A Skripsi
Submitted to Faculty of Language Education as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By: Siti Chariroh
20120540101
Department of English Education Faculty of Language Education Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
A Skripsi
Submitted to Faculty of Language Education as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By: Siti Chariroh
20120540101
Department of English Education Faculty of Language Education Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
I am a student with the following identity
Name : Siti Chariroh
NIM : 20120540101
Program Study : English Education Department
Faculty : Faculty of Language Education
University : Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
I certify that the skripsi with the title “Exploring Lecturers’ Strategies in Assessing Students’ Soft Skills at English Education Department Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta” is my own work. I am completely responsible for the content of this paper. Others’ opinion and findings included in this skripsi are quoted in accordance with ethical standards.
Yogyakarta, 29 December 2016
Siti Chariroh
Dedication
This
Skripsi
is Dedicatited to My Family:
My beloved Parents
My beloved Husband
&
“In the name of ALLAH the most gracious and the most merciful”
This skripsi would not be done if I do not get the help from Allah SWT. So the first one after finishing this skripsi, I just want to be thankful to Allah SWT that has given me easy of finishing this skripsi, and the patience in doing this skripsi.
This skripsi also would not be complete without support from people around me. I thank to my beloved husband, my beloved parents and my beloved brother and sister who always send me prayers, and always give me motivation.
Then, I want to say thanks for my supervisor Mr. Gendroyono, S. Pd., M. Pd, who has guided me in patiently until I complete my skripsi. Thank you so much for your time and your knowledge.
I do not forget to Mr. Puthut A, S.Pd., M. Pd, and Miss Sri Sudarsi. S.S., M. InT as my examiner who has provided the suggestions, correction and knowledge to me. Thank you so much, Sir.
Moreover, thanks for all lecturers at EED of UMY who have taught me and given knowledge, I am release without you all I am not to be as like this.
Cover………...i
Approval Sheet………...ii
Statement of Authenticity……….iii
Dedication ………..iv
Acknowledgement………...v
Table of content………..vii
List of Appendices………...x
Abstract………...xi
Chapter One: Introduction ………...1
Background of the Research………..1
Identification of the Problem……….4
Limitation of the Problem………..5
Research Question………..6
Purposes of the Research………6
Significances of the Research……….6
Outline of the research………....7
Chapter Two: Literature Review …..………...9
Definition of soft skills………....9
Categories of soft skills………..10
Assessing students’ soft skills………12
The role of teacher………….………...…..13
Strategy ………..15
Strategies in assessing communication skill…...……….16
Strategies in assessing critical thinking skill……...……….16
Strategies in assessing creativity skill……….……….17
Strategies in assessing teamwork skill……….17
Strategies in assessing responsibility skill……….……..………18
Theoretical framework……….18
Review of related study………19
Chapter Three: Methodology ………..………21
Resign Design………21
Research Participant………..22
Research Setting……….23
Data Collection Method……….23
Data Analysis……….24
Chapter Four: Finding and Discussion ..……….26
Lecturers’ strategies in assessing students’ soft skills at EED of UMY………..26
Direct method used by the lecturers in assessing students’ soft skills..………..27
Finding 1: Using rubric as strategy to assess communication skill………..27
Finding 2: Using activities to assess students’ soft skills..………..……….…………....27
Finding 1: Too many students at EED of UMY...………..……..40
Finding 3: Inactive students………..41
Finding 4: assessing students’ creativity………...…….……..42
Finding 5: Determining standard of students’ original work or authenticity .…...……..42
Finding 6: Processing before finishing the task…….………...……...43
Finding 9: The challenge of scoring individual contribution ………...43
Chapter Five: Conclusion and Suggestion …………...………....45
References………...……..49
Abstract
Soft skills, as well as hard skills, are the skills that must be possessed by students of English Education Department (EED) Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY). Soft skills are considered as an important skill, since they can give advantages for students in the future. Moreover, it became the other points assessed by the lecturers at EED of UMY. Based on the curriculum EED of UMY there are thirty-two of soft skills, but most of the lecturers assess five soft skills; communication skill, critical thinking skill, creativity skill, teamwork skill and responsibility skill. Every lecturer had strategies to assess soft skills and some of the lecturers seem have problems to assess those soft skills. The purpose of this research was to discover the strategies used by the lecturers to assess students’ soft skills and the problems faced by the lecturers in assessing students’ soft skills at EED of UMY.
The researcher used coding which consists of open coding, selective coding, and axial coding but this research focused in open coding.
As the result, the researcher found three strategies used by the lecturers to assess soft skills, using rubrics, conduct activities such as presentation, group discussion, classroom discussion, critical thinking project, consultation, group project, a textbook making, and creating simple dictionary, group work, teamwork outcome, self- discipline and punctuality in turning in the task with good result. The last strategy is observation including direct class observation, individual observation, and observation during presentation. In this research, there were six problems faced by lecturers at EED of UMY in assessing students’ soft skills. They were too many students at EED of UMY, inactive student, assessing students’ creativity, determining
the students’ original work or authenticity, processing before finishing the task, and
to easy the challenge of scoring individual contribution in group work. However, not every participant had problems in assessing students’ soft skills at EED of UMY.
Chapter One Introduction
This chapter elaborates background of the research, identification of the problem, limitation of the in problem, research question, purposes of the research, significances of the research, and outline of the research.
Background of the Research
Skills are very significant to support people's performances in today’s
workplace and any activities that they do. Indeed, people should have two kinds of skills, namely hard skills and soft skills. Onabamiro, Onuka, Oyekanmi (2014) stated that “Hard skills are the specific skills to a particular career field of job while soft
skills are skills and personal characters that are useful for performing any jobs ” (p.
109). For example, teachers should have both hard skills and soft skills. Teachers’ hard skill is their knowledge, and their soft skill is teaching or delivering the knowledge.
Students nowadays learn soft skills and hard skills because both skills are needed in job market. Soft skills and hard skills should be balanced since both complement each other. In an educational field, students must possess soft skills because the soft skills play an important role in developing students’ personality. Rani (2010) maintained:
“soft skills are learned behavior that it needs training. Soft skills will enable
and manage teams. Those soft skills play an important role in the
development of the students’ overall personality in enhancing their career
prospects” (p.1).
