THE IDENTIFICATION OF LEARNING INTEREST IN CHEMISTRY OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT AT SMA NEGERI 2 SINGARAJA

THE IDENTIFICATION OF LEARNING INTEREST IN CHEMISTRY OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT AT SMA NEGERI 2 SINGARAJA

Irene Jarut, I Nyoman Suardana, Ida Bagus Nyoman Sudria

Jurusan Pendidikan Kimia Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha

Singaraja, Indonesia

irene jarut@ymail.com, suardana_sgr@yahoo.com, ibnsudria@yahoo.co.id

Abstrak

Penelitian ini bertujuan 1) mengidentifikasi minat belajar siswa kelas X and XI SMA Negeri 2 Singaraja terhadap pelajaran kimia dan 2) mendeskripsikani faktor-faktor dominan yang mempengaruhi minat belajar siswa kelas X dan XI terhadap pelajaran kimia. Penelitian ini termasuk penelitian deskriptif. Sampel penelitian terdiri atas 50 siswa kelas X dan 50 siswa kelas XI yang dipilih dengan menggunakan teknikrandom sampling. Tehnik pengumpulan data menggunakan inventori dan wawancara. Data dianalisis secara deskriptif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa secara umum minat belajar siswa kelas X and XI SMA N 2 Singaraja secara berurutan tergolong tinggi and cukup. Pada aspek maintain-value ketertarikan siswa kelas X dan XI terhadap pelajaran kimia tergolong sangat tinggi yang dominan dipengaruhi oleh faktor internal yakni tingginya kesadaran siswa akan pentingnya peranan ilmu kimia dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Pada aspekmaintain-feelingketertarikan siswa kelas X dan XI terhadap pelajaran kimia secara berurutan tergolong tinggi dan cukup. Hal ini dominan dipengaruhi oleh faktor eksternal yakni bahan pelajaran dan faktor internal yakni motivasi dan kemampuan matematis siswa. Pada aspek triggered-SI ketertarikan siswa terhadap pelajaran kimia tergolong rendah. Hal ini dominan dipengaruhi oleh faktor eksternal yakni guru dan bahan pelajaran yang meliputi aspek mikroskopis dan simbolik.

Kata kunci:minat, faktor eksternal, faktor internal

Abstract

The aims of this research were 1) to identify the learning interest in chemistry of student for grade X and XI and 2) to describe the dominant factors which influence the learning interest in chemistry of students at grade X and XI. This research was descriptive research. The sample was consisting of 50 students at grade X and 50 students at grade XI who were chosen by using random sampling method. The data of this research was collected by using inventory and interview with the data analysis used descriptive analysis. The result of this research showed that generally the learning interest in chemistry of students at grade X and XI respectively were high and enough. On maintain-value aspect, the learning interest in chemistry of students at grade X and XI were very high because was dominant caused by internal factor namely the awareness of the important of chemistry in daily life. In maintain-feeling, the learning interest in chemistry of students at grade X and XI respectively were high and enough because in dominant caused of both external dan internal factors. The external factor namely the content of subject while internal factor namely motivation and mathematical abilty. On triggered-SI aspect, the learning interest in chemistry of student at grade X and XI were low because in dominant came from external factor namely teacher and the content of subject.

INTRODUCTION

Education is an important factor in improving the quality of human resoures. Recognize the importance of the education sector, each country efort to improve the quality and standard of education in order to create the people who have a high-quality resource in order to compete in a globalitation era.

In the era of globalization, the development of science and technology is moving rapidly. Chemistry is a one of sciences that moving rapidly. Chemistry is a branch of Natural Sciences. Johnstone (1991 in Sirhan, 2007) stated chemical knowledge can be learned at three levels such as: sub-microscopic, macroscopic and symbolic. Learning chemistry is called meaningfull if the correliation of third chemistry aspects (microscopic,

macroscopic and symbolic) can be understood. Thus, the correlation of third chemical aspects must be realized. Chang (2010:4) stated chemistry is the study of matter and the changes it undergoes. This shows that the chemistry can not be separated from human life because of it learns the matter in the contex of daily life. Thus, chemistry is one of the important knowledge learned in school. However, not everyone interest in chemistry lesson. Previous research (Ismuzaroh:2013) found that not all the X grade students interested in studying chemistry and have low motivation in studying chemistry.

. Based on the interviewed with chemistry teacher of SMA N 2 Singaraja found that that many students have low grades in chemistry and it s under the criteria of passing grade.

