Summary ''Classroom Action Research''

CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH

Classroom Action Research is an effective media in improving the quality of  English teachers’ performance in instructions as well as students achievement in Learning English in classroom. Classroom action research is a process to investigate that teachers do in the classroom in a variety of activities to enhance and improve classroom learning and to solve the problem until the problem is resolved.
Criteria of  Success  in Classroom Action Research.
1.Planning
Planning is a step to prepare the classroom instructional strategy to be developed in the study to solve the instructional problems.
2.Acting
The researcher t this stage isn’t in the process of learning how to implement the plan, nor in the process of improving the quality teacher’s performance, but in the process actually trying out the strategy to test how much  the strategy can solve the classroom problems.
3.Observing
Observing is the process of collecting data indicating the success of the strategy in the solve the classroom problem. Focus on the data that related to the criteria of success that have been decided.
Reflection
Reflection is a process of analyzing the data to determine how far the data collected. Example: A strategy of improving the student’s writing skill using picture series.
The Data in Classrom Action Research
Data collected for classroom action research include all information related to criteria of success.
Such as: Student’s problem, Classroom  athmosphere, student’s motivation, the practically of the instructional strategy, cooperative behavior of the students.
Tools of Data Gathering in Classroom Action Research.
According Mohammad Adnan Latief, 2^nd Ed.2013 :
1. Score.          2. Record about students activities in the classroom.
According Donald Ary,7^th Ed.2007:
1). Using multiple sources of data
- Triangulation.
2). Data collection strategies
- experiencing              - enquiring       - examining
Data Analysis in the Classroom  Action Research
Acording to Sugiyono (2010;335) data analysis is sistematically process  to find and organize the data. Three elements to data analysis, are:
1.Accurancy and Crediability.            2.Validity, Reliability and Triangulation.
3.Inductive Analysis.

Summary ''Quantitative Research''

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
 What is quantitative research?
Quantitative research is defined by Bryman and Bell (2005, p. 154) that
‘‘entailing the collection of numerical data and exhibiting the view of relationship between theory and research as deductive, a predilection for natural science approach, and as having an objectivist conception of social reality’’.
So the this specific form of research uses the quantitative data to analysis.The specificity of quantitative research lies in the next part of the definition. In quantitative research, we collect numerical data. This is closely connected to the final part of the definition: analysis using mathematically.
DOING QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH IN EDUCATION WITH SPSS
Qualitative data are not necessarily or usually numerical, and therefore cannot be analysed by using statistics. Quantitative research is essentially about collecting numerical data to explain a particular phenomenon, particular questions seem immediately suited to being answered using quantitative methods. All questions  can look at quantitatively, as the data we need to collect are already available to us in numerical form.  Like :
1. How many males get a first-class degree at university compared to females?
2. What percentage of teachers and school leaders belong to ethnic minority groups?
3.Has pupil achievement in English improved in our school district over time?
Foundations of quantitative research methods
‘’Realism, subjectivism and the ‘paradigm wars’’’
Qualitative research is actually an umbrella term encompassing a wide range of methods, such as interviews, case studies, ethnographic research and discourse analysis, to name just some examples. The difference between quantitative and qualitative research is often seen as quite fundamental, leading people to talk about ‘paradigm wars’ in which quantitative and qualitative research are seen as warring and incommensurable fractions. Many researchers define themselves as either quantitative or qualitative. To label all quantitative researchers positivists is equally inaccurate. Quantitative researchers have taken up many criticisms of positivist views, and there is now a variety of epistemologies underlying theory and practice in quantitative research.
When do we use quantitative methods?
1. The first type of research question is that demanding a quantitative answer. Examples are: ‘How many students choose to study education?’
2. Numerical change can likewise accurately be studied only by using quantitative methods. Example:Are the numbers of students in our university rising or falling?
3. As well as wanting to find out about the state of something or other, we often want to explain phenomena. Example: What factors predict the recruitment of maths teachers?
As we will see later on in this book, this kind of question can also be studied successfully by quantitative methods, and many statistical techniques have been developed that allow us to predict scores on one factor, or variable (e.g. teacher recruitment) from scores on one or more other factors, or variables (e.g. unemployment rates, pay, conditions).
 4. The final activity for which quantitative research is especially suited is the testing of hypotheses. We might want to explain something . For example, whether there is a relationship between pupil’s achievement and their self-esteem and social background.
What is a hypothesis?
 A hypothesis is a tentative explanation that accounts for a set of facts and can be tested by further investigation. For example, one hypothesis we might want to test is that poverty causes low achievement, or that there is a relationship between pupils’ self-esteem and the amount of time they spend watching television.
Units and variables
 When we collect data in quantitative educational research, we have to collect them from someone or something. The people or things (e.g. schools) we collect data on or from are known as units or cases. The data that we are collecting from these units are known as variables. Variables are any characteristic of the unit we are interested in and want to collect (e.g. gender, age, self-esteem). The label ‘variable’ refers to the fact that these data will differ between units. For example, achievement will differ between pupils and schools, gender will differ between pupils, and so on. If there are no differences at all between the units we want to study, we probably aren’t going to be able to do any interesting research (for example, studying whether pupils are human would not yield interesting findings).

Summary Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research.  It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. Some common methods include focus groups (group discussions), individual interviews, and participation/observations.
According to Best,J.W.Kahn, J.V 2003:240 , Qualitative uses several methods including ethnographic, case study, phenomenological, constructivist, participant to observational ,interpretive, naturalistic enquiry and exploratory descriptive.