Sanyal (2013) added “soft skills are the occupational requirement of a job or
many other activities” (p. 421).
Students who have soft skills would possess good quality of life because the soft skills make them ready for facing the challenges in the workplace. According to Rani (2010, p. 3) “soft skills will help the students
increase their employability potential and face the challenges of the present time.” Soft skills should be taught and trained in an academic field before
applied in daily life as Mai (2012) stated “students’ soft skills need to be
developed to get them ready for the workplace” (p. 44).
Meanwhile, all lecturers at English Education Department (EED) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) assess students’ soft skills
independent learning, communication, problem solving and logical argument.
The lecturers’ lesson plan explains competencies and goal that should
be achieved by students including the hard skills and soft skills related to the course. Furthermore, the lesson plan also mentions that 20 percent of the score is from the soft-skill assessment. It means that every student should have good soft skills because they are assessed at the EED of UMY.
Based on the researcher’s experience, the lecturers said that assessing
soft skills of students is not easy because the great number of students and different soft skills which have to be assessed. However, assessing students’
discipline is easy because the lecturers can assess this soft skill by seeing documents such as a presence list showing whether or not the students ever skip the class.
In the classroom activity, the lecturers had some difficulties to assess
students’ soft skills. It happened because too many students in classroom.
Consequently, the lecturers should assess all soft skills that students have such as cooperative, committed, critical thinking, respectful, creativity, innovative, confident, responsible, teamwork, independent learning, communication, problem solving and logical argument. Therefore, it was difficult for the lecturers to assess students’ soft skills in the great number of students.
in the lecturers’ lesson plan.
The challenge in assessing soft skills are supported some aspects such as competency of teacher in assessing soft skills. Asuru and Ogidi (2013) cited in Dorowuju and Onuka (2014) stated that “some of challenges of assessing soft skills
include teacher incompetency, poor knowledge of test construction and lack of knowledge of how to properly assess soft skills.(p. 608 )
From those reasons, the researcher was interested in conducting a research on
lecturers’ strategies in assessing students’ soft skills and the problems in assessing
students’ soft skills at EED of UMY.
Identification of the Problem
Based on the issues that were explained in the background, the researcher finds some issues. Firstly, the lecturers should have competence of understanding their students’ soft skills. It was very important for the lecturers because it helped the
lecturers understand the weaknesses and strengths of the students. Lecturers who grasped their students’ weaknesses and strengths can create good technique of
teaching and the harmonic relationship between the students and the lecturers.
Calfapietra (2000) as cited in T. Lee and T. Lee (2011) stated that “teacher must view their students as individuals and recognize them through their personal strength and weakness in learning” (p.141).
Secondly, the issue was the lecturers’ strategies in assessing students’
Lecturers assess students’ soft skills based on the soft skills mentioned in the
curriculum, namely intrapersonal skill, interpersonal skill, and extra personal skill. Lecturer’s strategies are useful to identify students’ soft skills.
Lastly, the researcher identified problems faced by the lecturers in assessing students’ soft skills. Based on the researcher’s experience, some of
lecturers got difficulties in assessing students’ soft skills. One of the
difficulties was that the lecturers should assess too many students.
Limitation of the Problem
Based on the identified issues, the researcher limited the problems. First, the researcher wanted to explore lecturers’ strategies in assessing students’ soft skills at
the EED of UMY. There are some categories of soft skills, but the researcher focused on five soft skills that the lecturers assessed. They are communication skill, critical thinking skill, creativity skill, teamwork skill, and responsibility skill. The researcher focused on the five soft skills because most of lecturers at the EED of UMY assess those soft skills as written on their lesson plan.
Research Question
In this case, the researcher conducted research to explore the lecturers’
strategies and problems in assessing students’ soft skills. Therefore, the
researcher formulated two research questions written as follows:
1. What are lecturers’ strategies in assessing students’ soft skills at the EED of
UMY?
2. What are the problems faced by the lecturers in assessing students’ soft skills at
the EED of UMY? Purposes of the Research
1. To explore lecturers’ strategies in assessing students’ soft skills at the EED of
UMY.
2. To identify the problems faced by the lecturers in assessing students’ soft skills at
the EED of UMY.
Significances of the Research
The researcher mentioned several benefits of the research; they are:
For the researcher. This research makes the researcher gain new knowledge of the variety of strategies that are usually used by the lecturers in assessing students’
For the students. This research helps students know the strategies to improve their soft skills. This research also gives the students knowledge of lecturers’
strategies in assessing students’ soft skills and problems usually faced by the lecturers in assessing students’ soft skills.
For lecturers. There are benefits that this research may give for the lecturers, especially lecturers at the EED of UMY. This research gives some references for the lecturers about strategies in assessing students’ soft skills
that can be applied in the classroom during teaching process or assessing students’ soft skills. Therefore, lecturers may know each soft skill of students.
For the next researchers. This research can become a reference for the next researchers, especially for students of the EED of UMY, who want to conduct the research on the strategies in assessing students’ soft skills.
Outline of the Research
This research consists of five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction of this research that explains background, identification of the problem, limitation of the problem. Besides that, this chapter also provides research questions, purposes of the research, and significances of the research.
assessing students’ soft skills.
Chapter three focuses on the research methodology. There are six points in chapter three, namely research design, research participants, research setting, data collection method, technique of data collection, and data analysis.
Chapter four presents findings and discussion. The findings are presented based on the data collected from interviews and link them to the theories mentioned in chapter two.
Chapter Two Literature Review
This chapter discusses several points related to literature reviews to support this research. This chapter explains the definition of soft skills, assessing students’
soft skills and strategies in assessing students’ soft skills.
Soft Skills
Definition of soft skills. In this part, the researcher provides several
definitions of soft skills taken from various resources. According to Onabamiro, et al.
(2014, p.109), “soft skill is a sociological term relating to a person’s emotional
intelligence quotient (EIQ), the cluster of personality traits, social graces,
communication, language, personal habit, friendliness and optimism that characterize relationship with other people.” Moreover, Majid, Liming, Tong, and Raihana (2012)
contended “soft skills refer to personalities, attributes, qualities, and people personal
behavior of individuals” (p. 1036). Rani (2010) also claimed:
In addition, Dalaya, Ishaquddin, Ghadage, and Hatte (2015) described “soft skills are people used to communicate, solve problems, and think creatively in contrast to hard skills” (p. 1).
