researchers to conduct further study on similar topic.

1.5.3 Students of English Language Education Study Program

For students of English Language Education Study Program who probably read this thesis in the future, this study might broaden their knowledge of English language teaching especially on the assessment in English language teaching. After reading this study, the readers will get to know some things related to the implementation of portfolio assessment.

1.6 Definition of Terms

To avoid misleading and to have the same understading between the researcher and the readers, the researcher provides some definition of terms used in this study. The researcher defines some terms as follows.

1.6.1 Perception

“Perception is our sensory experience of the world around us. Perception

not only creates our experience of the world around us; it allows us to act within our environment” (Wagner, 2009). Thus, we can say that perception is the way people see, react, perceive, conceive and comprehend about the environment


(25)

around them as the result of experiencing something. Huffman, Vernoy, M., and Vernoy, J. in their bookPsychology in Actionexplain when people receive some sensory data, they will always try to organize those data and then interpret it into something that is familiar with their mental pattern (2000: 107).

Based on these experts’ explanations, in this study, the writer formulates

the definition of perception as someone’s point of view and opinion that he/she obtains from interpreting something about what she/he ever experienced in his/her environtment. For example, in this study the researcher wants to conduct research

on students’ perception toward the implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class. In other words, it can be said that the researcher wants to conduct research which investigate the opinion of the students about portfolio assessment that they have ever experienced in their writing class.

1.6.2 Assessment

Rayment (2006: 2) describes assessment as a method and process. She explains assessment is a method used in learning to measure how far the learning process happen, also to gain and collect feedback on the teaching-learning process. She adds, assessment is also process of evaluating students’

within an educational context and the process of documenting students’

knowledge, skill, and attitude.

However, the researcher has her own definition about assessment which is used in this study. According to the researcher, assessment is the process of

evaluating students’ learning to measure their achievement and development in their learning.


(26)

1.6.3 Portfolio

Campbell, Melenyzer, Nettles, and Wyman (2000), define portfolio as“an organized, goal driven documentation of students’ professional growth and achieved competence in the complex act called teaching.”According to Northwest Evaluation Association as cited in Weigle (2002: 198) portfolio is “a purposeful collection of students’ work that exhibits to the students (and/or others) the student’s effort, progress, or achievement in a given area” (1991: 1, cited in

Wolcott, 1998). Cited in Chen (2004: 1), McNamara and Deane explaine that

portfolio is “one of the assessments which provides more complete picture of

students’ ability, effort, and progress which also allows students to have greater voice in their language learning process” (1995: p.21).

In this research, portfolio is defined as the collection of students’ works

from the beginning of the course until the end of the course. Since this study focuses on the use of portfolio in assessing writing, portfolio here includes the

draft of students’ work.

1.6.4 Self-assessment

As cited in Wen-ming and Xiao-zhen (2008: 20), self-assessment can be

defined as “information about the learners provided by the learners themselves,

about their abilities, the progress they think they are making and what they think they can or cannot do yet with what they have learned in a course” (Blanche and

Merino, 1989). Boud (1991) and Brew (1999) as cited in Marhaeni (2005: 1) add, self-assessment is students’ involvement in assessing process where students


(27)

about how their works have met the criteria. Rayment (2002: 55) said that

self-assessment is “a powerful part of self-assessment for learning” because it can motivate

students to learn more, to identify and evaluate their own skills and weaknesses.

Based on experts’ explanations above, we can say that self-assessment means students evaluate themselves by analyzing their own works, identifying their skills and weaknesses, and setting their own learning objectives/goals to make a good progress in their learning. Self-assessment makes students responsible for the whole learning process of their own.


(28)

10

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter aims at discussing the theories underlying this study. This chapter consists of three parts which are theoretical description, review of related studies and theoretical framework.

2.1 Theoretical Description

This section discusses some relevant theories about perception, assessment and portfolio. Here are the theories which are relevant to the topic.

2.1.1 Perception

In our daily life, people might be familiar with the term perception. Some people might say perception is vision, reaction, idea, conception, or reaction about something that we have experienced before. Nevertheles, Yapias, Iizuka, Hayashi, Yim, and Burke (2004: 6) explain that perception is the process in which people gather sensory information, organize it, and interpret it. That explanation about perception is almost the same with Altman, Valenzi, and Hodgetts’ explanation.

Theyadd, “perception is the way stimuli are selected and grouped by a person so

that can be meaningfully interpreted” (1985: 85) .

Perception is always started from stimuli. It is the process where stimuli is gathered, organized, and grouped. The process continues when this grouped stimuli is interpreted into behavioural response. This process can be clearly seen in figure 2.1.


(29)

Figure 2.1 The Perceptual Process by Altman, Valenzi, and Hodgetts

According to Altman, Valenzi, and Hodgetts (1985: 86), someone’s

perception can be influenced by some factors namely selection of stimuli, organization of stimuli, the situation, and the person’s self-concept. Selection of stimuli means when people receive a lot of stimuli, they only focus on small part of stimuli (p.86). Next factor influencing perception is organization of stimuli. Based on figure 2.1 above, after people receive some stimuli, they will select it. Then, the selected information will be organized to be something meaningful.

Altman, Valenzi, and Hodgetts (p.87) say that “arrangement of stimuli affects our perception”. The ability to organize and arrage the selected stimuli is different from one person to another. Thus, we can say that organization of stimuli

influence someone’s perception.

The third factor influencing perception is the situation. “A person’s

familiarity with, or expectation about, a situation, as well as his or her past experience, affect what that person perceives” (p.89). Each person has different background, culture, and experience. People’s behaviour on certain situation of course will be influenced by their background, culture, and experience. The last factor is self-concept. Self-concept is person’s image felt and perceived by himself or herself (p.90). For example, people may think that they are educated. The thought about themselves who are educated will influence their perception about something.

