CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the writer provides a picture of research methodology that
consists of six unit discussions, those are: research type, research context, data and
data sources, the technique of data collection, data validity, and technique of data
analysis that will be described vividly as follows:
A. Type of Research
The type of this research is a qualitative with case study approach.
Qualitative research is a research procedure that produces descriptive data in
written or oral words from the subjects (informants) of the study (Bogdan and
Taylor 1975, cited in Moleong, 2004: 3). Whereas, case study is an investigation
and analysis of a single case or collective case intended to capture the complexity
of the object of the study (Stake,1995: 86). Creswell (1998: 73) adds that:
Case study is a qualitative approach in which the investigator explores a bounded
system (a case) or multiple bounded systems (cases) over time, through detailed,
in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information (e.g.,
observations, interviews, audiovisual material, and documents and reports), and
reports a case description and case-based themes. For example, several programs
(a multi-site study) or a single program (a within-site study) may be selected for
study.

This case study approach is used because it is a suitable approach to

investigate teachers beliefs and practices about English teaching. The tendency of
case study itself is to investigate a decision or a set of decision and why the
decision taken, how it is applied and what the result of the decision. The main
point of case study tries to answer how and why of the research. In this
context of the research, the writer attempts to investigate how (the process of
teachers beliefs and practices about English teaching) and why (why teachers
beliefs implemented in classroom). Besides, the general objectives of this research
are (1) to explore teachers beliefs about English teaching (2) to examine teachers
beliefs about their practices (3) to explore and analyze beliefs of English teaching
implemented in classroom practices, (4) to explore and analyze factors that
influence teachers beliefs and their classroom practices.

The uniqueness of case study is to provide an in-depth understanding of a

single case (teachers beliefs and practices about English teaching) in the setting
of the study, to find what is common and what is particular thing that shape the
case, to give insights about the wider issues of the object of the study as well as
facilitate understanding of the relationship between teachers beliefs and their
practices. According to Lincoln and Guba (1985) case study has several
uniqueness; (1) as a naturalistic strategy, case study provides space and a big
opportunity to the researcher to reconstruct a variety of subjective construction for
the informants of the study, (2) case study is built based on the tacit knowledge
(unrevealed knowledge), (3) case study can provide thick description (3) case
study offers grounded assessment about context. It means a social phenomenon
often depends on the personal orientations in its context.
The design type of case study employed is descriptive case study. It started
with the researcher presents a descriptive theory which establishes the framework
for the researcher to follow throughout the study and what is searched by this
approach is the formation and identification of a clear theoretical orientation
before stating research questions. The researcher must also determine before
beginning the research exactly what the unit of analysis in the study will be.
The reasons why the writer selects qualitative research with case study
approach, because (1) the writer would like to investigate teachers beliefs and
practices in English teaching and (2) the chosen research will be expected to
provide holistic understanding of teachers beliefs, factors that influence teachers
beliefs and their practices at MTs.N Jeketro (An Islamic Junior High School).
B. Research Setting
This research setting consists of two parts. The first part illustrates the time of
the research, the second part gives information about the place where the research
was carried out.
1. Time

The research was conducted from October 5 th to November 30th, 2015 in the
first semester of the academic year of 2015/2016. Here is the time schedule of the
research.
Table 3.1
Time schedule of the research
Teacher
T1
T2
T3
T4

Teacher 1
(T1)

Teacher 2
(T2)

Teacher 3
(T3)

Teacher 4
(T4)

Activity

Interview
Observation 1
Observation 2
Observation 3
Discussion (Confirmation of

October 6th, 2015

October 6th, 2015
October 8th, 2015
October 12th, 2015

Setting
8D
7D
9E
8I
Teacher Office
8B
8A
8D

Teachers beliefs related to

October 16th, 2015

Teacher Office

the study)
Interview
Observation 1
Observation 2
Observation 3
Discussion (Confirmation of

October 19th, 2015

October 19th, 2015
October 21st, 2015
October 26th, 2015

Teacher Office
7G
7F
7D

Teachers beliefs related to

October 30th, 2015

Teacher Office

the study)
Interview
Observation 1
Observation 2
Observation 3
Discussion (Confirmation of

November 2nd, 2015

November 2nd, 2015
November 4th, 2015
November 8th, 2015

Teacher Office
9E
9A
9B

Teachers beliefs related to

November 13th, 2015

Teacher Office

the study)
Interview
Observation 1
Observation 2
Observation 3
Discussion (Confirmation of

