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DEVELOPING CHARACTER-BASED ENGLISH SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
FOR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL: A DESIGN-BASED RESEARCH
Khusnul Vita Indraswari, Endang Fauziati, Nur Arifah Drajati
English Education Department, Graduate School, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Sebelas Maret University Address: Jl. Ir. Sutami 36 A Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia
vita.khusnul@yahoo.com
Abstract
This research aims to develop character-based English supplementary materials based on 2013 curriculum. This is design-based research which was conducted in Junior High School. 36 students and English teacher in class target participated in this research. Data were the existing English course book, the result of need analysis, the prototype of character-based English materials and the implementation of the prototype. The data collected through library research, pre-observation, interview, questionnaire and FGD. The procedures include: (1) preliminary research which consists of need analysis and literature review, (2) prototyping which consists of drawing the blue-print, making prototype draft and expert validation and (3) assessment which consists of final prototype draft, try out and final product. The findings reveal that need analysis data became the basis on how the researcher composed English supplementary materials with scientific approach instructional procedures which consists of observing, questioning, experimenting, associating, communicating and creating activities. The contents of proposed materials refer to students’ character building. The final product was character-based English module with compact disc for listening materials which can be used in Junior High School. In accordance to pedagogical implication, the findings support English materials developer in developing English materials based on character building.
Keywords: supplementary textbook, character building, design-based research, junior high school
Abstrak
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengembangkan materi tambahan Bahasa Inggris berbasis karakter berdasarkan kurikulum 2013. Ini adalah penelitian berbasis desain yang diadakan di Sekolah Menengah Pertama. 36 siswa dan guru Bahasa Inggris dikelas target berpartisipasi dalam penelitian ini. Data adalah buku Bahasa Inggris terdahulu, hasil analisis kebutuhan, rancangan materi Bahasa Inggris berbasis karakter dan penerapan dari rancangan materi tersebut. Data dikumpulkan melalui kajian pustaka, pra-pengamatan, wawancara, angket dan FGD (Focus Group Discussion). Langkah-langkah penelitian meliputi: (1) penelitian permulaan, yang terdiri dari analisis kebutuhan dan kajian pustaka, (2) rancangan, yang terdiri dari merancang kisi-kisi, membuat rancangan produk dan validasi ahli dan (3) penilaian yang terdiri dari rancangan produk akhir, uji coba dan produk akhir. Hasil temuan menyatakan bahwa data dari analisis kebutuhan menjadi dasar bagaimana peneliti menyusun materi tambahan Bahasa Inggris berdasarkan langkah-langkah instruksional dari pendekatan sains, yang terdiri dari kegiatan mengamati, menanya, berlatih, menyimpulkan, mengkomunikasikan serta mencipta. Isi dari materi yang dikembangkan mengacu pada pengembangan karakter siswa. Produk akhir adalah modul Bahasa Inggris berbasis karakter yang dilengkapi dengan CD untuk materi listening yang dapat digunakan di Sekolah Menengah Pertama. Sehubungan dengan implikasi pendidikan, hasil penelitian ini dapat mendukung para penyusun buku Bahasa Inggris dalam mengembangkan materi Bahasa Inggris berdasarkan pengembangan karakter.
Kata kunci: buku pelengkap, pengembangan karakter, penelitian berbasis desain, sekolah menengah pertama
INTRODUCTION
Violence and crime become the main problems in our country Indonesia as they shown in mass media nowadays (Suaranews.com, October 4th 2016). Those problems can make the citizen have the degradation
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The current curriculum implemented in Indonesia is 2013 curriculum. This curriculum aims at enabling students to be faithful, productive, creative, innovative and affective human to be able to face globalization era in the 21st century (Permendiknas Number 70 Year 2013). According to those aims, it
can be inferred that character education also develops in this curriculum.
As realization of English teaching and learning process through 2013 curriculum in Junior High School, Ministry of National Education has been provided a course book for English teachers and students. Unfortunately, there are some previous studies which state about the weaknesses of those books.