Stimuli

Sensors’

selection of stimuli

Perception, organization, and

interpretation of stimuli

Behavioural response


(30)

2.1.2 Assessment in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Classes

One of the activities which are done in EFL classroom is assessment. According to Peregoy and Boyle, assessment is a procedure used to evaluate

students’ learning. This procedure can also be used to measure students’

achievement and development (2004: 108). According to Nunan (2003),

assessment is “the act of collecting information and making judgment on learner’s knowledge and ability” as cited by Prabandari inLLT Journal(2005: 109).

Suskie, in her book,Assessing Student Learning(2004: 3), formulates the definition of assessment as follow which is also illustrated in figure 2.1.

“Assessment is the ongoing process of: establishing clear,

measurable expected outcomes of students learning; ensuring that students have sufficient opportunities to achieve those outcomes; systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well student learning matches our expectations; and using the resulting information to understand and improve students’ learning.”

1. Establish Learning Goals

3. Assess Student Learning

Figure 2.1 The Ongoing Process of Assessment According to Suskie

2. Provide Learning Opportunities 4. Use the


(31)

Rayment has different opinion. Sheformulates assessment as a “process of

evaluating students within an educational context” (2006: 2). Based on the

experts’ definitions about assessment above, we may say that in the teaching-learning process one thing that teacher needs to do is evaluating students’

learning. It is important to be done because it can help teacher toknow students’

development and achievement during the teaching-learning process. Then, the

result of evaluating students’ learning can be used to decide whether such

teaching method and technique still can be used or not? Thus, assessment becomes a crucial step in teaching because this is the only way for the teacher to evaluatestudents’ progress in learning.

There are a lot of methods of assessment used in assessing language. Teachers and/or future teachers must be able to decide which method which fits best with their students and their learning objectives so that they can measure their

students’ learningwell.

2.1.3 Assessing Writing

Hughes (1989: 75) as cited in Weigle (2002: 1), says that “the best way to test people’s writing ability is to get them to write”. This statement clearly states

that paper-and-pencil test like sentence completion, pictured-cued task, and multiple choices tests are not the best way to test writing ability. Another expert states traditional assessment like paper-and-pencil test measures only a portion of the results instead of measuring completely the entire growth and development of the individual. Traditional test“comes withouta personal responsibility, measures learners' performance on the slice of skills that appears on tests, but fails to


(32)

demonstrate learners' full range of intuitions and knowledge, sufficiency with first-draft work, and exclusion of development” (Wolf, 1989as cited in Alimemaj and Ahmetaj, 2010).

Moreover, “testing situation itself often produces anxiety within the student such that they are unable to think clearly” (Huerta-Macias, 1995). They

add “the student may also be facing extenuating circumstances (e.g., personal problems or illness) at the time she/he is being tested; this also hampers the

student’s performance on the test”. Students may be failed in a test not because they do not study before the exam but because they are stressful, nervous, and/or sick during the test that makes them cannot do the test well.

Knowing that traditional assessment has some disadvantages, we cannot deny that it also has some advantages. Lianghuo as cited in Lee, P. Y. (2006: 346-347) mentions some advantages of traditional assessment which are it is easy to design, it is easy to administer, it can have good coverage in content, it is good for testing factual knowledge and specific skills, it is easy to mark and grade, it is more objective, it is easy to analyze and report, it is well established, and it is also well accepted. Considering its advantages, it is clear that teachers can still apply traditional paper-and-pencil test. Paper-and-pencil test can still play an important role in assessing writing but teachers have to find a new way of assessment to cover the limitations of traditional assessment and to compensate what traditional assessment cannot achieve.

We as a teacher, in order to find the most effective and appropriate assessment method in assessing writing, should find alternative assessments


(33)

instead of applying the traditional one. The following Table 2.1 shows the features of traditional concept and new concept of assessment stated by Fan Lianghuo from The National Institute of Education as cited in Lee, P. Y. (2006: 344) that teachers have to consider in choosing the appropriate alternative assessment.

Table 2.1 The Difference between Traditional Concept and New Concept of Assessment

Student

assessment Traditional concept New concept

What to be assessed

Cognitive domain (mainly knowledge and skill) and the result of learning

Both cognitive and affective domains (knowledge, skill, ability and disposition) and both the result and process of learning

Where it is conducted

Within classroom Within and/or outside

classroom When students

work on the tasks

During in-class time During and/or after class

time How it is

conducted

Conventional way (paper-and pencil or written test)

Both conventional and alternative ways How long the

process takes

A block of time (e.g., one or two class periods)

It depends on the tasks. It could be days, weeks, months, or even years What purposes it

usually serves

Single (most important: grading and reporting

students’ learning results)

Multiple (most important: improving teaching and learning)

The alternative assessment that we choose should be able to measure both cognitive and affective domain, measure both the result and the process of learning, be conducted whithin and/or outside classroom, be conducted both conventional and alternative ways, have multiple purposes, take some times to finish, and be done by the students during and/or after class time.

2.1.4 Portfolios

In this part, the researcher explains about portfolio assessment itself and the implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class.


(34)

2.1.4.1 Definition

There are numerous definitions of portfolio. From the definition of terms in chapter I, the researcher concluded that portfolio is the collection of students’

written work from the beginning of the lesson until the end of the lesson including all the drafts and the revisions. For example, every week students are ask to write

a composition on certain topic, and then they have to check each others’ composition and give feedback to their friends’ composition. After that, they

submit their composition to their teacher in order to receive a feedback from the teacher. Receiving feedback from both their friend and teacher, students are then required to revise their assignment. After all, at the end of the semester, students have to submit all of their assignments that they have made during the semester.

Finally, portfolio is the collection of all students’ assignments that they have made

during the semester–the compositions and the revisions.

