STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHERS’ CLASSROOM QUESTIONING ( A Descriptive Study on State Senior High School Students in Banyumas) - repository perpustakaan

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW A. Students’ Perception

1. Definition of Perception

  Perception is one of the important psychological aspects because by perception we know about the kinds of phenomenon which exist in our environment. People have different perceptions on an object. It can be positive or negative ways.

  Perception is automatically related to certain nature of human being, which his or her psychological features. Perception is a process which starts from the sense of organ. That is a process related to acceptance of information by human brain that is said that during the process a person continually interacts with his or her environment (Slameto, 2010: 102). While Mulyana (2007: 179) stated that perception is internal process enable us to choose, organize, and interpret the stimuli from environment, those process can influence our manner.

  Moreover, perception is the impression of a person to a particular object which is influenced by internal factors, such as behavior under the control of personal and external factors, such as behavior influenced by circumstances outside (Depdiknas, 2003).

  8 From the explanation above it can be concluded that perception is a process which starts from the vision to form a response that occurs in person which is come from external and internal factors through its senses.

2. Factor Affecting Perception

  Everyone has different tendency in seeing the same thing. The difference can be affected by many factors, including the internal and external factors (Walgito, 2001: 103).

  a. Internal Factors Internal factor is a factor which comes from an individual.

  This factor depends on personal psychological such as thoughts, feelings, willingness, needs, sex, motivations, attentions, etc. Every human being has different characteristics and temperament which are also shaped by individuals’ family and individuals’ environment.

  b. External factors

  This is a factor which comes from outside of individual such as stimulus, environment culture, believe. Our life relates with environment, both physical and social environment.

3. Process of Perception

  Perception is the process where message or information enters to human brain. Through perception, human being continually connects with the environment. It’s done through five senses. Walgito (2001: 53) stated the following steps show the process of perception: a. Stimulus Perception arises because of the response to the stimulus. The first step of perceptions is sensation. All of the sensations enter through humans’ senses. Sensation will influence the stimulus.

  b. Registration The stimulus will be transferred by nerve to brain. Then it will be processed by brain. In this process, human being recognizes the stimulus.

  c. Interpretation Stimulus entering into the brain will be interpreted, construed, and given meaning through a complicated process.

  Relation in this study is the perception given by the students as a result of stimuli that first given by the teacher in the form of questions.

4. Basic Principles of Perception

  For the teacher, knowing and implementing basic principles of perception is very important. There are many basic principles that should be known by English teachers in order to know students characteristics so the communication between teachers and students will be effective, those are:

  a. Perception is relative not absolute

  It means that perception of someone or group is different from others. The perception sometimes will be different even though they talk about the same things.

  The teacher can predict students’ perception better in the next lesson by knowing this from previous lesson being taught.

  b. Perception is selective It means that perception that is given by someone or group come based on their attention. It depends on their brain or motivation about the object. In this case, the teacher should choose what parts need to be pressure to get more attention from the students .

  c. Perception has arrangement It means that perception of someone is an arrangement about an object. It is influenced by their brain, motivation, experience, and etc. For example, someone maybe will have negative perception toward English lesson because of their bad experience before related to English itself. In other words, the arrangement of the object can give influence toward the perception about that object.

  d. Perception is influenced by hope and readiness Hope and readiness of a person will determine which messages will be selected for admission, laid out, and how the message will be interpreted.

  e. Perception of someone or groups can be different although in the same situation

  For the teacher, this principle means that the perception could be more or less the same with the perception shared by other classes with the same subject matter being taught (Slameto, 2010: 102-105).

5. Students’ Perception

  Students are the main and the most important resource in the teaching and learning process. Students can learn from teachers, while teachers cannot teach without students (Danim, 2010: 1). All of the learning process always begins with perception.

  Students’ perception is the process of preferential treatment of students toward information they get from an object, in this study is teachers’ classroom questions. Through observations with their senses, students can interpret the observed object.

  It is important to understand students’ perceptions of how they perceive teachers’ questions and answer questions in class. Those perceptions affect students’ willingness to participate actively in question and answer sessions (Cole, 1994: 184).

B. Classroom Interaction

  Interaction has a similar meaning in the classroom. It can be defined as a two-way process between the participants in the learning process (Dagarin, 2004:5).

  The main purpose of learning a language is to use it in communication whether in spoken or written forms. Classroom interaction is the main key to reach that purpose. In the era of communicative language teaching, interaction is important for language teachers. Through interaction, students can increase their language store and use all they possess of the language (Brown, 2001: 165).

1. Participants

  Teacher and learners are two major roles in the classroom. The communication and interaction happen among them in the teaching and learning process. These are the participants in classroom interaction, depending on who communicate with whom: a. Teacher – learners

  The first type of interaction (teacher – learners) is established when teacher talks to the whole class at the same time. Teacher as the leader and decides about the type and the process of the activity.

  b. Teacher – learner/a group of learners The second type of interaction (teacher – learner/a group of learners) is established when the teacher refers to the whole class, but expect only one student or a group of students to answer. It is often used to evaluate the individual of students. This form can also be used for an informal conversation between teacher and learner.

  c. Learner – learner The third type of interaction (learner – learner) is called as “pair work”. Students have to finish assignment in pairs.

  d. Learners – learners

  The last type of interaction (learners – learners) is particularly useful for encouraging interaction among student. They work collaboratively in group discussion.