Due to previous study done by Sundari (2014), it can be inferred that government course book of English lesson for class VII of Junior High School still has weaknesses. First, it doesn’t include the study of second language culture. Second, the representation of character values is very limited. Third, there is no grammar rules explained in this book. The last, the students’ book doesn’t provide readers with sufficient literary texts. The other previous study is the study done by Cynthia (2013). From this previous study, it can be inferred that the students’ book for class VII is poor of language contexts and skills, authenticity and quality of practical materials.
The lacks mentioned above proved that English government course book for Junior High School students is poor in the content and implementation of character building activities. Those conditions support the researcher in conducting the further research. In this case, the researcher is interested in developing supplementary materials of English lesson in order to complete the lacks of English government course book for Junior High School students.
Finally, the researcher feels curious to observe an English government course book for seventh grade students in Junior High School. After that, the researcher develops English materials to cover its lacks. Then, the researcher implements character values into English materials which consist of observing, questioning, experimenting, associating, communicating and creating activities.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Learning Materials
Materials are an important element within curriculum and the most tangible and visible aspects of it (Nunan, 2004: 52). This is in line with Richards’ statement (2001: 251) which says that instructional materials are generally serve as the basis for language inputs and language practices that occur in the classrooms.
Regarding to language learning materials, Tomlinson (2012: 145) defines materials for language learning as anything that can be used for facilitating the learning of language. Furthermore, language learning materials can be categorized as: 1) informative (they give information about the target language to the students), 2) instructional (they guide the students in practicing language), 3) experiential (they provide the students with experiences of language in use), eliciting (they encourage the students to use the language) and explanatory (they help the students to make the discoveries of language).
2013 Curriculum
Curriculum as defined in the Act Number 20 Year 2003 is a set of plans and arrangements regarding the purposes, contents, teaching materials and methods that are used to guide the learning activities to achieve the specific educational goals.
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2013 curriculum is characterized by the use of scientific approach as its process. Seeing from the morphological aspect, science is derivied from Latin word ‘scientia’ that means knowledge. It is a systematic and logical approach through testing and analyzing to discover how things in the universe work (Fauziati, 2014: 153). It is based on facts not opinions or preferences. Science can be in the form of practices. These practices are called as scientific approach.
Some experts have their own definition toward scientific approach. Handelsman (2004: 522) states scientific approach as a pedagogical approach used in classroom whereby teaching is approached with the same rigor as science at its best and it involves active learning strategies to engage students in the process of science and teaching methods that have been systematically tested and shown to reach diverse students. This approach aims to engage students to foster a sense of wonder, encourage observation, push for analysis and require communication.
There are two types of stage in scientific approach. They are the stage of learning and the stage of instructional process (Kemendikbud, 2013a: 152). The stage of learning consists of five main activities, namely: observing, questioning, experimenting, associating and communicating. However, the stage of instructional process especially for English lesson consists of six activities, namely: the observing, questioning, experimenting, associating, communicating and creating.
Character Education
Character education is a national movement in creating schools which foster ethical, responsible and caring young people by modeling and teaching good characters through universal values. It is the intentional and proactive efforts by schools, districts and states to instill the students about ethical values such as caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility and respect for self and others (Lickona, 2003: 151). As a conscious attempt from education institutions, character education needs a good planning and preparation. In this case, the understanding toward values that accepted in society is very important to be the base for developing character education.
The development of character education is not merely teaching the values of character to the students. It is more on the process of guiding the students to know more, to love and to do the right things so it will be beneficial for them and surrounding. In this case, Lickona (2003: 200) proposes a theory of teaching character values which consists of three parts, namely: 1) moral knowing, (2) moral feeling and (3) moral actions.
Moral knowing facilitates people to understand the values embedded within the particular actions that they conduct. It consists of some elements such as (a) moral awareness, (b) moral values, (c) perspective thinking, (d) moral reasoning, (e) decision making and (f) self-knowledge. Then, moral feeling helps people to feel good about the values embraced in the actions that the people do. It consists of some elements such as (a) conscience, (b) self-esteem, (c) empathy, (d) loving the good, (e) self-control and (f) humility. The last, moral actions consist of some elements as follows: (a) competence, (b) will and (c) habit.