Table 1. The Score of Middle Test for Grade X

No Class Passing Not passing Average Presentation

1 X MS.1 8 people 12 people 69.11 40 %

2 X MS.2 4 people 24 people 59.67 14 %

3 X MIA.3 16 people 13 people 76.103 55 %

(Source: personal documents of chemistry teacher SMAN 2 Singaraja)

Table 2. The Score of Middle Test for Grade XI

No Class Passing Not passing Average Presentation

1 XI-IPA.1 10 people 10 people 77 50 %

2 XI-IPA.2 - 30 people 68 0 %

3 X-IPA.3 30 people - 80.7 100 %

(Source: personal documents of chemistry teacher SMAN 2 Singaraja)

Furthermore, the chemistry teacher explained that students were less enthusiastic in following the lesson, less enthusiastic in answering questions and lack of enthusiasm in doing the task. Furthermore, the researcher also interviewed the students of SMA N 2 Singaraja. The results described that the students of SMA N 2 Singaraja were less interested in chemistry because the content of chemistry subject was difficult to be understood. These indicated that the student has a low interest in learning chemistry.

Interest is one of important factor in reaching successful effort of someone whether in studying or in any other activities. In this sense, interest is a factor of make some fascinating in something. Hilgard (in slameto, 2003:57) formulated it

studying is the high achievement is gotten. Otherwise, the decreasing of interest in studying is the low of achievement.

Efendi and Praja (1993:122) said that much better to have interest in studying rather than have not interest in it. So, the function of interest as motivating force which force someone to study. Krapp (in Schunket al:2010) said there are three general perspectives about interest namely personal interest, situational interest and psychological interest. Hidi (in Schunk, et al, 2010:213) suggested that situational interest involves both positive affect and increased attention to the task as a function of the affective involvement. Hidi, et al(in Linnenbrink et al, 2010:2) said that situational interest consists of both an attention and affective reaction to the situation, which can be differentiated into two forms triggered and maintained situational interest. Mitchell (in Schunk et al,2010:213) said that referred to these phrases ascatching and holding. However Hidi (in schunk et al, 2010:213) stated that catching refers to the direction or diversion of already activated situational interest, whereas triggering suggests the initial activation interest. Physiological interest is the interaction between personal interest and situational interest which continuously.

If situational interest can be maintained, so that the long-term sustainable situational interest will turn to personal interest where interest situational classified into three aspects namely triggered-SI, maintain-feeling and maintain-value.

Linnenbrink,et al(2010:2) said that triggered-SI involves heightening the affective experiences individuals associate with the environment. In contrast, maintain-SI is people begin to forge meaningful connection with the content of the material and realize its deeper significance

Generally, there are two factors that influence the interest of studying namely internal and external factors. Internal factor is factor which is coming from within ourself namely talent, motivation, intelligence, attention and curiosity. External factor is coming from

outside of us namely family, society and school.

The aims of this research were 1) to identify the learning interest in chemistry of grade X and grade XI students of SMA Negeri 2 Singaraja and 2) to describe the dominant factors which influence the learning interest in chemistry of grade X and grade XI students of SMA Negeri 2 Singaraja.

METHOD

The kind of this research is descriptive research. Research method used in this research was descriptive method

with the

using

of

a qualitative approach

.

This research was conducted on April 2014 located at SMAN 2 Singaraja. The population of this research was senior high school students at SMA Negeri 2 Singaraja. The sample of this research was 50 students for grade X and 50 students for grade XI of SMA Negeri 2 Singaraja. The method in choosing sample was random sampling.

There were several steps in doing this research namely primary observation, making the instrument, research doing, data analysis and research report. The activities in the primary observation were asking permission to do research in the school addressed and asking for general information about the tenth and the eleventh grades students of

SMAN 2

Singaraja.

After doing observation, the next step was making instrument. The instruments were used such as inventory and interview. The instrument which was introduced by Linnenbrink, et al (2007) was revised on the optional answer so that able to identify the factors which influences learning interest in chemistry subject. Those factors which were appropriate with original instrument (Linnenbrink et al, 2007) were maintain-value, maintain-feeling and triggered-SI.

researcher. Further the researcher did the interview. The interview was done to explore the factors which influence the studying interest of chemistry. Besides that, the interview was also used to clarify for some number of questions which were not consistent to the previous answer.

