Keywords: Students Perception, Active Learning, Pre-service Teacher, Mathematics Achievement, Correlation.

Transcription

1 Vanny Septia Efendi Bachelor Education Student Mathematics Education Department, Sampoerna School of Education, Jakarta, Indonesia THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS PERCEPTIONS TOWARD ACTIVE LEARNING IN STATISTIC 2 COURSE AND THEIR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT Abstract Learning method has been long recognized as an indicator of students academic achievement in learning process (Silver, Smith, & Nelson, 1995 in Young 2003; Duze, 2010; Oludipe, 2010; Kose 2010). In teacher education, learning method, such as active learning, is also implemented to educate pre-service teacher in using active learning for their students in the future. The purpose of this study is to investigate relationship between pre-service teachers perception toward active learning in Statistic 2 course and their academic achievement in Sampoerna School of Education (SSE). The study was conducted on 43 pre-service teachers in SSE 2009 cohort majoring Mathematics Education who have participated in 16 week long studies of Statistics 2 course. The data was collected using questionnaire to measure the scale of perception on active learning in Statistics 2 course. Data obtained from the questionnaire was correlated to exam result to measure students academic achievement. Hypothesis testing is done using bivariate correlation, to measure the relationships between pre-service teachers perception and their achievement. Based on data analysis performed, it is found that the correlation coefficient r to significance (p <0.01). This means that pre-service teacher perception toward active learning had a significant correlation with students' academic achievement. It was claimed that the more positive perception of active learning in Statistics 2 course, the higher score students could achieve. Furthermore, the result gave a strong evidence of the usefulness of active learning to mathematics pre-service teacher in SSE and also for the following Statistics 2 course. Keywords: Students Perception, Active Learning, Pre-service Teacher, Mathematics Achievement, Correlation.

2 Introduction Learning method has been long recognized as an indicator of students academic achievement in learning process (Silver, Smith, & Nelson, 1995 in Young 2003; Duze, 2010; Oludipe, 2010; Kose 2010). Most of educators and researchers believe that learning methods, such as active learning, have important roles in determining students performance. In-service teacher as the one who teach students in the classroom should be aware of the importance of active learning. However, there still teacher who have not aware of this issue. They are more focused on teacher-centered rather than students-centered. Changing in-service teacher belief about teaching is not an easy matter. However, we can prepare teacher candidate to aware of the importance of active learning. To educate preservice teachers, lecturers in higher education tried to implement active learning, as one of the effective learning method, in their lecture. One of Sampoerna School of Education (SSE) Lecturer, Zainal Koemadji M.Si, inspires this study by conducting an active learning in Statistic 2 course by using problem-based learning strategy which is giving cases, students interpretation, and discussion. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between pre-service teachers perception toward active learning in Statistic 2 course and their academic achievement in SSE. Pre-Service Teacher School of education plays an important role in forming pre-service teacher in teaching and learning process (Gao et al., 2009; Lim et al., 2010). Pre-service teacher will be taught the theories and practices how to teach and the teaching materials before they teach at school. However, a study has found that pre-service teacher tend to ignore the theories that has been learned in university when they work at school (Waghorn & Stevens, 1996). On the other hand, school of education still implement the theories and practices about the effective teaching and learning in order to show it to pre-service teachers. One of Sampoerna School of Education lecturer, Zainal Koemadji, M.Si implemented active learning in his class, Statitics 2 Course. Lecturer intended to convince the pre-service teacher that mathematics subject could be conducted using active learning. It took 16 weeks-long of course that is used to conduct active learning. The perception of the pre-service teachers toward the implementation of active learning wil be measured in this study. Pre-Service Teacher Perception Perception are: (1) process to know an object and objective event through senses, (2) awareness of organic processes, (3) group of senses with interpretation from past experiences (4) variable that prevent or intervent that comes from organization ability to differ stimulus, (5) intuitive awareness toward direct truth or faith toward something (Chaplin, 2006). Therefore, perception is an intuitive awareness of a person that can be interpreted though group of senses. According to Krech & Crutchfield (1948), there are two factors that influence perception. First is functional factor that comes from needs, past experience, dan another thing from te person itself. Functional factor determined one person s perception through objects that fulfill his/her life objectives. Second is structural factor that comes from physical stimulus toward the effect of nerve on one person nervous system. It detemined perception when we cannot investigate the separate factor but it can be seen in the whole relationship.