November 16th, 2015

November 16th, 2015
November 18th, 2015
November 25th, 2015

Teacher Office
8E
8G
8H

Teachers beliefs related to

November 30th, 2015

Teacher Office

Preliminary observation

the study)

Date
Monday, October 5th,
2015

2. Place
The research is carried out at MTs N Jeketro. The school is not only one of
outstanding Islamic Junior High School but also the first state Islamic junior high
school in Grobogan regency, the second largest regency in Central Java, located at
Jalan Raya Jeketro. The school has slogan Excellent in achievement, noble in
attitude and advanced in technology. The vision of the school is to produce
excellent and skilled students based on the faith and devotion in Allah, the
missions are (1) to implement the learning and guidance effectively so that the
students grow optimally as their potential, (2) to increase human resource and
foster spirit, discipline, professionalism, competition, and high performance
intensively to all residents of Madrasah (Islamic School), (3) to conduct education
in a variety of skills to prepare students to have (life skills), (4) to provide
facilities and infrastructure that support teaching and learning process (5) to grow
and develop good attitude to all residents of Madrasah (Islamic School) in daily
life as well as religious atmosphere that reflects the faith and devotion in Allah.
The aim of the school is to produce skillful, faithful, devoted students and have
excellent achievements to live independently and continue further education.
In addition, the school has approximately 1002 students with the description;
seventh grade consists of 354 students (A to J Class), eighth grade consists of 339
students (A to I Class) and ninth grade consists of 346 students (A to I Class) with
51 qualified teachers. This school possesses experienced qualified teacher
resources especially in English subject.
C. Data and Data Sources
In qualitative research type, data is a collection of information or notes
based on the observation. The main data are words, note document and activity.
There are two classifications of data namely: (1) Primary data is verbal data,
attitude that are done by trusted subjects (informants) related to the problems
studied, and the researcher as participant observer (2) Secondary data is the date
resulted from documents (syllabus, lesson plan, observation). Whereas, the data
sources of this study are conceptualized in general category as follows:

1. Event
Event is all the teaching and learning activities carried on by the teachers
in the classroom. The activities will be taken as data. The event of this research
was started from October 5th to November 30th, 2015. This research took twentyfour meetings with the four English teachers of MTs.N Jeketro to investigate
teachers beliefs and their classroom practices, the writer did observation in
three meetings for each teacher. The writer needed to come and observed
teachers class at least two to three classes as the schedule attached every
meeting. The general procedure of the research continuum is; in the first
meeting, the writer came into the class by doing preliminary observation, then
deciding the general themes appeared, then the writer interviewed the teacher
related to the result of preliminary observation, the second meeting the writer
took part in the classroom while observing the teaching and learning activity, the
third meeting the writer still did observation to look at the consistency of the
themes appeared, the writer crosschecked the themes were set by the
preliminary observation, observation I, observation II then the writer met the
teacher to confirm and clarify the result of the results of the first meeting to the
sixth meeting related to teachers beliefs and practices.

2. Informant
Informant is someone who can give some information about the situation
of the object of the study (Sutanti,2015: 38). Spradley (2000: 35) adds that
informant is a resource of the information in a research. The informants of this
study are four English teachers at MTs N Jeketro as follows:
The first teacher (T1) teaches English in the seventh grade (7I, 7H, 7J) to
eighth grade (8A, 8B, 8C, 8D), before teaching at MTs. N Jeketro, T1 was an
elementary school teacher, T1 did not teach English but T1 was a teacher class
who taught all subjects in the school, T1 has been taught in this school since
2011 and T1 has been teaching English for four years, T1 enjoys the teaching
and learning activity, the total of number training joined by T1 is two trainings.