Categories of soft skills. There were some categories of soft skills. According to Nealy (2005), soft skills include communication, listening, team of problem solving, cross cultural relationship, and customer service. Furthermore, soft skills are also dealing with communication skill, interpersonal skill, group dynamics, team work, body language, etiquettes, selling skill, presentation skill, confidence building (Rani, 2010).
Besides, Majid, et al. (2012) argued that soft skills include communication, problem solving, self-motivation, decision making, and time management skill. Sanyal (2013) added that soft skills comprise leadership, decision-making, conflict resolution, negotiation, communication, creativity, and presentation skill. Schulz (2008) also mentioned some categories of soft skills which are communication skill, critical thinking, problem solving skill, creativity skill, teamwork capability,
negotiation skill, responsibility, time management, and self-management. In this research, the researcher examined five categories of soft skills proposed by Schulz (2008) which are communication skill, critical thinking skill, creativity skill,
skills written on a lesson plan of lecturers of the EED of UMY, and the researcher wanted to grasp how the lecturers assess those soft skills.
Communication skill. Communication skill is the way to interact with others.
Janasz, Dowd, and Schneider (2002) defined that “communication is a process in
which information flow from a source to receiver and back. We communicate
because we want something to happen or we want to satisfy a need” (p. 86).
Dharmajan, Pachigalla, Lanka (2012) added that “communication skill is a skill
where the message is transmitted in such a way that the receiver receives it in a way the sender intended it to be” (p. 4).
Critical thinking skill. As suggested by Paul and Elder as cited in Scot (2009)
“critical thinking is solve a complex problem by rising vital question, gathering
relevant information, determining finding, and communicating effectively”(p. 40).
Meanwhile, Bernstein, Stewart, Penner, Roy, and Wickens (2000) stated that “critical thinking is the process of evaluating propositions or hypotheses and making
judgments about them on the basis of well supported evidence” (p. 20).
Creativity. Creativity is about how one develops idea. According to Barbot,
Besancon, and Lubart (2011) stated that “creativity is the ability to produce
something which is both new or original and task or domain appropriate”. (p.125). In
workable solution to problem” (p. 201). Furthermore, Prucha, Walterava, and Mares
(1998) as cited Trnova (2014) said that “creativity is defined as mental ability based on cognitive and motivational process where, however, an important role is played by inspiration, imagination, and institution” (p. 55).
Teamwork capability. Teamwork is doing something together in a team.
According to Janasz, et al. (2002) teamwork is a “team of a formal group consisting
of people who work together intensively to achieve a common group goal. The essence of teamwork is to create a product through collective effort of several individuals” (p. 310). Another definition of teamwork was stated by Dolage and
Hearth (2013) that “teamwork encouragea member and facilitates cooperative, instills
a sense of pride, trust and group identify. It fosters commitment, team spirit and helps the teams to achieve their goals (p. 25).
Responsibility. There are two definitions of responsibility provided in this
research. Firstly, based on Oxford dictionary (2010, p. 376) “responsibility is duty to
deal with or take care of” (p. 376). Secondly, according to Duangjan (2014, p. 80)
“responsibility is a basic important value of ethics and is a behavioral trait that should
be encourage in other to develop personal quality.”
and find out the appropriate strategies in teaching and assessing the soft skills in the classroom. Dorowoju and Onuka (2014) stated:
“assessment of soft skills is as important has hard skills and one of the
challenges of soft skills assessment in school has to do with determining with appropriate method for assessing soft skills. It becomes imperative to examine the
appropriate methods for assessing soft skills” (p. 608).
The Roles of a Teacher or Lecturer
A teacher is not only someone who teaches students in front of class, but also the one who has some roles in teaching Harmer (2002) mentioned that a teacher can possess several roles, namely as a controller, organizer, assessor, prompter,
participant, resource, tutor, and observer.
Teachers as controllers. When acting as controllers, teachers are responsible for the class and the class or group activities. They have to “take the role, tell students
things, organize drills, read aloud, and various other ways exemplify the quality teacher-fronted classroom” (Harmer, 2002, p. 58).
Teachers as organizers. As organizers, teachers manage students to undertake various activities. “This often involves giving the students’ information,
telling them how they are going to do the activity, putting them in to pair or group,
Teachers as assessors. Students may except that their teacher will tell them whether or not they do the things well so that teachers should have a role as assessors. Assessing the students’ performance can be carried out through “offering feedback
and correction, and grading students in various ways” (Harmer, 2002, p. 59)
Teachers as prompters. Another role of teachers is as prompters. For
instance, “in a role-play activity, students lose the thread of what is going on or they
lost of word. They may not be quite sure how to proceed. Teachers should adopt some kind of a prompting role” (Harmer, 2002, p. 60)
Teachers as participants. During a class activity, teachers may do not get engaged in the activity and let students do it by themselves. The teachers’
involvements is only intervening later to offer feedback and/or correct mistakes” (Harmer, 2002, p. 60). Teachers may get involved in the activity as participants instead of teachers.
Teachers as resources. Teachers act as resources when students “ask how to say or write something or word or phrase means. Students might want to know information in the middle to ask information about where to look for something – a book or a web site for example” (Harmer, 2002, p. 61).
longer project, such as pieces of writing or preparations for a talk or debate” (Harmer,
2002, p. 62). However, the teachers should be aware that they may not intervene too
much and too little. They can also “combine the roles of prompters and resources
when acting as tutors” (Harmer, 2002, p. 62).
Teacher as observer. “Teacher observes what students do (especially in oral communication activities) so that the teacher can be useful for group and individual feedback” (Harmer, 2002, p. 62 ).
Strategy
Strategy is the methods of approaching a problem or task modes of operation for achieving a particular end, planed designs for controlling, and manipulating certain information (Brown, 2007, p. 260). In this research, the researcher used the definition of strategies based on oxford dictionary (2010) that a “strategy is a plan
intended to achieve a particular purpose” (p. 439). Besides, Herrell and Jordan
(2004:5) as cited in Thomson (2012) “strategies was define as the approaches that can
be used across curricular areas to support the learning of students”(p. 4).
Lecturers’ Strategies in Assessing Students’ Soft skills.