For the data validty, the researcher used the triangulation technique to check the same concern by using different system. After that, the researcher did the data analysis to be able to draw a conclusion. The technique in data analysis was descriptive technique.

Data analysis used was descriptive. In measuring data, the researcher used the category system that

was made by Renis Likert that shown in Table 3.

Table 3. The Criteria of Score Item Score item Positive

statement

Negative statement

Very agree 4 1

Agree 3 2

Disagree 2 3

very disagree

1 4

Furthermore, the researcher convert the score of students' answers into five categories, namely very high, high, enough, low, and very low by calculating the ideal mean and deviation standard of the score in interest inventor as shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Interval Score and The Criteria of Ideal Mean Conversion

Interval Score Criteria

X Mi + 1,5 Sdi Very High

Mi + 0,5 Sdi X < Mi + 1,5 Sdi High Mi-0,5 Sdi X < Mi + 0,5 Sdi Enough

Mi 1,5 Sdi X < Mi-0,5 Sdi Low

X < Mi 1,5 Sdi Very Low

(Source: the modification of Ratumanan & Laurens in Kasih, 2014) Data analysis consists of data

tabulation, data reduction, data display and conclusion. Data reduction was for the data which were not consistent between interest of chemistry subject and it s reason based on the result of the interview. After that, the data put in the narrative so that the researcher easy to analysis the data and finally be able to take a conclusion. On the last step, the researcher reports the result of this research.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION Result

Interest was divided into three apects namely feeling, maintain-value and triggered-SI. The result analysis of the third aspects of learning interest in chemistry subject as shown in Table 5 and Table 6 respectively for grade X and grade XI.

Table 5. Learning Interest in Chemistry Subject for Students at Grade X SMA Negeri 2 Singaraja

Aspect Category (%)

Very High High enough Low

Maintain-feeling 20% 80% -

-Maintain-value 32% 68% -

-Triggered-SI 4% 14% 74% 8%

-Table 6. Learning Interest in Chemistry Subject for Grade XI Students SMA Negeri 2 Singaraja

Aspect

Category (%)

Very High

High

enough

Low

Maintain-feeling 16% 58% 20% 4%

Maintain-value 52% 42% 6%

-Triggered-SI 2% 24% 18% 32%

Total 4% 36% 42% 12%

Tables above described that the learning interest in chemistry for students at grade X was high while for students at XI was enough. Further analysis was analyzing the factors which influence the

learning interest in chemistry. Those factors must be appropriate with the three aspects of interest as shown in the Table 7 for the students at grade X and Table 8 for the students at grade XI.

Table 7. Factors That Influence Learning Interest of Chemistry Subject for Students at Grade X SMA Negeri 2 Singaraja

Aspect

Internal External

Category (%) Category (%)

Very high High Very high High

Maintain-feeling 15% 50% 6% 90%

Maintain-value 98% 2% 56% 32%

Triggered-SI 48% 25% 60% 26%

Table 8. Factors That Influence Learning Interest of Chemistry Subject for Students at Grade XI SMA Negeri 2 Singaraja

Aspect

Internal External

Category (%) Category (%)

Very high High Very high High

Maintain-feeling 58% 34% 88% 8%

Maintain-value 44% 32% 60% 18%

Triggered-SI 28% 24% 36% 26%

Based on the Tables above can be described that for maintain-feeling aspect was influenced by both internal and external factor. On maintain-value aspect was influenced by internal factor. On triggered-SI aspect was influenced by external factor.

Discussion

Based on the data analysis, it described that the learning interest in chemistry of students at grade X were high while for students at grade XI were enough. The data analysis for the interest inventory of chemistry subject showed that the learning interest in chemistry for the students at grade X and grade XI for the value aspect were highest than two other aspects. It was influenced by internal

factor. The internal factor related to awareness of the students about the important of the chemistry in the daily life. It motivates the students interest in studying chemistry.

student s motivation and mathematical ability while the external factor are content of chemistry subject such as sub-microscopic, macroscopic and symbolic. Students at grade X had higher motivation than students for grade XI. The mathematical ability of students at grade XI was also low. So, it caused the learning interest of students at grade XI was enough. For the content of chemistry subject, the students for grade X and XI were tendence to interest only macroscopic aspect than two others. So, it caused the students for grade X and XI were difficult to understand the chemistry concept. It will bad affect to the further understanding. Nakhleh (1992) stated that the abstract consept is very important because if the student does not have the enough understanding of basic concept thus the further concept or theory can not be understood easily by student.