The Lickona’ model is widely used in character teaching. It offers complete steps for teaching character values. This model provides three major elements which can be adopted in the product development of learning materials. Those elements are moral knowing, moral feeling and moral actions. Due to the Indonesian policy, the rules of character education were regulated bythe Ministry of National Education. In this case, schools can provide additional characters or reduce it according to the needs of Indonesian students.
Text Book Evaluation
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Based on two definitions above, it can be inferred that textbook is one of instructional materials that is used in teaching and learning process. It is a collection of knowledge, concepts and principles of selected topics which is usually written by teachers or education experts who authorities in specific field.
One aspect value of textbook is it must be qualified. Textbook must have acceptable level of quality, usefulness and appropriateness for content and users (Puskurbuk, 2005: 28). Richards and Schmidt (2002: 322) define textbook evaluation as a process of measuring the values and effectiveness of textbook. It aims to find out the components of learning materials which need to be fixed and improved for the shake of learning outcome improvement.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research aimed at developing a model of character-based English supplementary materials based on 2013 curriculum for Junior High School students. A design-based research (DBR) methodology was applied in order to develop the product of character-based English learning materials based on 2013 curriculum for Junior High School students to solve the education problems happened in class target. This design-based research used qualitative approach to find out a specific style of English materials for character building based on 2013 curriculum. In addition, the materials have character building activities to develop the students’ national characters.
The phases of design-based research which were proposed by Plomp (2007) were used to conduct this research. The phases consisted of preliminary, prototyping and assessment. Preliminary consisted of need analysis and literature review. Prototyping consisted of drawing the blue print of prototype, making the draft of prototype and expert validation. Assessment phase consisted of final prototype, try out and final product.
This research took 36 students, English teacher and the government course book for Junior High School students used in class target as the main sources of data. From English teacher and students, the researcher dug up information dealing with the needs of English teaching and learning sources as the implementation of 2013 curriculum in Junior High School. Besides, the course book analysis of government English course book for Junior High School students in class target became guidance in conducting the additional materials of English lesson for Junior High School students.
There were two types of data collected in this research, namely: quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data came from questionnaire. Qualitative data on the other hand were gathered from the interview and observation. The quantitative data were analyzed by using Likert scale. Meanwhile, qualitative data were analyzed by using qualitative data analysis model which proposed by Miles and Huberman (1994).
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Preliminary Research
1. Pre-observation
English teacher and students in class target hoped to have an additional book which was designed to cover the lacks of English government course book for Junior High School students. The reason were: (1) English teacher in class target only used English government course book for Junior High School students as the source of materials and (2) the English learning materials which were proposed by the Indonesian government were not adequately to be used as English materials. There were some lacks found in English government course book for Junior High School students dealing with the implementation of English language skills and character education values.
2. Interview
a. The Use of Course Book
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skills’ implementation had been found in the content of this book. Besides, this book was dominated by listening, speaking and writing skills. As a result, reading activities were implemented in small portion. The minimum reading skill’ implementation caused English teacher in class target brought additional materials to support English teaching and learning process in class.
b. Additional Materials
English teacher in class target really needed an additional material to cover the lacks that found in English government course book for Junior High School students. Besides, she also said that it was better to conduct English supplementary materials which presented about the values of character education in the materials’ activities of English lesson. The reason was for balancing the cognitive, psychomotor and affective domain so it will create an output which will reach the best result among those three domains.
c. Character Values in 2013 Curriculum
English teacher said that the values of character education were much needed and had maximum portion in 2013 curriculum. Besides, an example on how to integrate the values of character education in English materials’ activities was given. The researcher said that the implementation toward the values of character education can be integrated in the form of command and content of English materials’ activities. For example: the indicator about responding and expressing politeness will be integrated in communication activities which represented politeness, such as: please open the door. The word ‘please’ represented politeness.
With regard to character values in English government course book for Junior High School used in class target, English teacher said that the religious value just tended in Islamic religion. The data can be seen from the pictures’ dressesin which most of the women’ pictures were wearing a veil. As a result, the implementation toward character values in English government course book for Junior High School students still needed to be developed as well as possible.