2. Teachers’ Role

  In traditional classroom, teachers had the dominant talk. It means that they are as the main role in filling students’ empty head with the knowledge. Students only learn from the teacher who became an all- knowing leader (Dagarin, 2004: 7). This situation has already changed.

  Nowadays teachers got many roles depending on different classroom situations.

  Teachers can help students to develop their interaction skills in a foreign language. There are some ways of teachers’ help such as: using body language, giving appropriate topic, and asking questions (Dagarin, 2004: 10).

  In the teaching-learning process, teachers spend a lot of time talking, lecturing, asking questions, giving instructions, and so on.

  Teachers not only use language for that function, but they also demonstrate and use body language in order to make students understand well about the material being discussed. By using body language, students in EFL classroom will be more pay attention to the teachers.

  Students get a lot of information from teachers’ gesture. Besides that teachers can help students to express themselves freely with their body language (Dagarin, 2004: 11).

  Dealing with appropriate topic, teachers can stimulate students’ interaction by choosing appropriate topics. Young students prefer talking about sport, computers, music, movie, gadget, and etc (Dagarin, 20014: 11). Students can say a lot more about the topic of their interest than something they do not really know well.

  Classroom interaction can be established through asking and answering questions. In the classroom, the teacher often asks the questions to the learners and the learners answer those questions. This interaction takes place between the teacher and the class and/or small groups in the class and/or individuals.

C. Teachers’ Classroom Questioning

1. Classroom Questioning

  A question is any sentence which has an interrogative form or function. In classroom settings, teacher questions are defined as instructional stimulant that convey to students the content elements to be learned and directions for what they are to do and how they are to do it (Cotton, 1998). Question is intended to obtain verbal responses. The term of "question" is not always in the form of interrogative sentences, but it can also be in the form of statement, as long as they both desire verbal responses. Criteria of good questions are short and clear, requiring answers, giving students the opportunity to re-think, stimulate cognitive abilities and the process of interaction (Kemendikbud, 2013).

  While Cole and Chan (1994: 170) stated that Classroom Questioning is an interactive process which aims to engage students in the learning process and draw forth thoughtful responses. It is used by teachers to encourage students to think and respond to the content delivered by the teachers. In classroom setting, cotton (2003 as cited in Hasan, 2013: 1) claimed that teacher questions and students’ answers are considered a powerful teaching approach if they are used to expose contradictions, challenge assumption, and lead to new wisdom and knowledge. To vitalize the classroom questions, teacher should design questions which can expand students’ knowledge and promote creative thinking.

  A number of researchers (Brown and Wragg, 2001; Cotton, 2003; Richard, 1996; Morgan; 1991 as cited in Hasan, 2012: 1) stated the following functions that teacher questioning serves in the classroom: a. asking questions helps teachers to follow up and elaborate on what student has said.

  b. students can openly express their ideas through answering teacher questions.

  c. the act of questioning let students benefit from various explanations of the material by their peers.

  d. questioning is a good tool for evaluating students’ learning and reviewing the lesson. e. asking questions enable teachers to control class discipline and student behavior

2. The Importance of Teachers’ Classroom Questioning

  Question in language classroom is a common technique used in teaching. The goals are to check students’ understanding, enhance students’ involvement, and to promote students’ creative thinking in classroom interaction. Moreover Richard and Lockharts (1994: 185) stated the following as justifications for the importance of questions in teaching: a. it can stimulate and maintain students’ interest.

  b. it can encourage students to think and focus on the content of the lesson.

  c. it can enable teachers to check students’ understanding.

  d. it can encourage students’ participation in a lesson.

  Teachers’ classroom questions are the main part of classroom teaching. It is one of the teaching methods to get the goals of the classroom teaching. Teachers want to get students’ responses and the first step is to answer questions. Through consistent dialog and interactive communication, teachers get the answers they want and can evaluate the students (Xiao, 2008: 2). Teachers who are well aware of questioning skill can motivate their students to ask questions and to provide responses. Moreover students’ language proficiency can be improved through the interaction between the teacher and students and among the students themselves.

  Acocording to Azerefegen (2008) students’ skills of questioning, critical thinking, and negotiation of meaning and interaction abilities can be promoted if teachers are well aware of the students’ right to ask question. By allowing students to ask questions, can motivate, initiate, and engage them in various language activities to discover answers to teachers questions and find out the solutions to problems posed by their teachers.

  Students should also be encouraged to ask questions and answer teachers’ question. If students are given the opportunity to talk, teachers would be able to gain feed back on students’ problems in some parts of the lesson. Despite the fact that teachers take a major role in classroom questioning students also need to practice the way of forming different questions.