It showed that the students at grade X and XI were tendence to interest only to macroscopic aspect compare with any other aspects. It means that the students more like the concrete things than the abstract (those thing which cannot be touched, seen, feel) and also the students were not realized about the correlation of the three aspects of chemistry (sub-microscopic, macroscopic and symbolic). However, it was important to realize that concept of abstract was important in learning chemistry. Taber (2000) said that the chemistry curriculum is bundled up the abstract conception for the further learning. The low interest of the students in aspect of microscopic and symbolic will influence the students understanding toward the chemistry concept. Nakhleh (1992) said that the abstract concepts is very important because the basic concept must be understood before learn the further concepts. Generally, the students learned the concept of microscopic and symbolic only through memorizing. Sudria (2003:4) said that the meaningful in studying science, the school must take the important concepts and skills that more concern to the quality of understanding (observation, thinking, experiment and validation) compare with quantity of

information. When the students memorize, there will big possibility have misconception with the chemistry subject.

Sudria (2003) said that general misconception for the senior high school students is about particle in which the students assume that the particle only an atom. Further Sudria (2003:3) explained that this misconception happens because the conception is simple, easy to remember, and one of the longest used in junior high school. The effect of it is the low interest of studying chemistry.

Arifin (in Rumansyah:2002) said one of the difficulty of the student in learning chemistry is the difficulty in understanding the concept of chemistry because it generally an abstract concept. That is why, there is opinion that chemistry is difficult to understand. Wiseman (in Rumansyah, 2002: 172) said that chemistry is one of the difficult subjects for the senior and junior high school students. So, the students at grade X and XI tendence to have interest on the macroscopic aspects which can be observed compare two other aspects. The students were not realized the correlation of the three aspects particulate, symbolic, and macroscopic.

out that many teachers is not really understand and is not consider with the combination of the three aspects in chemistry. Lee (in Sudria, 2003:2) said that

the problem of understanding the chemistry concept is not because of difficulty of the three aspect but because of the teacher only teach macroscopic (there is tendency to memorize fact) and symbolic (abstract) and fail to combine with microscopic and concept.

In this sense, the teacher was not realize the correlation of the three aspects. Johnstone (1991, in sirhan, 2007) stated that the chemistry subject learns in three levels namely microscopic, symbolic and macroscopic and the correlation of that must be taught explicitly. That is why the teacher must be able to explain the three aspects. Sirhan (2007) said that when the student has a problem on ane aspect it will be influence to other aspect.

Besides that, the chemistry teacher was not really able apply the learning media. The using of the learning media was very important especially when explained about microscopic (particle of matter). Soebroto et al (2008) has shown that the use of visual instructional tool can increase the students achievement in learning chemistry. Nekhleh (1992) has shown that there are many misconception when the using of visual media is not used in teaching the particle of matter. That is why, the use of instruction visual tool was needed to be easy in understanding the topic which explained.

The lack of students understands in teacher s explanation influence toward the learning activity. It effect on the participation of the students in the discussion. Widyastuti (2012) said that there is positive relationship between interest and the students participation in teaching process. It means the higher interest for study the better participation of the student in teaching learning process. For the students at grade XI, they were not participating in asking the question or giving answer in the learning process. It was because the chemistry teacher was not giving chance for the student to ask understand the topic which being explained. On the other hand, the grade X, the students are participating in giving and answering the question of the teacher because they want to understand the research, the researcher concluded that generally, learning interest in chemistry of students at grade X and XI respectively were high and enough. For the maintain-value aspect was very high because came from internal factor namely the high awareness of student about the important of chemistry subject. For the maintain-feeling aspect, the students at grade X and XI in sequence were high and enough. The factors which contribute were both internal and external factor. The internal factors were motivation and mathematical ability while external factor was the content of chemistry subject. In which the motivation of student at grade X was higher than grade XI. On the other hand, the mathematical ability of student at grade XI was also low. It caused the learning interest of student at grade XI was enough. For the external factor, students at grade X and XI were tendence to interest in macroscopic aspec than two others. For triggered-SI aspect was low that caused of external factor namely teacher.

Suggestion

To increase the learning interest of student in chemistry, researcher suggests several things namely:

b) Chemistry teacher concern to the learning interest of student in chemistry so it can increase the student s achievement.

c) Chemistry teacher can maintance the interest of students and increase the low interest of student in chemistry by designing the interesting learning activity.

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