REPLICATING RESEARCHES AS AN ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION

IN WRITING FINAL PAPERS FOR ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM

WITH BIG CLASSES

BY:

AKHMAD SUTIYONO

Abstract: Students of English Department are required to write theses as one of the requirements of finishing their study. There are some requisites that should be fulfilled by the students before they start writing their theses. The requisites include; (1) proposing the titles of the research; (2) presenting and defending research proposal in a seminar; (3) conducting the field research; (4) writing theses; and (5) defending the theses in theses examinations.

Getting the research problems or titles is not easy. Students spend much time to get them; they should read various references and observe the real problems that exist in the classroom activities. Therefore they will be so frustrated when the study program refuses the problems/titles proposed by students because the titles have been investigated and they are usually suggested to find out other problems or titles for their researches.

However, it is difficult for the students to have other problems or titles that are completely different from the problems or titles that have been investigated. The problems become greater when so many students have to propose their research problems or titles nearly at the same time. It usually happens to big study programs in private universities and colleges like English study program that has many students in several big parallel classes.  

Key Words: Plagiarism, replication, research,

I. Introduction

Nowadays English Study Programs of private universities and colleges usually have so many students in several big parallel classes. It happens because there are so many applicants fall their choices on English as their majors in state universities, however, just a small number of them can be accepted as new students because state universities usually limit their acceptances. Most English study programs at state universities only accept two classes with 40 students each. The applicants who are refused by the state universities usually register to the English Study Programs at private universities or colleges in their towns. Therefore, it is possible for the private universities or colleges to accept as many students as possible with lower requirements. Then, it is not surprising that an English Study Program of a private college or university has more than five hundreds new students that spread in several big parallel classes with more than fifty students each. It happens because English study program offers wider job opportunities for their graduates. As we know that the 1994 Local Content Curriculum for elementary School recommends elementary schools to teach or introduce English as a local content subject. Therefore English has been introduced or taught as a local content subject in most elementary schools throughout Indonesia since then. In big cities, English has also been introduced in big or famous kindergartens and playgroups. The job opportunities for the graduates of English study programs becomes wider because certain schools have implemented bilingual education program where English is not only taught as a subject matter but also as medium of instruction in the classrooms.

Writing theses is one of the requirements of students of English department of STKIP PGRI Bandar Lampung in finishing their study. There are some requisites that should be fulfilled by the students before they start writing their theses. The requisites include; (1) proposing the titles of the research; (2) presenting and defending research proposal in a seminar; (3) conducting the field research; (4) writing theses; and (5) defending the theses in theses examinations.

Borg and Gall (1979) state that a research should start from an idea. The idea may come from any of a great many sources. For example, a research idea may evolve from a new psychological theory that the students encounter in a class, may result from a problem that the students have observed in previous teaching or learning situations, or may originate in a problem described by a friend or by their teachers. The ideas or the research problems usually focus on educational phenomena that they wish to describe, classroom events that they have observed and will attempt to explain, or problems for which they will try to develop solutions. The ideas or the research problems later are formulated into their research titles and proposed to the heads of study program. In line with the research problem, Cresswell (1994) states that a problem can be defined as the issue that exists in the literature, theory, or practice that leads to a need for the study.

Based on the above description, it means that students spend much time to get the research problems or titles; they should read various references and observe the real problems that exist in the classroom activities. Therefore they will be so frustrated when the study program refuses the titles proposed by students because the titles have been investigated and they are usually suggested to find out other problems or titles for their researches.

However, it is not easy for the students to have other problems or titles that are completely different from the problems or titles that have been investigated. The problems become greater when so many students have to propose their research problems or titles nearly at the same time. It usually happens to big study programs in private universities and colleges like English study program that has many students in several big parallel classes.

 Private universities and colleges usually have a lot of students for their study programs because they need more money for their development and the common or even the only source of fund comes from the students although sometimes the institutions may get fund from other sources like from the government, but they are very limited.

To overcome the problems above, the English study program allows students to propose research titles by changing one of the independent or dependent variables of the research or by adding other independent variables of the research on condition that the titles are supported by theories. But it is not enough for all the students at the big English study program because there are only few research titles that can be investigated by changing or adding the research variables. Students need more ease for conducting their research.

STKIP PGRI Bandar Lampung is the only private college in Lampung that has English Study Program, therefore, we usually accept many new students every year. For example, in the academic year of 2006/2007 STKIP PGRI Bandar Lampung accepted 400 new students and they were placed into seven parallel big classes. Based on a long debate and careful consideration, the English study program of STKIP PGRI Bandar Lampung is trying to allow students to do research replications with certain requirements.

