Action research atau penelitian tindakan kelas (PTK) merupakan upaya para pendidik yang reflektif untuk meningkatkan kualitas pengajarannya sehingga hasil pembelajaran siswa juga semakin baik. Pada awal perkembangannya di Amerika Serikat di awal abad 20, PTK menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif. Namun seiring berjalannya waktu, masalah di bidang pendidikan dan pengajaran juga semakin kompleks sehingga beberapa pendidik mulai menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif. Makalah ini bertujuan untuk memaparkan PTK dengan pendekatan kualitatif dan kuantitatif, disertai dengan contoh-contoh PTK di bidang pengajaran Bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa asing untuk memperkuat alasan penggunaan masing-masing pendekatan tersebut. Pendekatan apa pun yang digunakan—kualitatif atau kuantitatif—bukan menjadi masalah dan masih dapat disebut sebagai PTK, asalkan tujuan penelitian tersebut dapat dicapai, yaitu peningkatan kualitas pengajaran.
Statistical reasoning should precede the statistical method in the teaching of statistics because the students should master the concepts before they perform computations. To find out whether the students were aware of this principle, the present study explored their preference and the underlying reasons. Twenty undergraduates were taught central tendency and variability by using statistical method (with machine computation) and statistical reasoning (with manual computation) respectively in one session. Most of them turned out to prefer to reason and compute numeric data manually because they understood the statistical concepts and the process of the computation. On the other hand, the rest of the undergraduates preferred the teaching of statistics using the statistical method with machine computation for three reasons: accuracy, efficiency, and convenience. The implications of these findings for the teaching of statistics were presented.
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