| dc.description.abstract | This classroom action research was intended to improve the eighth grade
students’ tense achievement and their active participation by using Think Pair Share
strategy at SMPN 2 Wuluhan in the 2011/2012 academic year. This research began
by conducting a preliminary study by interviewing the English teacher of the eighth
grade students of SMPN 2 Wuluhan on 15
th
January 2012. It was found that the
students of class VIII D had difficulties in learning structure, especially tenses. They
got the difficulties in differentiating between simple past tense and present perfect
tense in the usage and applying those tenses in the sentences. Besides, the students
were passive in the classroom during the teaching and learning process.
Think Pair Share strategy is one of cooperative learning strategies and it was
applied in this research. It is a learning strategy developed by Lyman to encourage
students’ participation in the classroom. This strategy allows the students to engage in
individual and small group thinking before they are asked to discuss their ideas with
the whole class (Solomon, 2009). This strategy can enhance students’ oral
communication skills when they discuss their ideas with other students. Besides, this
strategy helps the students become active participants in teaching and learning
process (Pimm, 1981).
This classroom action research was done collaboratively with the English
teacher. This research was done into two cycles, in which each cycle covered
planning of the action, implementing of the action, class observation and evaluation,
and reflection of the action. Then, each cycle was conducted in two meetings. Each
meeting was used to teach Simple Past Tense and Present Perfect Tense by using
Think Pair Share strategy. Data collection methods in this classroom action research
covered the primary data and the supporting data. The methods that were used to
collect the data in this research were structure test, interview, observation, and
documentation. Structure test and observation were used to get the main data. Then,
interview and documentation were used to gather the supporting data.
In Cycle 1, the results of the structure test showed that the mean score of the
students’ achievement test was 68.7. Then, there was only 69.4% of the total students
could achieve the target score, that was at lest 70. In other words, the percentage of
the students’ structure achievement that got score at least 70 was below 75%, and it
did not achieve the target the criteria of the success of this research. Then, based on
the classroom observation it was revealed that the average percentage of students’
active participation in the first cycle was 69.4%. It means that the result of the
observation had not achieved the target criteria of observation, that was at least 75%
of the students did at least four from five indicators being observed. Therefore, the
actions were continued to the second cycle by revising some necessary aspects.
In the second cycle, the English teacher gave more explanations about the
materials and gave different recount texts in which Simple Past Tense and Present
Perfect Tense appeared. This made the students had better understanding about the
materials being taught because the students could learn the uses of Simple Past Tense
and Present Perfect Tense from the examples in the texts given. Besides, the English
teacher gave reinforcement to the passive students and gave opportunities to the
passive students to share their ideas to the whole class. It could improve the students’
self confidence and self esteem. In addition, the students were grouped in pairs based
on the structure test score. Thus, the higher achiever could help the lower achiever in
their discussion. It was hoped that the revision could make the students improve their
tense achievement.
In Cycle 2, the results of structure test showed improvement. The result of the
students’ mean score of structure test in the second cycle was 77.2 (good category). It
was higher than the mean score in Cycle 1, that was 68.7. Then, based on the
classroom observation, the result showed that the average percentage of the students’
active participation in the second cycle was 79.1%. It means that the result of the
observation had achieved the requirement of the research, that was at least 75% of the
students did at least four from five indicators being observed. These results indicated
that this research had fulfilled the criteria of the success of this action research.
Based on the results, it could be concluded that teaching tenses by using
Think Pair Share strategy could improve the students’ tense achievement and their
active participation at SMPN 2 Wuluhan in the 2011/2012 academic year. Then, it is
suggested for the English teachers to use Think Pair Share strategy in teaching tenses
since it could make the students participate actively in the teaching learning process
of tenses and improve their tense achievement, especially in Simple Past Tense and
Present Perfect Tense. | en_US |