O'Malley and Pierce (1996) as cited in Apple and Shimo (2004: 54) differentiate portfolio in three separate categories namely showcase portfolio (students-selected pieces which they believe represent their best work), collection portfolios (contain all the drafts and the final product of all student works) and assessment portfolios (require students to select works for assessment according to certain criteria given by the instructor).

Cited in Barton and Collins (1996: 4-5), there are four types of portfolio which are artifacts, reproductions, attestations, and productions (Collins, 1991).

“Artifacts are students’ document (e.g. homework, students’ paper,

etc) that are produced during normal academic work in our classroom. Reproductions are documentation of students work outside the classroom such as special project or interview.


(35)

Attestations are the documentation that teachers generate about the

students’ academic progress (e.g. teacher written feedback of students’ presentation). Thelast, productions, are the documentation of students’ preparation for the portfolio. This includes goal statements, reflections, andcaptions.” (Barton and Collins, 4-5)

Hamp-Lyons and Condon (2002) as cited in Weigle (2002: 199) mention nine characteristics of portfolio: 1) portfolio is a collection of written works, rather than a single writing sample; 2) portfolio enables the writer to display his/her writing performance; 3) portfolio shows students the learning situation and what students have accomplished within their learning; 4) portfolio is delayed assessment, it gives students opportunity and motivation to revise their work; 5) portfolio lets students to select the pieces to be included in portfolio; 6) portfolio offers opportunities for student-centered control; 7) portfolio involves reflection and self assessment; 8) portfolio measures students’ growth along specific

parameters; and 9) portfolio provides a means for measuring development over time.

In this study, the writer will only focus on the second category of portfolio which is collection portfolios. Also, the writer only focus on the first type of portfolio which is artifacts.

2.1.4.2 The advantages of implementing portfolio assessment in assessing writing McNamara and Deane (1995: 21) as cited in Chen (n.d), explain that portfolio shows students’ability, effort, and progress during the learning process which allows students to have influence in their language learning process and involve in the assessment process. Cited in Niami (2008), Brown, 1998; Paulson, Paulson, and Meyer, 1991; and Yue, 1999 mention some advantages of using


(36)

portfolios that are: (1) portfolio allows students to evaluate their work which means students involve in the assessment process; (2) portfolio enables self

reflection; (3) portfolio enhances students’ learning and autonomy; (4) portfolio

encourages students to be more responsible about their own learning; and (5)

portfolio changes students’ perspective of the teacher’s role and their own role.

Apple & Shimo, 2005; Hamp-Lyons & Condon, 2000; Shimo, 2003 as cited in Apple and Shimo (2004: 77) add some benefits of portfolio assessment which are portfolio enables self-assessment that makes students aware of their strengths, weaknesses, also, improvement that they have made during the lesson. At the end of the lesson, when students see their collection of works, from teacher and peer feedback, they will notice the stregths and weaknesses they have, also the improvement that they have made during the lesson. Hung (2004) states that

“portfolio shows what the students can do rather than they cannot do, it gives

richer picture of the students’ ability and understanding, and it demonstrates the

growth of competence while reducing stress”. Nunes (2004) adds some benefits

which were portfolio assessment can “foster students’ reflection, help students

monitor their own learning, and be a useful pedagogical tool that it facilitates the adoption of a more learner-centered as well as the integration of assessment,

teaching and learning with the curriculum.”

2.1.4.3 Traditional assessment vs portfolios assessment

Portfolio assessment is so much contrary to traditional assessment. O'Malley and Pierce 1996; Paulson and Paulson, 1991; Yang, 2003 as cited in


(37)

Niami (2008) compared and contrasted portfolio to traditional assessment as follows:

“First, portfolios measure student's ability over time, while in traditional assessment it is measured at one time. Second, portfolio assessment is done by teacher and student and the student is aware of criteria, while traditional assessment is done by teacher alone and the student is often unaware of criteria. Third, portfolio assessment is embedded in instruction but traditional assessment is conducted outside instruction. Fourth, portfolio assessment captures many facets of language learning performance, while traditional assessment does not capture the range of student's ability. Fifth, portfolio evaluation stresses improvement, effort, and achievement, while traditional assessment only focuses on results. In other words, portfolio evaluation is process-oriented, while traditional assessment is product-oriented. Finally, portfolios connect learning, assessment, and instruction whereas these aspects are separated in traditional assessment. In brief, portfolios are considered a better tool for student learning.”

Based on the explanation above, we can conclude that portfolio assessment is learner-centered and process-oriented assessment. Since it is a learner-centered, it means students are aware of the assessment criteria that students should be responsible for their own learning. Whereas traditional assessment is teacher-centered and product-oriented - teacher is the one who is responsible for the assessment and one thing that the students should do is just doing the test.

In addition, Murphy (1994) contrasts portfolio assessment to traditional

assessment by mentioning that “in the portfolioapproach, students are encouraged to use their teachers and classmates as resources to facilitate learning, while

students taking test are usually not allowed to talk or ask for help” (cited in Hung,


(38)

2.1.5 Self-Assessment in Assessing Writing

2.1.5.1 Definition

The issue of self-assessment refers to students’ effort in providing some information about their learning, their progress, their achievement, about “what

they are making and what they think they can or cannot do yet with what they have learned in a course” (Blanche and Merino, 1989) as cited in Yang and Xu

(2005). Harris and McCann, 1994 (cited in Yang and Xu, 2005) describe

self-assessment as “useful information about students’ expectations and needs, their

problems and worries, how they feel about their own (learning) process, their reaction to the materials and methods being used, what they think about the course

in general.” Based on the definitions above, we can conclude that self-assessment is the way students see their learning and how they react to it.

In another journal, Harris (1997: 20) considers self-assessment

“encourages the students to become part of the whole process of language

learning, and to be aware of his/her progress”as cited in Chunlei and Chen (2005: 8). It means self-assessment encourages learning autonomy for students. Students are responsible for their own learning.