Strategies in Assessing Students’ Soft skills. Lecturers might have various had strategies to assess their students’ soft skills. As suggested by Dorowuju et al. (2014) there are methods that could be used to assess soft skills, as stated below.
questions, projects, standardized test, oral quizzes or examination, teacher made tests, and practical test. Indirect method included classroom observation, interview, questionnaires, and checklist. For combination direct and indirect
method involve the method into two groups direct and indirect” (p. 608).
Another definition of direct and indirect methods of assessment that can be used to assess students’ soft skills is based on project LEARN SLO assessment handbook
(2006) that:
“direct assessment methods require students to demonstrated knowledge and
skills and provided data that measure achievement of expected outcomes. Students have to actively do something observable and measurable using the knowledge and skills. Direct method assessment involved standardized test, embedded questions on assignment, student presentation, and scoring rubric. Indirect assessment method require that faculty actual student skills and values from sources other than observable, direct evidence. Example of
indirect method; survey “(p.1-3).
Strategies in assessing students’ communication skill. Lecturers have some
strategies to assess communication skill of students through a speaking activity in long life teaching process. According to Issaias and Isa (2013, p. 1) “various
assessment methods were used to promote communication skill; discussion forum and presentation.” Moreover, surveys also can be used to assess communication skill
also can be used to assess communication skill. As suggested by Johnston, Fidelie, Robinson, Killion, Behren (2012) checklist, survey, interview and essay exam are all commonly method to assess communication skill.
Strategies in assessing students’ critical thinking skill. There are some
strategies that can be used by the lecturer to assess students’ critical thinking. As suggested by Thomas (2011) method to assess critical thinking can be done through evaluation and analysis. Next is analysis of synthesis of an arguments. For example, by putting students into small groups discussion. Another proposed by Bailin et al (1999) as cited in Lai (2011) explained that “critical thinking involves the ability to
respond constructively to others during group discussion, which implies interacting in pro-social ways by encouraging and respecting the contributions of others”(p. 34).
Strategies in assessing students’ creativity. The lecturers had strategy to
assess creativity skill of students during process learning. Assessing creativity is
measure of students’ creativity. As suggested by Sternberg & Grigorenko 2007,
Sternberg, Jarvin & Grikorenko 2009, 2011, Sternberg & Lubart 1995b; Sternberg & William, 1996 as cited in Sternberg (2012) explained that “assessing creativity means
evaluating students as they create, invent, discover, imagine if…., and predict” (p. 8).
From those activities creativity could be assessed by the lecturers.
Strategies in assessing students’ teamwork skill. A strategy that lecturers can
one possible approach to assess team work is through written teamwork test and comprehensive assessment of team member effectiveness (CATME) that includes contributing to the team work, interacting to the team, expecting quality (expected the team to success), having relevant knowledge skill (p.57& 59).
Lecturers’ strategy in assessing students’ responsibility. The method that the lecturers used to assess students’ responsibility skill is conscientious in task
because when students have high responsibility they always punctuality. Lewis (2001) stated that “in particular, the role classroom discipline in promoting students
responsibility is examined. Duangjan (2014) stated that “the students lack their
responsibility toward their studies, as is seen by their poor class attendance, lack responsibility towards their institution, as made clear by their participants and teamwork skill” (p. 80).
Theoretical Framework
In this section, the researcher presents some theories related to this research. According to Onabamiro, et al. (2014, p. 109) “soft skill is a sociological term relating to a person’s emotional intelligence quotient (EIQ), the cluster of personality
traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habit, friendliness and
optimism that characterize relationship with other people.” Meanwhile, Majid (2012) said “soft skills refer to personalities, attributes, qualities, and people personal
There are many categories of soft skills. However, this research only focuses on five soft skills suggested by Schulz (2008), namely communication skill, critical thinking skill, creativity skill, teamwork skill, and responsibility skill.
The lecturers have to know everything related to the class including their students’ soft skills. In this research, the researcher analyzed lecturers’ strategies in
assessing students’ soft skills in terms of communication skill, critical thinking skill,
creativity skill, teamwork skill, and responsibility skill. The lecturers have to know every soft skill that the students have. Therefore, the lecturers use some strategies to assess those soft skills to help the lecturers understand well the ability of students.
In assessing five soft skills that discussed in this research, the strategy that could be used by the lecturers to assess communication skill was discussion forum and presentation. In addition, strategies in assessing students’ critical thinking was
analyzing the arguments by putting students into small groups. Another strategy that could be used by the lecturer to assess creativity is evaluating students as they create, invent, discover, imagine if…., and predict. Then for strategies to assess team work
written is teamwork test and comprehensive assessment of team member
Review of Related Studies
The researcher noticed that study of Onabamiro, et al. (2014) entitled “Teachers’ Perception of Teaching and Assessing Soft Skills in Secondary School”
has the same characteristics as this research. . The objective of this study was to grasp the ability of teachers in assessing of soft skills. The study used survey to collect the data because the researchers attempted to get the data of teachers’ perception on
teaching and assessing soft skills in secondary school setting in Nigeria. The population of this study was the teachers, and the samples of this study were 120 teachers from four schools. This study used random sampling.
Chapter Three
Methodology
This chapter discusses the methodology that was used in this research. This chapter covers research design, research participants, research setting, data collection, and data analysis.
Research Design
This research was conducted to find out the lecturers’ strategies in
assessing students’ soft skills. Based on the research purposes, this research used
qualitative research design focusing on describing statements from participants. Creswell (2011) defined that “qualitative research is an approach for exploring and understanding the meaning individual or group describe to a social or human problem” (p. 4). Based on the explanation, qualitative research is a research
design employed to describe people’s opinions or arguments.
The researcher used qualitative research method to explore people’s experience. Hancock, Ockleford, and Windrige (2009) stated that qualitative research method is used if the research questions are formulated to explore people’s experience, their views. Therefore, qualitative research design is appropriate for this research investigating the lecturers’ strategies in assessing
students’ soft skills at the English Education Department of Universitas
The researcher used descriptive qualitative method because the researcher obtained the data based on the experience of the participants. Grant (2007) stated “descriptive qualitative method is one method that seeks to present the voice of
the particular population under study” (p.16). Using descriptive qualitative research helped the researcher to interpret the data of this research.