3. Questionnaire
In order to validate the results of need analysis data in the form of pre-observation and interview, a set of questionnaire was distributed to Junior High School students in class target. The data from questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively and then exposed in descriptive qualitative way. Furthermore, the result of the questionnaire was shown and explained as follow.
a. Students’ Lacks
The data questionnaires in the term of students’ lack were presented to know the students’ lacks toward English lesson. For the data toward the students’ lacks were presented in the following table.
Table. 1 questionnaire response toward the students’ lacks
Item Number Lacks Statement N F %
3 English proficiency Beginner 36 5 13,9 % Intermediate 36 26 72,2% Advanced 36 5 13,9% From the highest score of data questionnaire, most of Junior High School students in class target were in the intermediate level of English proficiency. As a result, they still needed to encourage their English proficiency as well as possible.
4 Listening skills Meaning. 36 20 55,5% Vocabularies. 36 1 2,8% Native speakers’
pronunciation.
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From the highest score of data questionnaire, the difficulty of listening faced by most of Junior High School students in class target was about understanding what the native speakers said because they spoke quickly.
5 Speaking skill Grammar mastery. 36 1 2,8%
From the highest score of data questionnaire, the difficulty of speaking faced by most of Junior High School students in class target was about their
From the highest score of data questionnaire, the difficulty of reading faced by most of Junior High School students in class target was about
From the highest score of data questionnaire, the difficulty of writing faced by most of Junior High School students in class target was about making a sentence in grammatically correct.
From the data about the students’ lacks mentioned above, it can be concluded that Junior High School students in class target still have their own difficulties in mastering English language skills. As a result, additional English materials which serves more on the learning exercises toward the English language skills needed to be developed.
b. Procedures
The data questionnaire about procedure were presented to dig up the way the English teacher and students in class target did the English teaching and learning process in class. The data were presented below. Meanwhile, the explanations came afterward.
Table. 3 questionnaire response toward the procedures of scientific approach Item 10 Do you usually formulate and ask
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From the highest score toward learning procedures which were done through 2013 curriculum, it can be inferred that the result of questioning activities didn’t run well. The percentage data presented balanced result. They were: 1) 9 students always, 2) 9 others usually, 3) 9 students sometimes and 4) 9 different students never formulated and asked the questions toward English materials they have learnt at school. As a result, some students were active but some others were passive in class.
c. Character Values
The questionnaire data dealing with the needed characters were shown in the following table.
Table. 4 questionnaire response toward the needed character
Highest Percentage Content of questions Students characters
Questions 15 (30%) Character of religion and people. Lacks of respects. Questions 16 (43%) Character for nature. Not care.
Questions 17 (43%) Self-character. Lacks of confidence. Questions 18 (50%) Character for nation. Lacks of loving.
All the characters above still needed to be improved as well as possible for the learning outcomes improvement. As a result, English material developer must develop the English learning materials which covered the lacks of characters mentioned above.
Prototyping
The proposed product of character-based English materials was validated by experts of English language, curriculum and character building along June up to July 2016. The intensive consultation resulted a significant revision for textbook improvement in aspects of character building and 2013 curriculum, but mostly in character building. The revision was seen in five aspects: content, exercises, communication, language and general elements.
Assessment
Final Product of ‘Character-Based English’
a. Design
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cover was appropriate with the theme of character education. Then, the title was already appropriate as the representation of an English book which was conducted based on character. It was simply said that the design cover of the prototype product was good to be used as a cover of a character-based course book.
b. Objectives
The objective of designing the module was providing a character-based English supplementary materials for Junior High School students in the first semester. The developed module was arranged by implementing the values of character education in the materials activities. Besides, the materials were conducted based on 2013 curriculum. It was simply said that the objective of the developed materials were appropriate with the needs of Junior High School students in class target.
c. Organization
As a module, ‘Character-Based English’ has much tasks and activities to enlarge the students’ competence about the English materials. Besides, everything about the procedures of using the course book was presented in the part of ‘Petunjuk Penggunaan Buku’. Then, the unit materials also followed by self-reflections as the students’ assessment about their acts on character education values. It was simply said that the module of ‘Character-Based English’ was complete from its organization.
d. Language Skills
‘Character-Based English’was conducted in integrated skills. The activities found in this module represented the use of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills of English. It was simply said that this module was recommended for encouraging the students’ competence toward English language skills.
e. Topics
There was no change for the choosen topic. The topics were still same as before. The topics were greetings, leave taking and descriptive text. It was hoped that the topics can enlighten the students’ understanding and accommodate their learning by doing interesting and challenging experiences.
f. Methodology
The drafts were conducted by using English instructional procedures of scientific approach. It consisted of six procedures by integrating skills, knowledge and attitude. Those English instructional procedures were observing, questioning, experimenting, associating, communicating and creating. By applying this methodology, this module was set to make the students became an active learning.