Saito in his journal, “The Use of Self-Assessment in Second Language

Assessment”, explaines that self-assessment is always related to self-evaluation, self-testing, self-rating, and self appraisal. Therefore there is no consistent definition of assessment. However, Saito informed that the definition of self-assessment can be seen from its purpose. Saito added that there are two main purposes of self-assessment which are performance-oriented self-assessment and


(39)

development-oriented self-assessment. Performance-oriented self-assessment

“samples the test takers’ performance at one particular point in time” (Saito);

whereas, development-oriented self-assessment “assesses the participants for an extended period in order to detect changes and patterns of development over time”

(p.1). Portfolio assessment is included in this definition. 2.1.5.2 The advantages of self-assessment

Self-assessment has some benefits which are: (1) encourages students to become independent learners (Wenden, 2001 as cited in Yang and Xu, 2005); (2)

increases students’ motivation in learning (Geeslin, 2003; Wenden, 2001; Angelo

& Crosss, 1993 as cited in Yang and Xu, 2005); (3) allows students to monitor their progress (Yang and Xu, 2005); (4) makes students to pay more attention in their assessment (Rollheiser and Ross, 2005 as cited in Marhaeni); and (5) raises

students’ awareness (Blanche, 1988 as cited in Chunlei and Chen, 2005).

Using self-assessment, students will be involved in their assessment. This makes students to pay more attention to their learning especially in their assessment. They will try to find out what are their learning goals, what are they good at, what are they less good at, and what they have to do with the assessment. Of course, it makes students to become more aware about what they should do and motivates them to do what they have to in order to achieve such great achievement in their learning. Using self-assessments, students can monitor their progress in learning so that they know what improvement and how big progress they have made during their learning. Once again, it will motivate them to work harder, to make bigger progress in the next opportunity.


(40)

All of these students’ efforts clearly show that self-assessment encourages students to be autonomous and independent learners. Self-assessment does give some benefits for the students. Therefore, self-assessment should be integrated into the English classroom everyday.

2.1.5.3 Self-assessment in portfolio assessment

There are three basic elements of portfolio which are students’ artifacts,

assessment criteria, and self-assessment (Wyaatt III and Looper, 1999 as cited in Marhaeni, n.d). Students’ artifacts show the development and progress that students have made during the lesson. Assessment criteria are guideline for the students to create a good assignment which meet the requirements. Finally, self-assessment helps students to achieve the self-assessment criteria. Self-self-assessment provides information for students about what they are good at and what they are less good at, about their skills they have and the weaknesses that they have to get rid of, and about the progress they have made. With this information, students will be able to produce better assignments which meet the assessment criteria.

O’Malley and Pierce (1996) add, self-assessment is the key of portfolio assessment (cited in Marhaeni, n.d).Moreover, “self-assessment is a good tool to facilitate an effective writing process” (Marhaeni, n.d). Using self-assessment, students can continually monitor their progress in writing. Portfolio assessment is learner-centered. Not likely in traditional assessment where only the teacher who is aware of the assessment criteria, in portfolio assessment, students are also aware of these criteria. Like what the researcher have explained above, if students


(41)

are aware of the assessment criteria, they will be able to produce better assignments and make a good progress during the teaching-learning progress.

2.2 Review of Related Studies

This part explains some related studies on portfolio assessment that have been done by the experts. During this study, the researcher found four research articles similar to this study. One of these fouronline journals discusses teachers’

perception on the use of portfoio which title isTeachers’ Perspective on Portfolio Assessment in EFL Writing Classroom. This journal is written by Shao-Ting Alan

Hung. The other three discuss students’ perception on the use of portfolio which are Matthew Apple and Etsuko Shimo’s Perception of Portfolio Assessment in EFL Cassrooms, Davis et all’s Student Perception of a Portfolio Assessment Process, and S Elango’sPortfolio as a Learning Tool: Students’ Perspective.

Based on those four journals found by the researcher, this part will be

devided into two sections which are teachers’ perception on the use of portfolio and students’ perception on the use of portfolio.

2.2.1 Teachers’ Perception on the Use of Portfolio

In his study, Hung (2005) uses in-depth interview to gather the data. He interviewed two EFL teachers at college level. Based on his study, it is explained that both of these EFL teachers consider traditional assessment (classroom examination) not fair. In this study, it is explained that “students has different background and different language proficiencies that there are always some students who work extremely hard but still fail in the exams and there are students


(42)

who hardly ever participate in the activities in class but still get good grades”

Hung (2005).

Hung (2005) explains that traditional examination is not the best way for

assessing students’learning. Teachers have to find alternative assessment that can be used together with this traditional assessment. In this study, it is explained that portfolio is considered as one of this authentic assessment. Portfolios can be used

to witness students’ growth over a period of time. They show “what students can

do rather thanthey can not do” (Hung, 2005). Teachers also agree that portfolios emerge autonomous learning. Students will be able to know their strengths and weakneses and they can control their own learning. Students can set their own learning objective and motivate themselves to achieve this objective.

In order to make portfolio assessment effective, Hung (2005) explains that teachers have to: First, give clear explanation on the implementation of portfolio.

From Hung’s study it is found that students who are knowing that portfolio plays

a role as an assessment tools for their writing classes aware writing process as their responsible. Students are motivated to give the best effort for completing their portfolio. Second, provide a clear and specific rubrics/criteria to assess their

students’ portfolio. “Clear criteria motivate students and make the assessment more attainable” (Hung, 2005).

According to Hung (2005), teachers welcome portfolio very well but still they consider traditional paper-and-pencil test important as part of assessment tools in class. Traditional assessment “gives teachers another source to evaluate


(43)

conclude his study with a suggestion to combine traditional paper-and-pencil test with portfolio assessment.