Research Participant
The participants of this research were four lecturers at the English
Education Department (EED) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY). The researcher used purposive sampling. As mentioned by Creswell (2012), “purposive sampling can identify the sampling strategy and be able to define it
use. Purposive qualitative sampling is selecting people or sites who can best help us understand phenomena of research” (p. 206).
The researcher selected the participants who met some criteria. First, the participants were lecturers at the EED of UMY who have been teaching and assessing students’ soft skills for at least two years. Additionally, they have been teaching English more than three classes at the EED of UMY. Second, the participants were familiar with assessing students’ soft skills and they have
experience of assessing students’ soft skills.
The researcher believed that the lecturers at the EED of UMY could provide information for this research since they had experience in assessing students’ soft skills. . However, the researcher only selected four lecturers as the
“there are no rules for sample size in qualitative inquiry. Sample what you want to
know, the purpose of the inquiry, what a stake, what be useful, what credibility, and what can be done with available time and resources.”
Research Setting
This research was conducted at the English Education Department of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (EED of UMY). The researcher had some reasons to choose the EED of UMY as the research setting. First, the lecturers at the EED of UMY assess students’ soft skills, and promote soft skills to the students. Students of the EED of UMY are assessed form the first to the last semester. The soft skills are assessed at every class in every meeting at. Second, the researcher is the student of the EED of UMY. Therefore, she understands the issue and what has been happening at the EED of UMY. Last, the researcher knows all of the lecturers so that she could gather the data easily.
Data collection method
The researcher conducted interviews to collect the data. According to Creswell (2014), in qualitative interviews, the researcher could conduct
In the next time, the researcher met with participants to start the interview in different day each participant. Before the interview, the researcher firstly introduced herself to the participants, explained the aim of the interview, and thanked the participants for their willingness to provide information for this research.
The researcher used interviews because she could obtain the data based on lecturers’ experience related to the strategies and the problems in assessing
students’ soft skills. The researcher interviewed four lecturers by using in-depth interviews as the instrument of this research.
The questions of the interviews focused on lecturers’ strategies in
assessing students’ soft skills and problems faced by the lecturers in assessing students’ soft skills. Each interview took 10 – 20 minutes. The interview was conducted in the Indonesia language to avoid misunderstanding between the interviewer and the participants. The researcher also used cell phone to record the conversation during the interview so that the data could easily be analyzed. Creswell (2014) stated that “the researcher record information from interviews by
making audiotaping” (p. 194). Then, the researcher transcribed the recorded data
into written data.
Data Analysis
the participants so that they can check the validity and the accuracy of the transcription. Creswell (2012) stated that, in member checking process, the researcher shows the data and asked them to check the accuracy. Member checking is an important aspect to deal with the issue of the validity. In member checking, the participants agreed with the transcription. The next step was coding. Rossman and Rallis (2012) as cited in Creswell (2014) said that “coding is
process of organizing the data by bracketing chunk (or text or image segment) and writing a word representing a category in the margins” (p. 197-197). There three steps of coding; open coding, axial coding, selective coding but in this research the researcher only used open coding because it was clear.
The first coding was open coding. According to Bohm (2004, p. 271), “it is advisable to analyze single short textual passages (line by line). Subsequently, larger paragraphs or even whole texts may be coded in order to avoid simple paraphrasing.”
The last step of data analysis was data reporting. After the researcher did all of the steps, she analyzed and described the data to find the results. The
Chapter Four
Finding and Discussion
This chapter provides two major sections of the research, which are the presentation of the research finding and discussion. The findings and discussion answer the two research questions and achieve the purposes of this research to find out lecturers’ strategies and problems in assessing students’ soft skills at the
EED of UMY.
Lecturers’ strategies in assessing students’ soft skills at EED of UMY
Based on the interviews, the researcher obtained some information from the participants related to the research questions. The researcher found some strategies which the lecturers of the EED of UMY used in assessing students’ soft
skills in terms of communication skill, critical thinking skill, creativity skill, teamwork skill, and responsibility skill. She found out that there were three strategies used by the lecturers in assessing students’ soft skills. The first strategy
was direct methods including using rubric. The second strategy was combination of direct and indirect methods using activities such as presentation, group
Direct method used by lecturers in assessing students’ soft skills. The lecturers at the EED of UMY used rubrics as a strategy to assess students’ soft
skills.
Finding 1: Using rubric as strategy to assess students’ soft skills. The
data showed that using rubric was the strategy to assess communication skill. Participant two and four explained that assessing students’ communication skill
could use rubrics. Participant two stated, “To assess communication skill in the
classroom, we had a rubric to assess it. For example, to assess interpersonal skill, we assess how students could communicate, be empathetic, and do teamwork”
(P2.1). Besides, participant four said that rubric could be a strategy to assess soft
skills, especially communication skill. Participant four said, “At the EED, soft
skills are assessed 20 percent. The soft skills are divided into four soft skills that one of them is communication skill assessed using a rubric” (P4.1).
Based on the statements of two participants, rubrics can be used as a strategy to assess students’ communication skill, especially communication skill. It is in line with a project of LEARN SLO assessment handbook (2006)
explaining that direct method assessment includes a scoring rubric.
Combination direct and indirect method used by the lecturers in assessing students’ soft skills.
Finding 2: Using activities as strategy to assess students’ soft skills.
namely communication skill, critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, and responsibility. The activities used to assess those soft skills were presentation, critical thinking project, making a textbook, creating a simple dictionary, group project group work, teamwork outcome, assignments, group discussion, classroom discussion, consultation, and self-discipline, and presence list.
Presentation activity as the strategy to assess communication skill and critical thinking skill. Three participants revealed that presentation is an activity to assess students’ communication skill. They were participant two, three and four.
Participant two stated that “for assessing students’ communication skill, I assessed
them through presentation. For example, students are required to explain
appropriate ideas” (P2.2). Through presentation, the students would explain some materials or their ideas so that students’ capability in speaking can be assessed.
Moreover, participant three and four also stated that presentation one of the activities to assess students’ communication skill. Participant three claimed that communication could be assessed through presentation. “I used presentation
to assess communication skill because, when students explained their ideas, I
could examine students’ ability in speaking by explaining their idea (P3.2). Based
on the statement above, it can be concluded that lecturers assess communication skill by presentation. It can be used to measure some aspects such as
participant four, it showed that the lecturer employed presentation to assess communication skill, because during presentation students would improve their capability in speaking.