3 Active Learning Active learning consist of two words, active and learning. Oxford Dictionary stated that active refers to an adjective which means engaging or ready to engage in physically energetic persuits and 'learning refers to the acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience or being taught. Active learning means the acquisition of knowledge or skills through physical and energetic engagment. Many researchers and expertises define the definition of active learning, but definitions they had are different at each other, eventhough the principle is similar. Bonwell & Eison (1991) define active learning as students learn with meaningful activities and think about what they are learning. Active learning is a process that makes a learner become dynamic and energetic on his/her own learning process (Petress, 2008). Ogun (2009) defines active learning as a learning situation in which students are active participants rather than passives observers. The definitions above have the same criteria; students engage or active or participate, students are dynamic and energetic or active and students have a meaningful learning. In this study, active learning refers to an engaging activity toward Statistics 2 Course by asking students to solve cases, interpret the case and discuss with peers. Students actively speak, write, share and contribute their ideas, regarding the topic, in the learning process. Lecturer does not limit the students participation in class and conduct class activities that engage all students. Academic Achievement Academic Achievement consist of two words, academic and achievement. Oxford Dictionary stated that academic refers to an adjective which means elating to education and scholarship and 'achievement refers to a thing done successfully with effort, skill or courage. Academic achievement means students success in their learning process. Bloom (in Winkel, 1987) stated that academic achievement is a process that is experienced by learner to get a change in knowledge, understanding, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. In this study, students academic achievement will be measured by using paper and pencil test that is done in mid test and final exam. The questions on the test covered all chapter in Statistics 2 Course. Relationship between Pre-Service Teachers Perception toward Active Learning and their Academic Achievement It is important to know how pre-service teachers perception towards active learning. Their perceptions will determined their attitude toward active learning when they become a teacher. Besides, their academic achevement in Statistics 2 Course might has relationship to their perception toward active learning. In this study, the reseacrher will seek the relationship between preservice teachers perception towards active learning and their academic achievement. Research Questions It was hypothesized there would be positive perception of pre-service teachers toward active learning in Statistics 2 course. It was also hypothesized there would be a relationship between pre-service teacher s perceptions toward active learning in Statistics 2

4 course and their academic achievement. In order to investigate these hypotheses, the following research questions were proposed and investigated. 1. How pre-service teachers perception toward active learning in Statistics 2 course? 2. Is there any relationship between pre-service teacher s perception toward active learning in Statistics 2 course and their academic achievement? Subjects Methodology The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between pre-service teachers perception toward active learning in Statistic 2 course and their academic achievement in SSE. For this purpose, the research data was gathered from 43 pre-service teachers in SSE 2009 cohort majoring Mathematics Education who have participated in 16 week long studies of Statistics 2 course. Data Collection Procedure Data are collected by using questionnaires to measure the scale of pre-service teachers perceptions and from pre-service teachers exam result. Based on active learning, which has conducted, by Statistic 2 lecturer, the survey will measure how students valued active learning in Statistic 2 course as seen in figure 1. Figure 1 Brief Descriptions of the Questionnaire Dimension of Subscale Example Perception Feeling Comfortable I am not comfortable when lecturer ask me to interpret cases Enjoy Like I enjoy working with group in solving cases I don t like interpreting statistics cases Understanding Understanding Students centered learning made me understand statistics very well Opinion Usefulness Discussion is very useful in learning statistics Motivation Collaboration I am motivated in learning statistics when I discuss with my friends I can interpret cases by my own self without collaborate with my peers Instruments The research instruments consisted of three parts: (1) Questionnaire of pre-service teachers perception toward active learning, (2) Pre-Service Teacher Achievement. Questionnaire of Pre-Service Teachers Perception