2.2.2 Students’ Perception on The Use of Portfolio

In conducting a research on students’ perceptionon the use of portfolio, all the experts use the same research intrument to gather the data which is questionnaire. Davis et all and S Elango et all conducted the study in medical training field. Whereas Matthew Apple and Etsuko Shimo conduct the study on EFL classroom in Japan.

The three research articles conclude the same thing that students give a good response on the use of portfolio as an assessment tools though the implementation of portfolio sometimes need days to finish, complicated, and

stressfull. Students believe that portfolio “hightened their understanding of the exit learning outcomes and enabled reflection on their work” (Davis et all, 2009).

Moreover, portfolio encourages students to develop. Cognitively, students develop their writing skill through portfolio: they can learn from their own mistakes or from others. Affectively, portfolio guides students to be more autonomous and active in learning.

2.3 Theoretical Framework

The issue of assessing writing is often related to the use of portfolio assessment. Portfolio assessment is considered to be alternative assessment tool which can cover the weaknesses of traditional assessment which is paper-and-pencil test. Portfolio assessment offers a lot of benefits for both teachers and


(44)

students. For the teachers, portfolio helps them to assess both cognitive and affective domains. Learners who have a good affective domain will try to make their portfolio as good as possible and teacher can measure the cognitive domain

through the quality of their students’ portfolio.

For the students, portfolio enables self-assessment– it is possible for the students to learn from their mistakes and correct it by theirself. This certainly will make students be autonomous learners. Moreover, portfolio focuses on the process instead of the result. Since portfolio focuses on the process instead of the result, portfolio can be used to monitors students’ progress in writing. Portfolio

shows students their strengths and weaknesses in writing. By showing students’

strengths and weaknesses, portfolio can be used to help students to improve their writing ability. Another advantage of portfolio is it motivates and gives students the opportunity to revise their composition before final exam is given. In brief, portfolio gives us so many advantages compared to traditional assessment.

Teacher will be able to measure students’ progress in language learning

(especially writing) effectively by using this kind of alternative assessment. From those advantages of portfolio, the researcher formulates an instrument which is used in this study to gather the data needed in order to answer research problem formulated previously. Then, after the data are gathered, the researcher will analyze and synthesize the data with those theories about portfolio assessment.


(45)

27

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the methodology used to conduct the research. This chapter is divided into six main discussions which are the discussion of research method, research instrument, research participants, data collection, data analysis and research procedure.

3.1 Research Method

Research method used in this study was survey method. According to Ary et al (2002: 374) “survey is a research techniques in which data are gathered by

asking questions of a group of individuals called respondents”. In this study, the researcher focusedon students’ perception toward portfolio. Since the researcher

focused on students’ perception toward portfolio, survey method is the suitable method to use.

Due to the use of this kind of method, the researcher used questionnaire as the research instrument. “The questionnaire is the instrument to gain the information relating to facts, feelings, and so on” (Ary, et al, 2002). Using questionnaire, the researcher asked some questions about the implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class to groups of writing class students.

During this study, there were actually more than four writing classes which used portfolio as an assessment tool but the researcher only used four writing class as the object of the study. These four writing classes were chosen


(46)

because these writing classes were suitable with the researcher’s criteria about the

implementation of portfolio assessment in writing classes. These four writing classes had similar pattern of portfolio implementation. At the beginning of the semester, the lecturer had set some topics. During the semester, the students created some compositions about these topics and every week they had regular

activities which were writing, checking others’ composition, giving feedback, and revising their composition. Then, at the end of the semester, students submitted their portfolio which consisted of their drafts, compositions, and revisions that they have made during the semester to the lecturer and it was the lecturer who would assess their portfolio. Since not all of the writing class students were distributed the questionnaire, we can say that this study used sample survey.

Sample survey is “a study that studies only a portion of the population” (Ary, et al, 2002). The kind of sampling used was purposive sampling. Purposive sampling is the selection of subject based on certain criteria (Patton, 1990) – object which meet the criteria were used as subject of the study whereas object which do not meet the criteria were rejected.

3.2 Research Instrument

To collect the data there was only one research instrument used in this study which was questionnaire. From the previous study about portfolio, there were two researchers namely Elango and Lee who used questionnaire (which can be seen in the appendix II) as their research instrument. In this study, the researcher adapted those questionnaires and adjusted it with some theories about


(47)

portfolio. In the questionnaire, the researcher only stated the advantages of portfolio so that it will be clearer for her to differentiate the participants who have positive perception and negative perception – students who choose ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ had positive perception toward the implementation of portfolio

assessment in writing class and vice versa.

From the two example of the questionnaires used in previous study and some theories about portfolio described by the experts in chapter II, the researcher also generated some open-ended questions. These open-ended questions were used to find students’ reason for having positive/negative perception toward the implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class and to find students’

suggestions for further implementation of portfolio assessment in assessing writing.

Table 3.1 (in the next page) shows the statements and questions used for the questionnaire in this study.


(48)

Table 3.1 List of Statements and Questions Used for the Questionnaire

No Statement/Question

1 Portfolio helps me to monitor my progress in writing. 2 Portfolio helps me to improve my writing ability.

3 Writing portfolio helps me to monitor my learning goals.

4 In writing portfolio, I can plan my own learning progress to achieve the learning goals.

5 Portfolio gives me an opportunity to revise my composition before final exam is given.

6 Writing portfolio helps me to raise my motivation to revise my composition before final exam is given.

7 Reviewing others’ portfolios is very useful for I can learn from others.

8 Peer-feedback on my portfolio is very useful to improve my writing ability.

9 I always revise my work after I get feedback from my peer.

10 Teacher-feedback on my portfolio is very useful to improve my writing ability.

11 I always revise my work after I get feedback from my teacher. 12 Portfolio is very useful as additional learning tool.

