“Constructivism
principle” is one of contextual teaching and learning approach that make
students active in teaching and learning process. Constructivism is when students acquire their knowledge through inquiry,
research, and their own investigation. As they construct their knowledge, they
are enhancing their ability to think critically and analyze information. The
implementation of teaching technique becomes of the most important strategies
in teaching learning process. The implementation of a new method will affect
students’ achievement. It shows that prior to the use of constructivism
principle approach, the students did not pay attention to the teacher’s
explanation. Thus on average 50% of the students get score under the criteria
of success (70 in a 0-100 scale).To solve this problem, the researcher offered
the use a constructivism principle technique. She believes that the students
would find the vocabulary lesson more likeable and use constructivism principle
will improve the students’ vocabulary mastery of SDN Cepokomulyo 01 Kepanjen
Kab-Malang.
In
accordance to the statement of the problem, the main objective of this study is
to find out: firstly how the
students’ vocabulary mastery can increase by using Constructivism principle and
secondly whether the students’
interest can improve the students’ vocabulary
mastery through Constructivism principle.
The finding of the study can be
useful for students, English teachers, and to future researchers as well. The
first, for the students For the students, it can contribute the way to
understand the lesson (vocabulary) taught by English teacher more easily,
increasing the ability of the students’ communication and the students’ motivation.
The Second, for the English teacher the finding of the research about the
technique variation in teaching vocabulary or
giving great contribution in teaching strategy, especially teaching
vocabulary that could be applied to
students to improve the quality of capability in mastering vocabulary. It’s hoped the technique can make the
learning situation more interesting, enjoyable and effective. The third, for
the future researchers the finding of this research can be used for the next
research as a reference in conducting similar research or further studies.
This research involved twenty five
students in the fifth grade, with the researcher as the English teacher. The categories
of constructivism principle, They are
constructing their own knowledge by testing ideas and approaches based on their
prior knowledge and experience, applying these to a new situation and
integrating the new knowledge gained with pre-existing intellectual constructs.
Method
Based on the observation and the questionnaire
of the preliminary study, the researcher found out that the students had low
motivation in vocabulary learning and their achievement was not satisfactory.
Thus, constructivism principle approach was selected to overcome the problems.
In this case, the researcher made some
preparation for the action, such as designing constructivism principle, making
the lesson, in here researcher prepared 2 lesson plan, and preparing the criteria
success.
In
this study the researcher decided the criterion of success that the students’ score
had to be at least 70.The researcher acted as facilitator who implemented the
proposed strategy by guiding to the activities done in the class. And in the
implementation of technique, the teacher divided the class into five groups. Each
group consisted of five of students. The action was conducted in two meeting in
which meeting was with different material.
In
this step, the researcher gave clear and details guidelines. Then, the students
were given the material to be used in constructivism principle. The students
were asked to learn the material given and discuss it in a group for few
minutes. In cycle 1, the researcher used 2 meeting and the different topic. The
students discuss the material about arrange the letter into a good words or
sentences. It is with the material or the topic that different. And then in
cycle 2, the researcher used 2 meeting and different topic. The students
discuss the material about synonym, label picture and translation meaning.
After discuss each of group the students’ active to find out the proper
solution of the problem about the topic. And then some of group in front of the
class to read their answer and guidance by the teacher. The students stopped
the activities if the time was up.
From the
reflection of cycle 1, she found some problems occurred during the
implementation of constructivism principle. Then, she decided to continue this
study to the second cycle. In this study, the researcher to make the students
to be some group and gave the material and the allocation of time during the
activities in constructivism principle.
Results and Discussion
The constructivism
principle is a contextual teaching and learning approach, it is promote
positive to the students and also provides a simple method to ensure individual
accountability. Its procedures drives students to be active in learning
process. Consequently, they will experience a meaningful learning. Constructivism
is based on the work of Jean Piaget.
As the name suggests, in constructivist theory, meaning is constructed based on
experiences. The activity start by setting the teacher prepares things dealing
with the teaching strategy of using
constructivism principle to improve the students’ mastering vocabulary, the preparation
covers preparing the instructional materials and media for the students’
capability activities, preparing the lesson, and preparing the creation of
success. In this study, the researcher designs both the constructivism
principle and the media in the form of picture in teaching and learning
activities before implementing the action in the classroom. The picture would
be provided by the researcher based on the topic in the KTSP for elementary
school. By using the interesting picture, it’s hoped the students would be
easier to master vocabulary and the students more motivated, the researcher
uses a picture label as one kind of vocabulary test. The teacher divided the
students in five groups, every of group consist of five students. Every group
can the material the topic, then the discussed. The teacher only as a guidance
by students and gave the solution to the students fell difficult about the material.