5 In order to obtain general information about pre-service teachers perception, questionnaires were also developed from the definition of perception and factors that influence it. Pre-Service Teacher Achievement In order to measure pre-service teacher achievement in Statistics 2 Course, there are two scores that would be used. One was mid test score. The other was final exam score. Both of scores are being calculated to get the mean score of each pre-service teacher. Data Analysis The main focus on this study was to investigate the relationship between pre-service teachers perceptions and their academic achievement. Thus, the current investigation was a kind of correlation study. For this purpose, Pearson Correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between both. Data obtained from the questionnaire was correlated to exam result that consists of mid test score and final exam score to measure students academic achievement. Figure 2 described the scatter plot of pre-service teacher perception toward active learning and their academic achievement. Figure 2 Reliability and Validity Likert Scale was used to measure perception. Validity and reliability test were conducted using SPSS 19 program. From 36 items in the questionnaires, it was obtained 31 valid items and 5 items are fallen. The valid items have correlation coefficient between Cronbach Alpha technique was used to test reliability with alpha coefficient 0,935.

6 Result Perceptions of pre-service teachers toward active learning in Statistics 2 Course On the scale perception toward active learning, which used Likert Scale, it was found that the average of pre-service teachers perception is 144,6 from the range There are five classes from the Likert Scale (See Figure 3). Figure 3. Interval of Perceptions Perception Very Negative Negative Medium Positive Very Positive It was found that pre-service teachers has a positive perception toward active learning with 144,6 score of perception. The Relationship between pre-service teachers perception toward active learning and their academic achievement The final and main research question was whether the pre-service teachers perceptions toward active learning were positively related to pre-service teachers achievement as measured by mid test and final exam. The relationships between variables were defined by computing Pearson bivariate correlation coefficient between pre-service teachers perception and their academic achievement. Over all these correlation coefficient showed that there were significance correlations between both variables. It is found that the correlation coefficient r to significance p <0.01 (See Figure 3.). The level of significance showed that perception of pre-service teacher has a relationship with their achievement. However, the relationship was not too strong only 44%. It means that there is other factor that influences pre-service teachers achievement. Figure 4. Statistical Result of Relationship between Pre-service Teachers Perception and their Academic Achievement

7 Discussion and Conclusion This study investigated the relationship between pre-service teacher perception toward active learning in Statistics 2 Course and their academic achievement. To identify the perception toward active learning, the data was analyzed using questionnaires developed. The research finding showed that pre-service teacher has positive perseption toward active learning in Statistics 2 course. It is also found that there is significant relationship between pre-service teacher s perception toward active learning and their academic achievement. These findings were not surprising since the implementation of active learning was dynamic and motivating for the pre-service teachers as the students. It is also supported by the teacher affection when teaching so student perceived warm relationships to lecturer, which will affect their achievement and perception. In addition, in order to demonstrate a relationship between pre-service teacher perception and their academic achievement, the result of Pearson s simple correlation coefficient analysis was reported. Overall, the result showed that pre-service teacher perception was related significantly to the score of their achivement in Statistics 2 exams. These result corroborated by finding of other studies on this topic, such as Duze (2010), Oludipe (2010), and Kose (2010), even though in different research variables and instruments were employed in those studies. In sum, these findings could provide useful information on teaching pre-service teacher for any kind of subjects. For example, by knowing that active learning, as one of learning method, has significant relationship with pre-service teacher s achievement, lecturer could put more effort on designing learning method for pre-service teacher. The findings of this study suggest that any learning method that can improve students achievement should be implemented in teacher education, so the teacher candidates can feel by themselves the use of the method for their students in the future. This study also has a number of limitations. They are there is no control of intelligent of respondents that might be extraneous factor and there is also no analysis for satisfying the correlation assumptions. References Bonwell, C.C., and J. A. Eison, (1991). Active Learning: Creating Ex- citement in the Classroom. ASHEERIC Higher Education Report No. 1, George Washington University, Washington, DC. Chaplin, J. P. (2006). Kamus Lengkap Psikologi. Alih Bahasa: Kartini Kartono. Jakarta: PT Raja Grafindo Persada. Duze CO Effects of Participatory Learning Technique on Achievement and Attitude of B.Ed Students in Educational Research Methods. Journal Social Sciences, 22(3): Gao, P., Choy, D.,Wong, A. F. L., & Wu, J. (2009). Developing a Better Understandingof Technology-based Pedagogy. Australasian Journal of Education Technology, 25(5)

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