Another soft skill that can be assessed through presentation is critical thinking skill. Based on the data of interviews, some lecturers used presentation to assess communication skill and critical thinking. Participant two said:
The media for assessing critical thinking is presentation which consists of an asking and answering question session. Thus, we know students’
capability deeper when they ask and answer questions, particularly when the students give or respond to the questions. That the students sometimes need to explain the questions in details also shows their critical thinking. (P2.5)
The statement of indicated that critical thinking skill could be assessed through an asking and answer session which is in presentation activity.
Group discussion as the strategy to assess communication skill and
critical thinking skill. Three participants revealed that presentation is an activity to assess students’ communication skill. They were participant two, three and four.
Participant two stated that “for assessing students’ communication skill, I assessed them through presentation. For example, students are required to explain
appropriate ideas” (P2.2). Through presentation, the students would explain some
materials or their ideas so that students’ capability in speaking can be assessed.
Moreover, participant three and four also stated that presentation one of the activities to assess students’ communication skill. Participant three claimed
that communication could be assessed through presentation. “I used presentation to assess communication skill because, when students explained their ideas, I could examine students’ ability in speaking by explaining their idea (P3.2). Based
on the statement above, it can be concluded that lecturers assess communication skill by presentation. It can be used to measure some aspects such as
communication skill or speaking skill. Furthermore, participant four stated, “I
think presentation also can be used to assess communication skill because the
students’ ability in speaking can be noticed” (P4.3). Based on opinion of
Another soft skill that can be assessed through presentation is critical thinking skill. Based on the data of interviews, some lecturers used presentation to assess communication skill and critical thinking. Participant two said:
The media for assessing critical thinking is presentation which consists of an asking and answering question session. Thus, we know students’
capability deeper when they ask and answer questions, particularly when the students give or respond to the questions. That the students sometimes need to explain the questions in details also shows their critical thinking. (P2.5)
The statement of indicated that critical thinking skill could be assessed through an asking and answer session which is in presentation activity.
Based on the statement above, it can be concluded that presentation can be used to assess soft skills such as communication skill and critical thinking skill. It was supported by Dorowuju, et al. (2014) who explained that a strategy to assess soft skills can be used a direct method which includes oral questions. It was also in line with the learning project of SLO assessment handbook (2006) that a direct method of assessment is presentation.
Group discussion as the strategy to assess communication skill and critical thinking skill. The researcher found another activity to assess
Participant two stated, “then group discussion was also used to assess
communication skill” ( P2.3). Based on the statement, participant two used group
discussion to assess communication skill because, in the group discussion,
students work and discuss materials in a group. Therefore, the lecturer knew when the students communicate in a group. It means that the lecturer could assess communication skill through group discussion. Another soft skill that can be assessed through group discussion was critical thinking skill. Three participants used group discussion to assess critical thinking. They were participant one, two,
and four. Participant one stated, “to assess critical thinking in my course, I used
some aspects such as student center learning and group discussion” (P1.2). Group discussion was the activity used by the participant one to assess critical thinking because in group discussion students were active to give the questions or the answers. Participant two also believed that group discussion was the activity that can be used to assess critical thinking. Participant two explained:
“the medium for assessing critical thinking was group discussion which
consist of asking and answer question. Thus, we know students’ capability deeper
when they ask and answer questions, particularly when the students give or respond to the questions. The students sometime need to explain also the questions in details, that is when we comprehend their critical thinking”( P2.6).
Another participant who agreed that group discussion was the activity to assess critical thinking was participant three. He stated that critical thinking can be assess through group discussion “group discussion also used to assess critical
friends”(p3.10). Next is participant four. Participant four said that “group discussion can be used to assess critical thinking. For example, I give questions, afterwards student answer by critical answer, it is also considered as critical thinking” (P4.6). Based on above statement three participants agreed that group discussion as the activity to assess students’ critical thinking.
Above statement from all participants explained that group discussion as the activity that help the lecturers in assessing students’ critical thinking but the other soft skills also can be assess through group discussion. It was
communication skill It similar with Dorowuju et al. (2014) explained that strategy in assessing soft skills can be done through combination direct and indirect method included oral quizzes.
Classroom discussion as the strategy to assess critical thinking skill. Participant two believed that there were many methods to assess critical thinking. One of the methods was classroom discussion. The researcher found that
classroom discussion was also used by the lecturer to assess critical thinking..
Participant one said, “There was an activity like classroom discussion questions
Critical thinking project as the strategy to assess critical thinking skill. There was another strategy was used by the lecturer to assess critical thinking,
namely a critical thinking project. Participant one said that “Usually in my course,
I assess students’ critical thinking through a critical thinking project such as an
essay project” (P1.4).
Based on the statement of participant one, critical thinking project helped the lecturer to assess students’ critical thinking. It was explained by Dorowuju, et
al. (2014) that direct methods as the strategy to assess soft skill including designing a project for students.
Consultation as the strategy to assess critical thinking skill. Based on the data that the researcher obtained, participant one had another activity to assess students’ critical thinking, namely a consultation. Participant one said,
“Sometimes I assess students’ critical thinking during a consultation session of
their project” (P1.5). During the consultation, the students explained their ideas so that the lecturer could assess student’s critical thinking.
Making a textbook as the strategy to assess creativity skill. Creativity is one of soft skills that assessed by the lecturers at EED of UMY. Therefore, the lecturers need strategy to asses it. One of the strategies used by the lecturers was activity that help students can develop their creativity; asking students to make a textbook. This activity would help the lecturers to assess students’ creativity,
explained in the following statement. Participant one said that “I asked students to
making a textbook students should gather some picture, lay out and
another”(P1.7). Based on above statement, the lecturers assess creativity through
the textbook that student create, because in making a textbook, students need to explore their creativity and idea by using gathering some pictures and lay out to make a textbook.
Creating simple dictionary as the strategy to assess creativity skill. Creativity is one of the soft skills that assessed by the lecturers at the EED of UMY. One of the strategies to assess students’ creativity used by the lecturers was asking students to make a textbook that they were required to be creative..