The second teacher (T2) teaches the seventh grade (7A, 7B, 7C, 7D, 7E,
7F, 7G), T2 is a civil servant, T2 has eleven years of teaching experience, the
total of training joined is eight trainings, T3 is a certified teacher (a teacher who
gains the incentive from the government based on the teaching experience and
the total of training joined).
The third teacher (T3) teaches in the ninth grade (9A, 9B, 9C, 9D, 9E,9F,
9G), T3 is the first English teacher the school has in the beginning, T3 has eight
years teaching experience, T3 is also a certified teacher, T3 is well-known as the
tenth grader teacher, T3 always takes responsible for teaching the tenth grade
because of the teaching experience, a total of training participated is eleven
trainings.
The last teacher (T4) teaches in eighth (8E, 8F, 8G, 8H, 8I) to ninth grade
(9I, 9H), T4 has master degree qualification, T4 is a certified teacher, T4 has
thirteen years of teaching experience in the school and the total number of
training participated is ten training. This is the brief information about the fourth
English teachers as follows:

Table 3.2
Teacher Identification
No
1
2
3
4

Name
Teacher 1 (T1)
Teacher 2 (T2)
Teacher 3 (T3)
Teacher 4 (T4)

Teaching

Qualification

A total of

experience
4 years
11 years
19 years
15 years

Undergraduate
Undergraduate
Undergraduate
Master degree

Training
2
8
11
10

3. Document
Document is written texts that serve as a record or piece of evidence of an
event or fact (Smith, 1978 cited in Jenner, 2004: 284). The document in this

research used to analyze is lesson plan, syllabus, a transcript of interview and

materials (teachers books) and students works.
D. Technique of Data Collection
Technique of collecting data is the most essential unit because the purpose
of the research is to gain the data without knowing the technique of data
collection, a researcher will not gain standard data determined. The technique of
data collection can be done by observation, interviews, document, and those
components combined. In this study, the technique of data collection used by the
writer are:
1. Observation
Observation is a technique to collect the data by observing the ongoing
activity (Sukmadinata, 2007: 220). The observation used by this study is
participant observation. Sugiyono (2014: 204) stated that participant
observation is a researcher engages in daily life of the observed person as data
source of the study. In a simple proposition, the writer involves in the daily
teaching activity conducted by the the teachers starting from preparing the
lesson plan orientated in syllabus, choosing the suitable material for the
students, joining the teachers classes to capture the understanding of teachers
beliefs and their practices holistically. The observation was conducted when the
teachers had schedule to teach and the writer followed the teachers in their
class based on the agreement both the writer and the teachers.
2. Interview
Interview is a process of acquiring data to find the problems that need to
be studied (Sugiyono, 2014: 194). Interview can assist the research to reveal
the truth from the subjects. There are two kinds of interview namely: (1)
structured interview and (2) unstructured interview. In this research the writer
used structured interview. According to Sugiyono (2014: 197) unstructured
interview is an interview that has guideline to follow in doing the interview.
According to Arikunto (1991: 128) interview is a process of interaction,
dialogue, question and answer verbally committed by two or more persons

directly to obtain the required information. To acquire the thick information

from the informants, the researcher conducted interview before and after
observation. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The interview done
before observation was to gain the teachers beliefs about English teaching.
While, the interview done after observation to crosscheck the consistency of
the teachers beliefs and their practices to examine the consistency of the
teachers beliefs and practices at MTs. N Jeketro.
3. Document analysis
Document analysis is a technique of data collection by gathering and
analyzing documents, whether written documents, pictures, and electronic
(Dinata, 2004: 221). The document can be taken as inseparable unit of
analyses. Those documents are syllabus, lesson plan and material delivered by
the teachers and the documents will enhance the credibility of the
interpretations in research findings.
E. Data Validity
Validity in qualitative research means the interpretation of the observations
whether or not the researcher measures what must be measured (Kirk and
Miller,1986: 69) In quantitative study, the researchers often use validity and
reliability to examine the data validity and the major criterion of quantitative must
be valid, reliable and objective. In qualitative study, Shenton (2004: 64) simplifies
the concepts of validity and reliability transferred in the table as follows:
Table 3.3
The Concept of Validity and Reliability
Aspect
Truth Value
Implementation
Consistency
Natural

Quantitative
Internal Validity
External Validity
Reliability
Objectivity

Qualitative
Credibility
Transferability
Dependability
Confirmability

1. Credibility
According to Lincoln & Guba (1985) insist that credibility accounts for
what happened, accurately without contamination and interventions. Then, they