1.Ethnographic
Ethnographic research usually involves observing target users in their natural, real-world setting, rather than in the artificial environment of a lab or focus group. The aim is to gather insight into how people live; what they do; how they use things; or what they need in their everyday or professional lives.
Ethnographic research relies on techniques such as observation, video diaries, photographs, contextual interviews, and analysis of artefacts such as for example devices, tools or paper forms that might be used as part of a person’s job.
2.Naturalistic inquiry is research that focuses on how people behave when they are absorbed in genuine life experiences in natural settings.
Common assumption.:
ASSUMPTION 1:  Naturalism (the belief that phenomena should be studied in their natural context).
ASSUMPTION 2:  Phenomenology (the belief that the object of interest be examined without preconceived notions or a priori expectations; set aside what you expect to find in order to understand more fully the data collected).
ASSUMPTION 3:  Interpretive Nature (the belief that the researcher, while trying to see the situation from the point of view of those who are being studied, cannot escape from providing a personal interpretation of the situation.
3.The Data of Qualitative
Qualitative data is extremely varied in nature. It includes virtually any information that can be captured that is not numerical in nature. Here are some of the major categories or types:
a.In-Depth Interviews
In-Depth Interviews include both individual interviews (e.g., one-on-one) as well as "group" interviews (including focus groups). The data can be recorded in a wide variety of ways including stenography, audio recording, video recording or written notes.
b.Direct Observation
Direct observation is meant very broadly here. It differs from interviewing in that the observer does not actively query the respondent. The data can be recorded in many of the same ways as interviews (stenography, audio, video) and through pictures, photos or drawings (e.g., those courtroom drawings of witnesses are a form of direct observation).
c.Written Documents
Usually this refers to existing documents (as opposed transcripts of interviews conducted for the research). It can include newspapers, magazines, books, websites, memos, transcripts of conversations, annual reports, and so on. Usually written documents are analyzed with some form of content analysis.
4.Tools of data gathering
Questionnaires: Series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents, i.e. VET stakeholders
Interviews: Conversation between two or more people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee(s)
Focus groups: A group of people are asked about their attitude towards a product, service, concept, an idea

Observation: A group or single learners are asked to perform a specific task or action. Observations are then made of behaviours, processes, workflows etc, in a real-life situation (e.g. the workplace)
Case study: Often used to provide context to other data (such as outcome data), offering a more complete picture of what happened and why

5.Data Analysis
When analyzing data, one compares and contrasts each of the things that have been noticed in order to discover similarities and differences, build typologies, or find sequences and patterns. In the process one might also stumble across both “wholes” and, quite literally, holes in the data. Although some researchers suggest that disassembling, coding, and then sorting and sifting through your data, is the primary path to analyzing data / data analysis. But as other rightly caution, intensive data coding, disassembly, sorting, and sifting, is neither the only way to analyze your data nor is it necessarily the most appropriate strategy.

Summary Qualitative and Quantitave Research in Languange Learning

Qualitative and Quantitative Research in Language Learning

Qualitative Research is a process by inquiry aimed at understanding human behavior by building complex, holistic pictures of the social and cultural setting in which such behavior occurs
Quantitative Research is a process of measurement result variables penalize by using instrument variables.
Observation is used as a technical term in research with its specific meaning in everyday language, observation usually refers to the use of our visual sense to record and make sense of information.
There are 2 problems of qualitative and quantitative research.
Fixed Problem: Quantitative -> The researcher that to stick to that research problem.
Flexible Problem: Qualitative-> Focus on our analyzes based martials.  it can be flexible.
Snellings of Qualitative research refers to the place where the data are collected. Two types are:
Natural setting(Quantitative)
Manipulated setting(Quantitative)
Methods of Data Gathering:
1. One technique Vs Many techniques of data Gathering.
2.One data Gathering Instrument Vs Data Gathering Instrument.
Characteristic of Qualitative Research :
-An exploratory and Descriptive focus.
-Emergent Design
-Data collection in natural setting.
-Early and On-going inductive analysis.

Summary The nature of research method

The Nature of  Research Method
The strict definition of scientific research is performing a methodical study in order to prove a hypothesis or answer a specific question. Finding a definitive answer is the central goal of any experimental process.
Research must be systematic and follow a series of steps and a rigid standard protocol. These rules are broadly similar but may vary slightly between the different fields of science.
Scientific research must be organized and undergo planning, including performing literature reviews of past research and evaluating what questions need to be answered.
Any type of ‘real’ research, whether scientific, economic or historical, requires some kind of interpretation and an opinion from the researcher. This opinion is the underlying principle, or question, that establishes the nature and type of experiment.

The scientific definition of research generally states that a variable must be manipulated, although case studies and purely observational science do not always comply with this norm.

Research can be a way of life; it is the basis for many of the important decisions in our lives. Without it, we are deluged with information, subjected to the claims of advertisers, or influenced by hearsay in making sense of the world around us. This informal, experiential research helps us decipher the flood of information we encounter daily.

Formal academic research differs from experiential research and may be more investigative in nature. For example, it may require us to learn about an area in which we have little knowledge or inclination to learn. It may be library-oriented or field-oriented, depending on the nature of the research.
Academic research, like the everyday research we do, is associated with curiosity and intellectual discovery. The writing associated with academic research is demanding and challenging, with a methodology and discipline all its own. Although many of the concepts and processes of research are generic, academic research is discipline-specific and demands a more rigorous methodology. This chapter presents the methodology of academic research, many of the generic processes of research writing, and suggestions for applying the concepts to various disciplines. The chapter ends with a brief look at the structure of a research paper.

• Research is a natural day-to-day activity for the purpose of gathering information.
• Academic research is much like ordinary research, but it is more disciplined in its methodology.