13 Portfolio allows me to make reflection on my learning.

14 Portfolio helps me to recognise my strengths and weaknesses in writing. 15 By using portfolio, I can learn from myself (from my mistakes).

16 Portfolio helps me to develop my strengths.

17 Portfolio helps me to reduce or even remove my weaknesses in writing. 18 Portfolio helps me to be an autonomous learners as I can analyse

problems on my own.

19 A clear and specific instruction from my teacher helps me to make a good portfolio.

20 I enjoy writing and completing my portfolio. 21 Portfolio is not a stressful process.

22 I do my portfolio at regular time (weekly, monthly or every two weeks). 23 At the end of the course, my portfolio is complete (nothing is missing). 24 Writing portfolio makes me to be an active learner.

25 I am aware that portfolio is used as an assessment tool in writing class so that I put a big effort to create a good composition.

26 In writing portfolio, I am aware that I am responsible for my own progress in learning.

27 What do you think about the use of portfolio in writing class? Does it give benefits for you? Why and why not?

28 In your opinion, which parts of the writing skill can be improved using portfolios? Explain your answer.

29 What would you suggest changing or improving for the implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class to make the assessment effective!


(1)

write more, it makes us learn more. 32 Portfolio is useful because I can learn

from teacher-fedback.

All parts of writing. 33 Portfolio is very useful because I can

improve my writing skill.

Using portfolio, I can develop the idea of paragraphing.

The lecturer should give comment about our portfolio and dicuss the mistake in class.

34 It gives benefits for me because I know my mistakes so I won’t do the same mistake in the next tasks.

Sentence structure. Grammar. Someimes, we should use paper to write not onl use the computers. 35 Portfolio is beneficial to improve our

writing.

Grammar. Spelling. Minimum requirement.

The lecturer need to discuss our mistakes in class so that we won’t do the same mistake next time. 36 It’s useful. I can learn from my

previous writing. It helps me to improve my writing skills and give me motivation to give extra effort in making good paragraph.

Grammar. Coherence between paragraphs.

The lecturer should give the good correction in our writing.

37 It’s good. I like writing and portfolio motivates me to write more.

Lecturer should give feedback and correction to our portfolio so we know which one is wrong and right. Our portfolio should be published for example in blgo se our writing can be read by many people and we can get feedback from our reader. 38 It’s useful. I know our aility in

writing so I can improve it. I also can learn from my friends and myself.

Using dictions. Making thesis statements.

Students should help others more seriously in correting others’ writing.

Lecturer should provide ‘worksheet’ to evaluate students’ writing. 39 Portfolio is good learning tool. It’s

beneficial. It helps students to improve their ability in writing.

Grammar. Vocabulary. Generic structure.

Lecturer give feedback and students must revise it after the lecturer return the assignment. 40 It’s useful. I can improve my writing

skill. I also can learn from other while checking their essay and give feedback to them.

Pargraph organization. Grammar. Vocabulary.

Peer and teacher feedback are very needed in my portfolio so I can do better in my next task.

41 It’s useful. I can identify my mistakes and improve my writing skill.

Generic structure. Grammar. Vocabulary.

Portfolio should be returned to the students with feedback and cooments.

42 It’s useful. It enables students to be aware of their mistakes. It lets me learn from my mistakes so later I wont do the same mistake.

It can develope skill of composing good paragraph by paying attention to grammar, punctuation, clarity, and coherence.

Returning the final revision to the students.

43 It’s beneficial. I can see my progress day by day after a whole semester before the final exam, so, I can do my final exam well.

Using portfolio, I can improve the coherence in writing.

Feedback from teacher and friends.

44 It’s beneficial. Using portfolio, I know my progress in writing. I also can learn and analyse problems on my own.

Grammar. Diction. Generic structuer of a writing.

Doing discussion before writing. Giving feedback and return the portfolio to the students. 45 It’s useful. I can develop my writing

ability. Also, portfolio increase my knowledge about writing.

The coherent between paragraph.

46 Portfolio in writingclass is good. It’s beneficial. I know my progress in writing and I can learn from teacher feedback.

Students’ portfolio should be checked by the teacher and be given feedback so the students can learn from their mistakes.

47 Portfolio is very useful. Through portfolio, I can develope my writing ability. It helps me reduce my

Grammar accuracy. The teacher should give the feedback.


(2)

weaknesses in writing.

48 portfolio gives benefits because I can revise my mistake and learn from it.

Generic structure and grammar accuracy.

students have to put their portfolio in folder so that they will never miss their work. Teacher should give specific fedback.

49 It’s beneficial. Using portfolio I can learn about how to improve my writing skill.

Teacher should give correction if the students make mistake and give feedback so that students wont do the same mistake again.

50 Portfolio helps me to improve my writing skill because I can learn more about writing skill from my mistake.

Grammar accuracy. Composing a good writing.

The use of portfolio must be increased so the students can be a good writer.

51 Portfoio gives many benefits. I can improve my writing. I can learn from mistakes and try to correct it. I can reflect my achievement and increase my motivation.

Grammar. Language. Vocabulary/diction. Generic structure.

Students’ portfolio should be given feedback and cooment.

Students should have file manager or folder to collect their portfolio so that non of their work is missing. 52 The use of portfolio helps me to

understand the element of writing which is required. It gives benefits because it can help me to understand the material easier and improve my writing skill.

The elements of writing, e.g. the concept, body, thesis statement and conclusion. Diction. Grammar accuracy.

Portfolio should be more specific so it can help us to understand the element of writing well.

53 It’s beneficial. We can learn from our mistakes.

Idea developing. Using portfolio, we can share idea with our friends.

Students should submit the portfolio at regular time.

54 Portfolio is very useful. I can learn from my mistakes.

Grammar accuracy. It’s already good. 55 Portfolio is useful. It helps me not to

do the same mistakes.