Participant one said, “I asked students to make a textbook. I could know how
creative they are, because in making a textbook students should gather some pictures, lay out, and do other things” (P1.7). Based on the statement, the lecturer
assessed students’ creativity through the textbook that they created because, in
making a textbook, students needed to explore their creativity and ideas.
Group project as the strategy to assess communication skill. Lecturers at the EED of UMY used a group project to assess students’ teamwork skill.
Participant one said that “I could assess students’ teamwork through group project. If the project is good, it can be considered that their teamwork is quite good” (P1.11). From that statement, the participant assessed teamwork based on
Group work as the strategy to assess teamwork skill. . Most of the lecturers also used group work to assess students’ teamwork. In this discussion, the researcher found a strategy used by participants to assess teamwork. There are two participants, participant two and participant three, who said that group work is the activity is usually used by the lecturers to assess students’ teamwork skill.
Participant two said, “Teamwork skill can be seen when the students work in
groups. For instance, I saw how much contribution they give to their team”
(P2.12).
Besides, participant three said, “To assess teamwork, I gave students
group work so that I could see their teamwork and how the they give contribution to their group”( P3.20). Based on the statement of participant two and participant
three, group work was one of the activities used by the lecturers to measure students’ teamwork skill.
Teamwork outcome as the strategy to assess teamwork skill. Lecturers also
noticed students’ teamwork outcomes to assess students’ teamwork skill. In
addition, there was an activity as teamwork reflection that students are required to assess their team members. The activity could help lecturers to monitor group
members and know the process of the group work. Participant four said, “For
teamwork, I usually give students suggestions or feedback. However, the result of
the students’ task will be assessed by themselves” ( P4.10.).
Self-discipline as the strategy to assess responsibility skill. The activity
by participant one, participant two, and participant four. Participant one said, “Students’ discipline could be used to assess their responsibility” (P1.15). Based
on the result of the interview with participant one, presence list could measure responsibility of students. Besides, participant two said that “…..discipline, when
the students have good responsibility, never skip classes, and submit the
assignments well and punctually” (P2.17). The other participant who said that
self-discipline could be used to assess responsibility of students was participant
four. Participant four said, “I also used self-discipline to assess responsibility
skill” (P4.19). Based on the interview, participant four said that students’
responsibility can be noticed when they never skip classes.
Submitting the task in punctually as the strategy to assess responsibility skill. The researcher found that submitting tasks punctually could be used by the
lecturers to assess students’ responsibility. Three participants, namely participant
one, three, and four said that students’ punctuality in submitting tasks could be
used to assess students’ responsibility. Participant one said that “I assessed
students’ responsibility based on how they submitted the task punctually” (P1.13).
Besides, participant three said, “Students who finished the task well were
considered that they have good responsibility” (P3.26). Participant four also said,
“For assessing responsibility of students, I noticed who did the tasks or
assignments well” (P4.17). Based on statements, submitting the tasks well and
Based on the statement above, the participants in assessing students’
responsibility its based on assignment. It was similar with project learn SLO assessment handbook (2006) explained that direct method assessment embedded questions on assignment.
Indirect method used by the lecturers in assessing students’ soft skills Finding 3: Doing Observation. Another strategy to assess students’
communication skill can be done through observation. In this research, the observation includes direct class observation and individual observation.
Class observation as the activity to assess communication skill. The next activity used by the lecturers to assess communication skill is direct class
observation. Participant three stated, “Communication skills can be assessed with direct observation in the class such as in a question and answer session” (P3.1). The statement of participant three showed that during direct class observation lecturers could know the students who are active so that they could assess students’ communication skill.
The statement is supported by Dorowuju, et al. (2014) that a strategy to assess soft skills was an indirect method such as classroom observation.
Individual observation as the activity to assess communication skill. The researcher found individual observation as an activity that can be used by the lecturers to assess communication skill. Participant three, said “Communication
The researcher found another strategy used by lecturers to assess students’ creativity. It was observation during presentation. The lecturers believed that one strategy was not sufficient to assess soft skills which have many categories so that different strategies were necessary. Moreover, every lecturer had different
strategies to assess students’ creativity. The researcher found different strategies
to assess students’ creativity that one of the strategies was doing observation
during presentation activity Participant three, said “I usually assess students’ creativity through observation during presentation” (P3.18). During presentation,
teachers could assess students’ creativity by seeing how the students explained the
materials, and whether or not the explanation was understandable by audiences. For example, when explaining tenses, students used various appropriate media such as using flashcard to explain the subjects, verbs and others. The method would help the audience to understand easily.
The data showed that lecturers used the same activity to assess different skills. It was supported by Dorowuju, et al. (2014) that in assessing soft skills there was a direct strategy that can be used to assess soft skills such students’
project.
To summarize, every lecturer at the EED of UMY had strategies to assess students’ soft skills. Every strategy that lecturers used was the method to measure
skills that students have. Four participants had different strategies in assessing
used the same strategies to assess two soft skills, namely communication skill and teamwork skill.
The research examined not only strategies used by the lecturers of the EED of
UMY to assess students’ soft skills but also problems faced by the lecturers in
assessing students’ soft skills. The researcher interviews the participants regarding
problems that they faced when assessing soft skills in terms of communication skill, critical thinking skill, creativity skill, teamwork skill, and responsibility skill.
Problems in assessing students’ soft skills. The data showed some problems faced by the lecturers in assessing soft skills were dealing with the great number of students at the EED of UMY to assess, passive students, determining students’ creativity, determining students’ creation, and scoring individual
contribution in group work. The explanation below discussed every problem faced by the lecturers to assess communication skill, critical thinking skill, creativity skill, teamwork skill, and responsibility skill.
Finding 1: Too many students at the EED of UMY to assess. One of the
important aspects in assessing soft skills is that lecturers are able to remember
their students’ name because it will ease the lecturers to notice each skill of
students. However, some of the lecturers got a difficulty in remembering students’ name due to the great number of students. There was a participant who said that in remembering students name is sometimes a problem in assessing soft skills
communication skill was that there were too many students in a class so that it
was difficult to remember their name” (P2.4). Another participant also said that
having the great number of students sometimes became a problem when assessing critical thinking as participant one stated, “There were many problems in
assessing students’ critical thinking. One of them was that I got a little difficulty
in remembering students’ name. For example, when the students gave a good
question, I could not remember their name. It became my problem” (P1.6).