The constructivism principle gave the opportunity to the students to develop
new knowledge and promoting opinion/ideas that will commence by students and
use it as a guide to design instruction.
This conducted at SDN Cepokomulyo 01 in the academic year
2014-2015. The school has nine classes. The English subject is taught as a
local content for students of grade one up to six. The subject of the study
only one class (Va) is the students consiting of twenty five students, ten boys
and fifteen girls. The research choose this class because she teaches at class,
she knows both the situation of class and the students’ capability well.
The writer chooses this school because she has some
consideration. The first consideration is that the students have poor
motivation or are not interested in teaching and learning vocabulary process.
The second, the teaching use the conventional methods only. It means that the
material is just given in the drilling form without involving the students
actively. Research instrument consist of observation guide in learning process,
test, and questionnaire. Before conducting the action observation is done to
find out the condition of the students’ performance in the English teaching
learning process, especially the effect of constructivism principle towards the
students’ interest in learning vocabularies. She considered that the students
having great motivation or interest in learning would get score if they had a
test.
According to (McBrien & Brandt,1997), Constructivism
is an approach to teaching based on research about how people learn. Many
researchers say that each individual construct knowledge rather than receiving
it from others. The goal of constructivism is not simply memorize and
regurgitate information. They are constructing their own knowledge by testing
ideas and approaches based on their prior knowledge and experience, applying
this new situation and integrating the new knowledge gained with pre-exiting
intelectual constructs.
According
Nurhadi and Senduk (2002, p. 10), stating that constructivism , is the philosophy
of CTL approach that knowledge is built up to people little by little that its
results are spread through the limited context. Students need to train to solve
the problem, to find some important things and to create some words or ideas.
Its related to vocabularies component. Constructivist in teaching practices,
they guide students as they ask questions, and students are responsible for
their own learning. By doing these activities, it requires higher level
thinking that will be benefit students. So it concluded that learning through
Constructivism principle, referring to the findings obtained during teaching
vocabulary by using Constructivism principle, the teaching technique is able to
use in teaching vocabulary. It is one of effective ways to make the students
more creative to respond the teacher’s assignment.
Conclusion
The conclusions were drawn
from this study. Firstly, using constructivism principle approach can improve
the fifth grade students’ vocabulary mastery of SDN Cepokomulyo 01 Kepanjen
Kab-Malang. Based on the improvement in cycle 1 to the cycle 2, it can be seen
that the implementation of constructivism approach in teaching vocabulary can
improve the students’ vocabulary mastery. It can be seen by the student score
from 75,00 in cycle 1 up to 80,96 in cycle 2
Secondly,
do assignments by the teacher in worksheet of using constructivism principle
approach can be used in teaching vocabulary mastery effectively? The steps of
teaching vocabulary based on constructivism principle can be described as
follows: (1) If you are teaching vocabulary related to reading that the
students are doing in the classroom, you may want to point out the words in
context to the students and have them form the words, letter by letter, with
the magnetic letters. Students should then be asked to write the words down in
their notebooks or on a piece of paper to be submitted for review. (2) You may
provide the students with categories [animals, sports, food, entertainment,
school, etc.] and ask them to form as many words as they can think of for each
category. (3) If your curriculum requires that certain vocabulary lists be
taught, you may have the students practice spelling these words, again in groups,
with the magnetic letters.
Suggestion
Based on the finding of
the implementation of constructivism approach, some suggestion are offered to
both the English teacher and other researchers in order to improve the quality
of teaching and learning English. The teacher whose students have similar
problem about vocabulary, the use of constructivism principle as an alternative
way to improve the students’ vocabulary mastery. Giving great contribution in
teaching strategy, especially teaching vocabulary that could be applied to students to improve
the quality of capability in mastering vocabulary. It’s hoped the technique can make the
learning situation more interesting, enjoyable and effective.
This researcher focused only on improving elementary
school students’ vocabulary mastery using constructivism principle approach. It
is advisable that the future researchers carry out research projects on
improving the vocabulary mastery of higher level students with the same technique.
The effectiveness of using media in each group, such as pictures to help the
students understanding the material, by
using the interesting picture, it’s hoped the students would be easier to
master vocabulary and the students more motivated.
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