Structure. Increase my ability to expan the topic.

More discussion in corretiong the grammar.

56 With portfolio I can revise my work and improve my skill in writing.

Error analysis (I can analyse some errors in writing better), grammar accuracy.

Moer discussion.

57 It’s very useful to improve our writing ability.

Grammar accuracy and vocabulary. Reading.

Students should organise the content of portfolio well and teacher should give clear explanation about it. Use portfolio in other subjects. 58 It’s very useful. Using portfolio, we

can learn from our mistakes and control our progress in writing.

Grammar. Diction. Punctuation.

Students should use folder to keep the portfolio and put the date on every portfolio so they wont miss one of our works.

59 It’s beneficial. I can learn from my mistakes and it motivates me to practice more. I also can develope mysefl to be better.

Always use portfolio in writing lass because it’s very beneficial.

60 The use of portfolio in writing class is good for the students. It gives us benefits to improve our writing skill. We can identify our strengths and weaknesses from it.

Increase our awareness of our mistakes because sometimes we don’t know our mistakes and don’t consider about it.

The implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class is good so we don’t need to change.

61 The use ofportfolio in writing class is important because using portfolio students can see and know whether their skill is improving or not.

Word spelling. The teacher should give feedback not only reep-feedback.

62 It’s useful. I can improve my writing skill, remove my mistakes, and explore my idea.

Grammar, preposition, pronunciation, diction and minimum requirement.

The teacher must be active to give correction in students’ writing. Personal correction is better. 63 It’s useful to recognise my mistakes,

reduce/remove my mistakes so I can learn from my mistakes.

Sentence structure. Grammar. Students should report their portfolio in the last meeting and given a chance to study their


(3)

friends’ portfolio. 64 It’s useful and beneficial. It helps me

to recognise my mistakes, improve my writing skill. It also helps me to identify my strengths and weaknesses so I can avoid the same mistake in the next assignment.

Grammar. Diction. S-V agreement. Minimum requirement.

Teacher feedback should not be given only in the final assignment but also in every assignment so it can warn the students to have best result in the end.

65 Portfolio is good. It’s beneficial. It helps me to repair my mistakes in writing.

Grammar. Diction. Punctuation. Minimum requirements. Through portfolio I can know my mistakes and try to revise my writing to be better.

When students revise their friends’ assignment, they have to revise it seriously and give the right explanation for them so that they can learn.

66 It’s beneficial. It’s really helpful in my learning progress. I can learn from my mistakes when my friends and lecturer give feedback on my writing. It makes me to improve my writing skill.

Grammar accuracy. The feedback from peer and lecturer makes me aware of my grammatical mistakes in writing.

The grammatical mistakes and dictions should be corrected clearly by the lecturer so students can understand well what mistake they have made.

67 Portfolio is very beneficial. I can learn from my mistakes and I try to improve my writing ability.

Portfolio should be made more interesting and exciting so that it wont be stressful.

68 Portfolio is very beneficial for I can develope my writing skill.

Grammar. Spelling.

Accuracy. We can understand deeper about those things from peer and teacher feedback.

The teacher should be more focun in the portfolio.

69 Portfolio helps us to flashback on he materials we have learn.

Grammar. The implementation of portfolio should be made more attractive. 70 Portfolio is useful for I can monitor

my progress in writing.

Grammar. Students should reread their portfolio so they can learn from their mistakes.

71 I know my progress in writing using portfolio.

Minimum requirements, grammar, and spelling.

The lecturer should explain first to the students what portfolio is. Then, he should give more feedback for the students’ writing.

72 It’s good and beneficial. I can identify my weaknesses in writing.

Diction. The material in portfolio should be more varied.

73 It’s useful. Portfolio can be used to monitor our progress during the semester. We know our strengths and weakneses. It can also improve our writing ability because we cn learn from our mistake.

Through portfolio, we can learn how to revise others’ work. We can also learn how to minimize our mistakes, especially for the minimum requirements and it can help us to arrange a good composition.

The use of portfolio should be planned carefully so that it can be given regularly. For example, we submit the portfolio weekly ro bi-weekly.

74 It really helps me recognising my weaknesses.

Making the draft/outline. Portfolio should be checked regularly.

Feedback should be given regularly. Give feedback orally also. Portfolio can be both handwriting or typed. 75 It’s very important and useful. It

gives me more benefits especially to improve my writing.

Structure. Grammar. Diction. By writing, I know hoe to write well.

The lecturer should also give feedback for our final revision in our portfolio. So we don’t only make revision but also get the last feedback for our final revision. 76 It’s useful and helpful in my learning

process. Feedback from lecturer and friends help me to improve my writing skill.

Minimum requirement and coherence. It’s a good idea to check the composition few times.

So fa so good.

77 Portfolio helps me to revise my work. I also be able to know my mistakes,

Revising. Correcting mitakes. Learn how to write

Students should be more careful because most of the students lost


(4)

my weaknesses and strengths in writing.

semantically and grammatically correct.

their work often so that they have non-complete portfolio at the end of the semester.

78 The use of portfolio in writing class is useful for me. Although I didn’t do my portfolio well, I can improve my learning especially on writing well. I can learn from the mistakes that I’ve made before.

Making composition. How to make a well arrange writing which are using good grammar and diction.

We can learn from others’ portfolio and we let ours to be checked by other. At the end, we wil get feedback, we can learn from our mistakes also from others’ mistakes. 79 it’s beneficial. It helps me to improve

my writing ability. The feedback and correction from both my friends and lecturers help me to create better composition.

Grammar. Idea development. The lecturer need to give the explanation clearly and chech students’ work patiently.

80 It’s beneficial. It measures my weiting skill. It helps me to be aware of careless mistake such as

grammatical error, punctuation, diction and other minimum requirements.