Based on the statements, the great number of students became a problem by the lecturers in assessing communication skill and critical thinking skill.
Finding 2: Inactive students. The researcher found another problem faced
by the lecturers in assessing critical thinking and teamwork skill which was inactive students. There were two participants who said that inactive students became a problem in assessing critical thinking skill while there was one participant stating that passive students could be a problem in assessing. Participant two said, “It was not difficult to assess critical thinking of active
students, but it was quite difficult to assess critical thinking of passive students” (P2.8). Participant four also said, “The problem was that students did not think
critically and they seemed lazy during discussion” (P4.7). Besides, participant two
mentioned passive students became a problem in assessing teamwork skill. Participant two said, “When I assessed the same project, I wondered whether or
not I should give passive students the same score as active students” (P2.15).
because the result of team project was good. Finally, the lecturers give good score although some of them were passive students.
Based the aforementioned statements, the problem faced by the lecturers in assessing critical thinking skill and teamwork skill could come from passive students.
Finding 3: Assessing students’ creativity. In assessing students’ creativity, determining standards of students’ creativity became a problem.
Participant one said, “Making standards of students’ creativity sometimes was
confusing” (P1.8).
The statement showed that the lecturer sometimes got confused to determine and assess students’ creativity. Therefore, the assessment became
confusing because there was not any standard in assessing creativity.
Finding 4: Determining students’ original work or authenticity. Another problem faced by the lecturer was assessing students’ creativity. Participant two
thought that assessing students’ creativity also became a problem because the
creation might copy from others. Participant two said, “The problem was to
determine the originality of students’ work. If their work was original, students
would get good score for their creativity skill” ( P2.11).
Every participant has different problem in assessing students’ creativity
students’ creativity, namely determining standards of students’ creativity and
noticing originality of students’ work.
Finding 5: Processing before finishing the task. In this research, the
researcher gained information of a problem faced by the lecturers in assessing teamwork skill and responsibility. The problem was noticing process of
accomplishing tasks to assess students’ teamwork skill and responsibility skills. Participant one said that the process of finishing the task was important to be
known by the lecturer. Participant one stated, “The challenge of assessing
students’ teamwork was noticing students’ process of finishing the project. I just
knew the result of teamwork from students’ power point, for example.” (P1.12). It
showed that process of doing the assignments was important to support the result. Besides, participant one said, “I did not know students’ process of finishing the
project, whereas I want to measure their responsibility of students and the
originality of the task” (P1.16). It could be seen that process of doing the task can
be used to measure the responsibility of students.
Finding 6: The challenge of scoring individual contribution. Every
lecturer had different problems in assessing students’ responsibility skill. Based
on the result of the interviews, the researcher found that, when lecturers used a number in giving score, they obtained more problems. Participant four said, “Maybe the problem in assessing students’ skills is subjectivity. Indeed, when I
assessed students, the rubric used a number and sometimes it became confusing.”
lecturer confused because it looked subjective. Thus, giving students score with a number was not easy for the lecturer. Participants four also got some difficulties
in assessing students’ responsibility skill. The lecturer gave some tasks, but the
lecturer did not know students’ process of finishing the assignments. In fact,
students sometimes asked their friend to finish the task.
To sum up, when lecturers assess students’ soft skills, they had strategies.
Chapter Five
Conclusions and Suggestions
In this last chapter, the researcher elaborates the summary of this research. This chapter is divided into two parts, namely conclusion and suggestions. The conclusion of the research is drawn based on the result and discussion of the data gathered to answer the research questions. Afterwards, suggestions for some parties are provided.
Conclusion
In this conclusion, there are two main research results. First, this research found lecturers strategies in assessing students’ soft skills at the EED of UMY.
Second, this research revealed there were a number of problems faced by the lecturers in assessing students’ soft skills at the EED of UMY. Based on the result
of interviews, the researcher found some information of the strategies in assessing
students’ soft skills, namely communication skill, critical thinking skill, creativity
skill, teamwork skill, and responsibility skill.
First, to assess students’ communication skill, lecturers used rubric, and
did several activities such as presentation, group discussion, observation in direct class, and individual observation. Second, activities which the lecturers conducted as strategies to assess students’ critical thinking skill were group discussion,
observation, asking students to make a textbook and to create a simple dictionary, and doing observation during presentation. Fourth, the lecturers conducted group project, group work, and teamwork outcomes to assess students’ teamwork skill.
Fifth, there were two ways to assess the responsibility of students which were self- discipline and punctuality in submitting assignments.
The researcher classified the aforementioned strategies into three categories which are using rubrics, using activities such as presentation, group discussion, classroom discussion, critical thinking project, consultation, making a textbook, creating a simple dictionary, group project, group work, teamwork outcomes, self- discipline, and punctually in submitting the task, and observation such as direct class observation, individual observation, and observation during presentation. All of those strategies used by the lecturers to assess students’ soft skills at the EED of UMY in terms of communication skill, critical thinking skill, creativity, teamwork skill, and responsibility skill.
Meanwhile, the lecturers faced some problems in assessing students’ soft
skills at the EED of UMY. Some of them had problems in assessing students’ communication skill, critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, and responsibility skill. The problem in assessing communication skill was the difficulty in
remembering students’ name because too many students at the EED of UMY.
Moreover, the problems of assessing students’ critical thinking were due to the
Furthermore, the lecturers also got some problems in assessing student’
creativity, teamwork, and responsibility skill. When assessing creativity, lecturers got difficulties in determining standards of creativity, determining the students’
work authenticity. Besides, in assessing students’ teamwork skill, the lecturers
faced problems such as noticing the process of finishing assignments or
monitoring contribution of the group members. Last, in assessing responsibility skill, the problems faced by the lecturers were recognizing the process of finishing the tasks, and t giving score for individual contribution in group work.
To sum up, the lecturers at the EED of UMY have some strategies to assess students’ soft skills. On the other hand, the lecturers also face some
problems or difficulties in assessing students’ soft skills at the EED of UMY.
Suggestions
Based on the findings of the research, the researcher provides some suggestions related to the strategies in assessing soft skills. The suggestions are given for the lecturers, students, the future researchers, and institutions.
