MID-TERM EVALUATION

Answers
1. According to dictionary.cambridge.org, the differences among issues, phenomena,
and research problems are as following:
a. Issue is a subject or problem that people are thinking and talking about, it can be
about the environmental/ethical/personal issues.
b. Phenomena is the plural form of phenomenon, which are some things that are or
can be experienced, felt, seen, etc., especially some things that are noticed because
they are unusual, new or interesting.
c. Research problems are some questions or things that needs to be dealt with or
solved in research.

2. According to Creswell (2012), there are two different types of hypothesis in research,
namely:
a. Null Hypothesis

Null hypothesis is symbolized by H0 is a type of hypothesis that reveals no

relationship between variables. It is simply explained that null hypothesis
states the opposite of what is being expected and predicted by the researcher.
In stating null hypothesis, researcher can choose two ways, namely by stating
it as declarative sentence or to present it as mathematical statement. For
instance, Talking Chips technique is correlated to students’ speaking
improvement. The average length of time to have a good speaking
improvement is an average 3 months while the technique is applied by the
teacher in teaching six times a week. After that, the researcher wants to test the
improvement of students will happen late longer if teaching is conducted only
four times a week. In facing this case, researcher needs to ascertain the
alternate hypothesis, such as “Researcher expects students’ speaking
improvement to take longer than 3 months”. Then, the null hypothesis is what
is being expected by the researcher when the hypothesis does not happen.
Here, the declarative sentence of the null hypothesis is “If the students’
speaking improvement is not achieved in greater than 3 months, then it must
 occur at time equal to or less than 3 months. Mathematically, it can be drawn
as H0:µ ≤ 3.

b. Alternate Hypothesis
Alternate hypothesis is simply defined as the alternative of the Null
Hypothesis. This hypothesis is symbolized by H1 or Ha in general. This is a
type of hypothesis that reveals there is significant relationship between two
variables. As what has been stated in the example of null hypothesis above,
the alternate hypothesis that is written in declarative sentence will be
“Researcher expects students’ improvement to take longer than 3 months”.
Meanwhile, in mathematically, it is stated H1:µ > 3.
3. Different kinds of variables and how would each of them measured appropriately.
Kinds of variables.
a. Independent and Dependent Variables
Independent variable is the active variable that becomes the agent or the causes of
the consequent. It can be manipulated and affect the dependent variable.
Meanwhile, dependent variable is the outcome or result that is affected by the
independent variable. Therefore, the independent and dependent variables are
interconnected (Kaur, 2013).
b. Quantitative and Qualitative Variables
Accorfing to SAS Institute (2003), quantitative variable is the variable that have
quantitative data which is usually associated with values in form of number or
score. For example, the variable is students’ listening test. The value will be
number or students score. However, the qualitative variable or
classification/categorical variable are the variables which have the qualitative
values or attributes. Attributes are the characteristics or qualities that describe an
object (Kaur, 2013).
c. Active and Attribute Variables
Active variable is similar with the independent variables. It has the same
characteristics, such as free and will be manipulated by the researcher. Attribute
variable is the opposite of active variable. It can’t manipulated by the researcher.
d. Continuous and Categorical Variables
 Continuous variable is the range number that can be continued and ranked. The
example: the interval is 1-10 means the range numbers are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.
Those interval has the minimum and maximum point. If there is more than one
interval, each interval should have the equal or the same range of numbers.
Categorical variable is the nominal variables which has the qualitative attributes.
The example are gender, religion, jobs, and so forth. The categorical variables can
be divided into three types. They are dichotomous (example: male and female;
alive and dead), dichotomous (example: urban, semi urban, and rural), and
multiple (example: blood groups A, B, AB, and O) variables (Kaur, 2013).

The scales in measuring the variables.

SAS Institure (2003) stated that there are four scales in measuring the variables, as
follows:
a. Nominal Scale
This is the classification system for the qualitative variables or the attributes of the
specific category. When the variables can be categorized, not ranked, this scale
can be used. So, the variable only able to categorize the attributes into the
variable. In using this measurement, the categories or attributes can be labelled by
using number but this number does not mean as number. It is as the representative
its categories or attribute. For instance, the ‘man’ labelled as ‘1’ and ‘woman’
labelled as ‘2’.
b. Ordinal Scale
Ordinal scale is the scale to measure the data of the variable into an order or level
or hierarchy. It means that this scale is used to rank the data of the variable. For
example, 1 means the subject of the data get the highest score, 2 means the score
is smaller than the 1, and so on.
c. Interval Scale
Interval scale means measure the data to categorize and rank them. It can be done
by creating the level which has the equal interval or range of number. For
instance, when we want to categorize students into 3 levels such as, excellent,
very good, good, and bad. Excellent has interval 80-100; very good 50-70; and so
forth.
d. Ratio Scale
 Ratio scale is the combination from those three scales. It used to categorize, rank,
equal range, and its mark is continuum. So, the ratio scale is like created the
formula that can be applied in all situation. For instance, the ratio of students’
motivation level and students’ achievement is 1:1. It means that the motivation
has the same important aspect in achievement or the motivation will result the
same level of achievement.

4. According to Creswell (2012), a research design means the features that distinguish
the qualitative and quantitative research. It will guide the researcher in the procedure
of data collection, analyzing the data, and interpreting it. There are some research
design that can be applied in educational research, such as experimental design,
correlation design, survey designs, grounded theory design, ethnographic design,
narrative research design, mixed method design, and action research design. It will
lead the reliability and validity of a research.

5. The meaning of population, sample, and sampling together with real examples.
a. Population is a generalization region consisting of the object or subject of research
that has certain qualities and characteristics that can be examined which will be
drawn conclusions (Sugiyono, 2011). For example, the research will be studied
about students’ reading interest in senior high school level. Then, in Singaraja
they are a lot of senior high schools and students. Then the researcher choose
SMA Negeri 1 Singaraja as the place to conduct the study. So, the population is
all students in SMA Negeri 1 Singaraja.
b. Based on Sugiyono (2011), samples are some of the characteristics taken from the
population that have the characteristics required for the study. The sample that has
been chosen should be able to represent the population. From the population
above, the sample can be the some classes which will be selected by the
researcher.
c. Sampling is the technic in choosing and deciding the sample that will be studied.
The technics in sampling are stratified, proportional, quota, area, purposive,
multistage, random, and snowball. Based on the research above, researcher
chooses the random sampling.
 6. An example of technique for collecting data using the identified variable identified
above. The title of the study is ‘Improving Students’ Speaking Competency through
Role Play”. The techniques for collecting data are observation, interview and survey.

7. The relationships between or among variables can be analysed by doing the research
itself. The technic to analyze is descriptive analysis . Descriptive analysis is used to
know students reading interest.

References:
Fischler, S. A. From Problem Statement to Research Problem. Nova Southeastern University.
http://education.nova.edu
Kaur, SP. 2013. Variables in Research. Vol. 3. No. 4.
Sugiyono. 2011. Metode Penelitian Kuantitatif, Kualitatif, dan R&D. Bandung:Alfabeta.
Creswell, John. W. Educational Research Planning, Conducting and Evaluating Quantitative
and Qualitative Research Linclon: University of Nebraska. 4th ed.
SAS Institute Inc. 2003. JMP Statistics and Graphics Guide. Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc.
Cambridge University Press. Meaning of Problem in English. Cambridge University Press.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/