Grammatical error awareness. Diction. Branstorming.

Clear feedback from teacher and peer so we will not get cunfused.


(5)

vi

ABSTRACT

Setyawati, Yenny. 2010.

Students’ Perception toward

the Implementation of

Portfolio Assessment in Writing Class

. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

In this modern era, writing seems to be an important skill that people

should possess. As global community, people need to have the ability to write

effectively

since writing plays an important role in people’s life. That is why

writing should be taught and assessed well in language teaching. The assessment

of writing using a test seems to be inadequate because writing test has some

disadvantages. Therefore, teacher needs to find an alternative assessment which

can cover the disadvantages of writing test. Portfolio is considered to be one of the

alternative assessments. Basically, portfolio is a good assessment tool but in fact a

lot of students do not realize it. Because of that, the researcher conducted this

study which is intended to investigate students’ perception toward the

implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class. This study had one

research problem formulated: W

hat is students’ perception toward

the

implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class?

In this study, the researcher used survey method. To gather the data, only

one instrument used, that is questionnaire. The questionnaire included twenty six

statements and three open ended questions about portfolio assessment. The

questionnaires were distributed from May 12th, 2010 until May 18th, 2010 to the

students of Paragraph Writing Class B, Paragraph Writing Class C, Short Essay II

Class A and Short Essay II Class F in Sanata Dharma University. Those four

writing classes were chosen because they were suitable with the researcher’s

criteria about portfolio assessment

students did the writing assignment regularly

during the semester and at the end of the semester, they have to collect all their

assignment they have made and submit it to the lecturer. Total respondents in this

study were eighty students.

The data analysis showed that most of the respondents had positive

perception toward the implementation of portfolio assessment in writing class. All

the respondents had a notion that portfolio assessment is useful and beneficial and

is good to be implemented in writing class. Although portfolio gives so many

benefits, still it has some weaknesses. However, portfolio assessment helped

students to improve their English well, especially in writing.

This study concluded that students have positive perception toward the

implementation of portfolio assessment because it gives so many benefits for the

students: (1) Portfolio helps students to identify their strengths and weaknesses,

(2) Portfolio gives students the opportunity to revise their assignments, (3)

Portfolio lets students monitor their own progress and assess their own learning,


(6)

vii

ABSTRAK

Setyawati, Yenny. 2010.

Students’ Perception toward

the Implementation of

Portfolio Assessment in Writing Class

. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Dalam era modern, menulis merupakan sebuah keterampilan yang harus

dimiliki oleh masyarakat. Sebagai komunitas global, masyarakat harus memiliki

kemampuan menulis secara efektif karena menulis memegang peranan penting

dalam hidup manusia. Oleh karena itu, menulis harus bisa diajarkan dan dinilai

dengan baik dalam pembelajaran bahasa. Penilaian menulis menggunakan test

nampaknya kurang memadahi karena test memiliki beberapa kelemahan. Maka,

guru harus bisa menemukan sistem penilaian alternatif yang dapat melengkapi

kekurangan ini. Portfolio dianggap dapat menjadi salah satu dari sistem penilaian

alternatif tersebut. Pada dasarnya, portfolio merupakan sistem penilaian yang

bagus namun kenyataannya banyak siswa tidak menyadari akan hal ini. Oleh

sebab itu, peneliti mengadakan penelitian ini yang bertujuan untuk meneliti

persepsi siswa terhadap implementasi portfolio dalam kelas menulis. Penelitian ini

memiliki satu permasalahan yang difurmulasikan yaitu: Bagaimanakah persepsi

siswa terhadap implementasi portfolio dalam kelas menulis?

Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti menggunakan metode survey. Untuk

mengumpulkan data, hanya satu instrument penelitian yang digunakan yaitu

kuesioner. Kuesioner yang digunakan memiliki dua puluh enam pernyataan dan

tiga pertanyaan terbuka tentang portfolio. Kuesioner dibagikan sejak tanggal 12

Mei 2010 hingga 18 Mei 2010 kepada siswa-siswa dari Paragraph Writing Class

B, Paragraph Writing Class C, Short Essay II Class A and Short Essay II Class F

di Universitas Sanata Dharma. Keempat kelas menulis tersebut dipilih karena

keempatnya memenuhi kriteria-kriteria yang ditetapkan oleh peneliti mengenai

portfolio yaitu selama satu semester, siswa secara rutin menulis

karangan-karangan dan pada akhir semester, mereka harus mengumpulkan semua tugas

yang telah mereka buat selama satu semester dan mengumpulkannya kepada

dosen. Total jumlah responden dalam penelitian ini adalah delapan puluh siswa.

Dari analisis data dapat dilihat bahwa sebagian besar responden memiliki

persepsi yang baik terhadap implementasi portfolio dalam kelas menulis. Bahkan

seluruh responden berpendapat bahwa portfolio sangat berguna dan

menguntungkan bila diimplementasikan dalam kelas menulis. Walaupun portfolio

memiliki beberapa keunggulan, namun tetap saja portfolio memiliki beberapa

kelemahan. Namun, bagaimanapun juga, portfolio tetap saja dapat membantu

siswa dalam meningkatkan kemampuan bahasa Inggris mereka khususnya

kemampuan menulis.

Penelitian ini memiliki kesimpulan bahwa siswa memiliki persepsi yang

baik terhadap implementasi portfolio karena portfolio memiliki beberapa

keunggulan yaitu: (1) Portfolio membantu siswa untuk mengidentifikasi kelebihan

dan kekurangan mereka, (2) Portfolio memberikan kesempatan kepada siswa

untuk merevisi tugas mereka, (3) Portfolio membuat siswa dapat memonitor

kemajuan belajar mereka dan menilai pembelajaran mereka sendiri, and (4)

Portfolio mengembangkan kemampuan siswa dalam menulis.