Further Discussions
1. The Result of Need Analysis
The need analysis process was done to investigate the needs of English teacher and students in Junior High School toward an appropriate English learning materials based on implementation of 2013 curriculum in Junior High School level. In this case, the result of need analysis can be seen from the English teacher’ and the students’ point of view.
With regard to the students’ goal, the Junior High School students in class target wanted to improve their English language skills competence in order to master the English lesson well. Talking about the learning sources, Junior High School students and English teacher in class target hoped that there will be an additional book which was designed to cover the lacks found in the existing English course book for students used in class target. Besides, they also hoped that the additional book of English lesson will cover more on the learning exercises so that the students can be more actively participate in teaching and learning process.
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education in the learning materials. In this case, the values of character education which will be implemented in the learning materials must be appropriate with the needs of the students in class target.
As a result, character-based English materials was deliberately design for students in Junior High School and English teacher in class target as supplementary materials of English lesson. This supplementary material covered not only the learning activities of English language skills but also the learning activities about the values of character education. In this case, the learning activities of language skills can encourage the students’ competences in mastering the English language skills. Meanwhile, the character-based activities can build the students’ good characters to be applied in their surroundings.
2. Final Product of ‘Character-Based English’
After writing the prototype draft of English learning materials, the next step was evaluating the materials draft. Material evaluation was done by distributing expert judgment questionnaire to the experts. Besides, the materials were also validated by the experts of design layout. In this case, the results of expert judgments were used to revise the prototype draft and develop the final draft of the materials.
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Conclusion
Based on the findings and discussions of the research, the researcher can draw three conclusions. First, for now, both English teacher and students in Junior High School need additional materials of English lesson in order to enlarge their understanding toward the materials they have learnt before. In this case, a product of ‘Character-Based English’ was arranged to give more chance for the students to practice English language skills.
With regard to the proposed character-based English supplementary materials for Junior High School students, the researcher reveals that ‘Character-Based English’ module presents more on the English learning exercises and the values of character education. The variation of English learning exercises in this module are used to enlarge the students’ comprehension and understanding toward the English materials they have learnt before. Meanwhile, the implementation toward the values of character education presented in this course book guides the Junior High School students to be an intellectual person who has good attitudes in their surrounding environments.
The last, ‘Character-Based English’ module was arranged in complete part. This product consists of introduction part, reinforcement and fun part. The introduction part aims at introducing and activating the students’ schema about the learning topics. Reinforcement aims at giving the more chance to the students in practicing the learning activities. Fun part aims at refreshing the students’ mind after accomplishing the whole activities.
Suggestions
By revisiting the conclusions, the researcher offers some suggestions dealing with character-based English materials as the implementation of 2013 curriculum in Junior High School level. The suggestions are mainly tended for Junior High School students, English teacher and other researchers.
For Junior High School students, the researcher suggests that in order to produce good character values in English teaching and learning process and also to be able to communicate using English both in oral and written, the students should practice more their English language skills by using ‘Character-Based English’ module. The researcher also suggests that in using this module, the students should follow the order of the tasks so that they will experience the steps of doing the learning tasks.
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also suggests the English teacher to use this developed materials in order to implement the values of character education so that the learning output will have the best result among cognitive and affective domain.
For further researcher who conducts the similar research, the researcher gives some suggestions: (1) since Indonesian government doesn’t provide yet the suitable English course book for Junior High School which are related to the needs of 2013 curriculum, it is good opportunity for further researcher to develop it as well as possible, (2) regarding to the development of English materials, since the researcher just develops one unit of materials design because of the limited time, it is suggested to the further researcher to be paid more attention to the allocation time in conducting a research about materials development.
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