add that ensuring credibility is one of most important factors in establishing

trustworthiness. Alamu (2010:50) affirms that a credible study needs to show
evidence of lengthy engagement in the field. The techniques to validate the data,
the researcher can do the following options:
a. Extension of observation, means the researcher comes back to the setting of
the study to observe, do interview with the data sources encountered.
b. Triangulation is qualitative cross-validation. It assesses the sufficiency of
the data according to the convergence of multiple data source of multiple
data collection procedures.
c. Increasing perseverance is an activity to observe or capture the phenomenon
more accurate.
d. Analyzing negative case is a process of selecting irrelevant case with the
result of the study to clarify the case as a consideration to infer the result of
the study.
e. Member check is testing of data, analytic categorizes, interpretation, and
conclusion by the member of those stake-holding groups from whom the
data were originally collected (Ariyati, 2015:50).
2. Transferability
Transferability refers to the extent to which the findings from a study can be
applied to other settings and contexts. This is realized by providing rich, thick
description, to allow readers to determine how closely their situations match and
whether or not the findings of this study can be transferred to their setting or
context.
3. Dependability
Dependability refers to the extent to which the data and interpretation are
reliable and consistent. It means that if the study is repeated, in the same context,
with the same methods and with the same participants, the results are going to be
the same.
4. Confirmability
Confirmability is the degree to which the results could be confirmed or
corroborated by others (Guba & Lincoln, 2006). The study is objective, if the

result of the study is agreed by lots of participants and confirmability means

examining the result of the study related to the process. If the result of the study is
function from research process that has done, so the study has completed the
confirmability standard.
Maxwell (1996), Holliday (2002) and Moshbah (2007) highly recommend
triangulation as a technique to increase the validity of the study. The use of
triangulation is one of the principles of gaining credible qualitative data (Alamu,
2010:50). In short, triangulation helps to gain credibility (internal validity) and
dependability (reliability) of the reported data. Triangulation means using more
than one method to collect data on the same topic. This is a way of assuring the
validity of research through the use of a variety of methods to collect data on the
same topic, which involves different types of samples as well as methods of data
collection. However, the purpose of triangulation is not necessarily to crossvalidate data but rather to capture different dimensions of the same phenomenon.
Humaidi, Hartuti (2013, cited in Mujahidin 2015:72) classify kinds of
triangulation as follows:
a. Method triangulation, if the information of data is from the interview, it
should be examined with the result of the observation
b. Research triangulation, if the information is from one of the
researchers team, it should be examined with other researchers
c. Data triangulation, if the information is from one respondent, it should
be examined to another respondent or documents.
d. Situation triangulation, it is the explanation or comment from one
respondent which delivered in two different situations, e.g. it is
delivered alone and with others
e. Theory triangulation, it is to find whether there is a parallel explanation
and analysis between one theory and other theories towards the research
data.
In this study, the writer uses data triangulation to acquire accountable
information through a variety of methods and data source gained such as
interview and observation, document, field note, picture and the writer as
participant observation to crosscheck the validity of the study. The data
triangulation can be drawn in the following figure.
Chart 3.1 Data Triangulation

Interviews of Participants
Picture
Video recorded

Lesson Plan

F. TechniqueSyllabus
of Data Analysis

Field note
Classroom Observation

Data analysis is the process of systematically searching and compiling the

data obtained from interviews, field notes, and other materials, so it can be
understood easily, and its findings can inform others (Sugiyono, 2002: 334). To
investigate teachers beliefs and practices about English teaching at MTs.N
Jeketro, the writer employed a techniques of data analysis formulated by Miles
and Hubberman (1993) as follows:
1. Data Reduction.
Data reduction is a process of analysis data to summarize, organize and
select the important data to gain the themes and patterns by wasting
unimportant data (Sugiyono, 2014: 340). By doing data reduction the
researcher will find a complete picture of the object of the study and facilitate
the researcher to decide the next step of data collection. The process of data
reduction can be done by computer and other software to make coding in
certain aspects.
2. Data Display.
After doing data reduction, the next step is data display. Data display is a
step of presenting the data from the data reduction (Sugiyono, 2014: 341). The
researcher displays the data in short description, chart, the relation among the
category and other formats. By data display, then the data is organized,
arranged in a pattern that can be more understandable.
3. Conclusion drawing/ Verification.
The last phase of analysis data is conclusion drawing or verification.
Conclusion drawing or verification is a step of drawing conclusion from the
beginning to the final process (Sugiyono, 2014: 342). In doing conclusion

drawing, the researcher begins to determine the meaning of the research then
conducts verification because preliminary conclusion sometimes is temporary
and still tentative and the findings will be changed if the researcher finds the
more valid proof when the researcher crosscheck to the research setting but if
not the preliminary conclusion is credible.