II. What is Replication of Research?

            Northern Arizona University (2001) defines replication as the repeating a study to determine if findings can be duplicated. This is important to increase confidence in research results and to establish models. Replication of research means conducting the same research problems or titles in different places but at the same levels. For example, a research about the correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery (x) and writing skill (y) at a senior high school can be replicated in other different senior high schools. It may happen because there are many senior high schools in the city or the province. The research findings from one research to another can be varied since there are no research settings that have the same characteristics. The replication can also be done by giving different focuses of research. For example; a qualitative research about the implementation of Competency-based Curriculum at English Language Teaching (ELT) at senior high school that focuses on the learning-teaching process, can be replicated by conducting the same research but focuses on the evaluation system used or on the problems faced by the English teachers and students.     (Schafer: 2002) states that careful planning of replications can enhance the interpretability of applied research. When results are consistent across several studies, there is a stronger basis for observed relationship(s) than the support that is available within study by itself, since results that have been replicated are considered more likely to generalize (continue to be observed). It is also possible to compare the studies with each other to identify constructs that interact with, or moderate, relationships. Although these advantages exist whether or not the research includes experimental control, the opportunity to replicate a basic study design in multiple field contexts is more likely to be available to the applied researcher and is a technique that can lead to stronger inferences in any setting. This, it is recommended that persons who conduct field research try to include replication as a fundamental feature in their studies.

The analysis of the several studies results should also be addressed. Meta-analysis is an attractive vehicle for combining, or synthesizing, a series of research replications. Although meta-analysis is generally thought of as a means for studying an existing research literature quantitatively, it also may be used to analyze a series of related studies generated within a single project. 

III. Things that should be considered in the Replication of Research

            There are some factors that should be considered by the study program in replicating of researches. The factors are as follows:

1.      Issue of Plagiarism

        We should avoid of plagiarism in students’ researches. To avoid of plagiarism in the replication of researches, the study program should enlist all the students’ research titles that have been done and bounded in a book so that it can help students when they want to replicate any research titles. To know that the student replicates a research, we should label in the end of his or her research titles with (R) indicates the replication of research. To make sure that there is no plagiarism in students’ theses, the head of study program should prepare the theses of which the problems or the titles that are replicated by the students before the students present their theses in their theses examinations. The head of study program, then, can distribute the copy of the previous theses to the theses advisors and examiners. Beside that the head of study program should be selective in giving permission to the students who want to replicate a research. They should be smart and hard-working students because it is expected that by conducting research replication, they can elaborate the phenomena in the research settings by using more accurate research instruments.   

2.      When students may replicate a research

Students are not recommended to replicate any research, however, when they find difficulties in getting the problems or the titles of the researches, they are offered to do the replication of the researches.

3.      Who decides the focus or the place of research

The person who decides the problems or the research titles than can be replicated is the head of study program. In order to maintain the quality of the students’ researches, the head of study program should be careful in deciding the problems or the research titles that will be replicated. He or she should be careful in selecting the focuses or the research settings. 

4.      How many times a research can be replicated

A research can be replicated once or more depends on the scope of the research. For example, a research about the implementation of curriculum can be replicated more than twice depends on the focuses that are going to be investigated. A quantitative research about the correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and writing skill can also be replicated more than once on condition that it is replicated in different regencies (kotamadya/kabupaten).

IV. Conclusion and Suggestion

                English Study Programs in private universities or colleges tend to have many students that spread in several big parallel classes. However, the magnitude of the classes creates students’ difficulties in accomplishing their study because they have to conduct researches with different research problems or titles. To solve this problem, Head of English Study Program can offer the replication of research to their students. The replication can be the same topics with different educational level or with the same level but in different schools.

REFERENCES

Borg, Walter R and Meredith Damien Gall, 1979. Educational Research.

            An Introduction. Longman, Inc.

Cresswell, John W. 1994. Research Design. Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Sage Publications, Inc.

Northern Arizona University, 2001. Definition of Terms. Available at http://www.prm.nau.edu/prm447/Definitions.htm. Accessed on June 3, 2007.

Schafer, William D. 2001. Replication in Field Research. Available at http://www.eric.ed.gov. Accessed on May 28, 2007.

BIODATA

Nama                                                   : Drs. Akhmad Sutiyono, M.Pd.

Pekerjaan                                            : PNSD pada Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa

Inggris STKIP PGRI Bandar Lampung

Jabatan                                   : Ketua Jurusan Bahasa dan Seni STKIP PGRI

                                                Bandar Lampung

Tempat dan Tgl. Lahir                      : Purworejo, 30 Nopember 1960

Riwayat Pendidikan                          : 1. Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris S1 Universitas

                                                                   Lampung, tamat tahun 1987.

                                                               2. Pend. Bahasa Inggris S2 Universitas Pendidikan

                                                                   Indonesia (UPI)  Bandung. Tamat tahun 2003.

Alamat                                                 : Jl. Delima Blok D7 No. 31 Beringin Raya Bandar

                                                Lampung Telp. 270623