3. The Purposes of Teachers’ Classroom Questioning Teachers ask questions in class to achieve different purposes.

  Each has implications for the practical aspects of teaching. The major purposes are listed as follows: a. Questions facilitate interpersonal communication. A question will often encourage verbal interactions between teachers and students.

  Students are required to respond and participate actively in the communication process. The right kinds of question help to increase the quality of interactions. b. Questions focus attention on particular aspects of subject matter.

  One way to make students focus to important features of a topic is direct questions at those features.

  c. Questions assess knowledge and understanding of subject matter.

  Teachers often ask questions to determine if students have knowledge and understanding of subject matter being taught. _.

  d. Questions stimulate cognitive activity Questions can be used to prompt both low and high level cognitive processes.

  e. Questions prompt group discussion. Questioning can be used as preliminary activity to assist group discussion.

  f. Questions control social behavior. Questions are often used to encourage desirable behavior or restrict undesirable behavior (Cole and Chan, 1994: 172).

  While Cotton (1998: 1) stated the following purposes of teachers’ classroom questioning are: a. to develop interest and motivate students to become actively involved in lessons b. to evaluate students’ preparation and check on homework or seatwork completion c. to develop critical thinking skills and inquiring attitudes

  d. to review and summarize previous lessons

  e. to nurture insights by exposing new relationships

  f. to assess achievement of instructional goals and objectives g. to stimulate students to pursue knowledge on their own.

4. The Types of Teachers’ Classroom Questioning

  Another categorization, which will be fundamental for this study, for teachers’ questions was presented by Wajnryb (1992, as cited in Hamiloglu, 2012: 3) as follows:

  a. Yes/No question Those are questions which can be answered only by ‘yes’ or

  ‘no’. For example: “Do you understand?” “Here is a picture of woman. Have you seen her face before?”

  b. Short-answer or retrieval-style questions Short-answer or retrieval-style questions are questions which require short responses of the person being asked. For example:

  “What did she say about the movie?”

  c. Open-ended questions Those are questions which will elicit more language. For example: “What kinds of sports do you like? Why?” “How do you feel now?”

  d. Display questions Display questions are questions which request information that has been already known to the questioner. For example: “What color is this pen?”

  e. Referential questions Referential questions are questions requesting for new information. For example: “What did you study at university?” f. Non-retrieval or imaginative questions Non-retrieval, imaginative questions are questions that do not require the learner to retrieve given information but instead call on inferred information or information in which an opinion judgment is called for. For example: “What do you think of the writer’s judgment?”

D. Relevant Previous Research

  Azerefegn in 2008 conducted a research entitled Types of teacher’ questions and questioning Strategy towards eight teachers and 170 students randomly selected two private schools, Keranyo Alpha Secondary School and Saint Mary Catholic Secondary School. Observation was used to collect the data of types of questions given by four teachers in the classroom.

  Questionnaire was used to know students’ responses of teachers’ questions. The results indicated that from the total (83) questions, 64 or 77.1% of questions were knowledge questions and 19 or 26.9% were comprehension questions. The distribution of questions which were given by the teachers was answered 54.21% voluntarily. Students’ responses whether they were fear to ask questions in EFL classroom indicated that 68.75% said yes and 31.25% said no.

  Hamiloglu in 2012 conducted study employed both qualitative and quantitative techniques to what type of questions were processed in EFL classes and to what extent they were used. The participants of this study were EFL teachers and the students from two schools where 11 teachers did their practicum and observed the classes for their practicum course requirements.

  The sample size was too small for making generalizations on questions types preferred by teachers of EFL, but the main aim of the study was to gain a perspective on which question types more preferred by EFL teachers were.

  The qualitative data were gathered from the observations of 11 teachers by analyzing the findings in terms of questions asked by the teachers and their appropriate types in above mentioned theoretical perspective. The quantitative data were gathered from the analysis of the quantity of questions used by the EFL teachers. Having 6.12% of 98 questions, non- retrieval/imaginative questions take the last position in the study. It was clearly seen that though this type of questions was of great importance in learning process, they were not commonly preferred by teachers.

  The findings showed that in terms of the purposes teachers’ questions convey in the class, convergent questions were mostly used ones with 52 in 98 questions. As this type of questions generally include Yes/No, short answer and display type questions, over use of convergent questions were not favored in EFL. On the contrary, divergent questions were more challenging ones including open-ended, referential and non-retrieval/imaginative questions. To provide a free production and active use of the target language, divergent questions were important and necessary means of classroom questioning.

E. Basic Assumption

  This study was based on seeking the perceptions of students at three senior high schools in Banyumas on their teachers’ classroom question. This is very important not only for facilitating students’ responses but also for improving teachers’ competence in initiating students to promote classroom interaction. By knowing what students’ perceptions are, teacher can modify their questions based on students’ needs. This will help teachers to achieve the goal of qualified teaching learning process.