IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING SKILL by USING COOPERATIVE LEARNING A Classroom Action Research on the Reading Class of PGPAUD Students of Open University (UT) Purwokerto

Abstract

This study is aimed to identify the effects of using cooperative learning to improve students’ reading abilityin second semester English class of S1 PGPAUD of Open University Purwokerto. Reading comprehension is a skill to improve the general reading skills. The problems occur when the students sometimes cannot get a sense of the structure in reading text,content of a reading selection; identify text structure, and low participation. Concerning the problems of teaching reading in the class, there were two research questions used in this research. The first is ‘to what extent is the effectiveness of cooperative learning in increasing students’ reading ability?’ the second is ‘To what extent is the students’ motivation, attitude and cooperation taught using cooperative learning?’. Based on research questions, the writer will formulate the objectives of the study, they were ‘Tofind out the effectiveness of cooperative learning technique in increasing students reading skill at the second semester students of Early Childhood Teacher Education in Open University Purwokerto in 2014/2015 academic year. The second is ‘To find out whether cooperative learning technique could enhance students’ motivation, attitude and cooperation in reading class.’This research is concerned with cooperative learning method to improve the students’ reading skill, motivation, attitude and cooperation. How this method can improve the students’ reading ability in the classroom.Cooperative learning type in this class is used as group discussions. The design employed in this research was Classroom Action Research. The study was conducted at the second semester students in S1 PGPAUD Open University (UT) in Purwokerto. The class consists of 21 students. Observation, questionnaire, evaluation sheet and students’ reading test are implemented as instruments to collect the data. To measure students’ motivation, the writer using five observation aspects as the standard of assessment such as asking questions, answering question, active in discussion and share the information, comprehending text easily and enthusiastic in doing assignments. These five observation aspects measured when teaching learning activities in classroom. The teacher observed and took notes for each observation aspect. The observation is completed with reading test, in each cycle. In each cycle comprises four steps to observe and solve the teaching learning problems, they are: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting.As a result of this research, students show higher achievement and positive motivation after implementation of cooperative learning. Those are can be seen in the improvement result of each cycle. It is not possible to determine the effect of cooperative learning on student. Key Words : Reading, Cooperative Learning, Classroom Action Research