Ariyati.S891302007, 2015: English Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices of Scientific Approach (SA) in English Teaching: A Case of Indonesia. Thesis. Surakarta. English Education Department of Graduate School, Sebelas Maret University, 2015.
The objectives of this study are to explore the teachers’ beliefs in SA; to reveal how the beliefs are reflected in classroom practices; and to figure out the factors affecting their beliefs and practices of SA to the teaching of English.
This research was conducted at Boyolali from August 2014 to November 2014 with four experienced English teachers from four senior high schools. This qualitative research applied case study. Data were garnered from classroom observation, face-to-face interview, and documentation. Interactive models from Miles and Huberman was used to examine the data.
The findings show that (1) the participants believe in the conception of SA. They also believe that SA is important and gives impact to students’ progress. They believe that by applying SA, the target of language learning is acquired. As to learning procedure, they believe that scientific steps are conducted in sequence by combining some steps for each. (2) Teachers formulate their beliefs of applying the five-scientific steps by integrating all steps by keeping the sequence. Teachers argue that target of language learning can be attained by some ways, namely presence of theoretical and practical support, teachers’ guidance, providing variety of media and motivation to students. As regard classroom interaction, teachers let students apprehend the knowledge by working group and decide to combine English and L2 as means of communication. (3) There are five factors which influence teachers’ beliefs and practices of SA, namely learning and teaching experience, teachers’ motivation, sharing with colleagues and facility. This study concludes that teachers believe in the importance of SA, therefore they implement it in classroom. Anyway, there are factors which make the beliefs are not fully implemented.
It is recommended that teachers need to learn more about how to be effective teachers and learn 2013 curriculum as well. Adjustment of the document is necessary done by the policy maker. The school policy provides appropriate budgeting for the teachers’ professional development, learning facilities as local training. Further researcher is recommended to explore more the concerns.
Keywords: Teachers’ Beliefs, Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices, Scientific Approach
