STAD AS A STRATEGY OF TEACHING READING

COMPREHENSION IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Fitri Ferina
Lambung Mangkurat University of Banjarmasin, Indonesia
ferina@yahoo.com

Abstract: This research investigated whether there was

a significant difference on students achievement in
reading comprehension taught using STAD and lecture
method. The sample was the eighth-graders of SMPN 3
Banjarmasin. A quasi-experimental design was
employed in this research. The experimental group was
taught using STAD while control group was taught
using lecture method. A reading comprehension test as
the instrument of collecting data was administered for
both groups. Based on the research result using t-test, it
was found that the t value was higher than t-table
(2.39315 > 2.00) which means that there is a significant
difference of achievement between the experimental
group and control group. From these findings it can be
interpreted that the use of STAD is more effective than
lecture method in teaching reading comprehension for
junior high school students. It is suggested for English
teachers in Junior High School to use STAD in teaching
reading since it is useful in improving students reading
comprehension achievement.

Keywords: reading comprehension, STAD

INTRODUCTION
Learning English as a foreign language in school context raises
reading become the skill that is critically important to students.
Reading is the necessity for students if they want to expand their
knowledge. Through reading, students grasp useful information. The
information that the students have read simply broaden their
knowledge. Thus, it is really helpful for the students to build their

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background knowledge in order to get ready in the classroom

learning process.
In school, students learn English through textbook and printed
material.When they faced the text book and printed materials they
deal with words that they need to understand well. Students bear to
have good reading skill to comprehend every single material that
they read. Whenever students do not own enough reading skill to
master the material then they will just stuck there. It will be hard for
the students to move on to the next material in their classroom
learning process. Thus, reading becomes their needs if they want to
achieve the better level of English proficiency.
In classroom learning context especially in reading
comprehension section, the materials are complex. There are many
kinds of text that students need to comprehend. After they read the
texts, still they deal with comprehension, questions, vocabulary
question, reference, etc.
In solving the questions related to the text, students need to
use their reading comprehension skills. Reading skills are techniques
that enhance comprehension and retention of information containing
printed material (Grabe, 2002). The first main skill in reading
comprehension is reading for main idea. In this skill students are
expected to be able to find out the idea of a paragraph or what the
paragraph tells the reader about. Usually students need to capture the
topic sentence to make it easier in discovering the idea of the
paragraph. However, finding the topic sentence will not always be
the solution after all. In some cases, the idea can be more general than
the topic sentence. The other sentences in the paragraph are the
details that support the main idea. The detail sentences are usually
more specific than the topic. The next skill in reading comprehension
is reading for specific information. In this part, students jobs seem
simpler than finding out main idea. Students only need to read the
relevant parts and ignore the irrelevant.
Other reading comprehension skills related to vocabulary
building is guessing meaning from the context. Guessing meaning

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from context requires students to understand unfamiliar words.

Students need to pay more attention to the meaning of text
surrounding the unfamiliar words.
The main reading comprehension skills mentioned above are
very important for the students to master since those skills are the
skills being tested in English subject in National Exam at either junior
or senior high school level. In National Exam, the items of the English
test are mainly about reading comprehension, eventhough there are
also items about listening comprehension. Nevertheless, there are
only small amount of them from total items of the test. It means that
students must have good reading comprehension skills in order to
pass the National Exam.
Based on the pre-research conducted at SMPN 3 Banjarmasin,
the researcher observed the teachers way in designing the classroom
teaching. It is revealed that the teachers still use conventional method
in the classroom where the teaching process is really teacher-centered;
teacher lectures by explaining the materials in front of the classroom.
Andik (2013) in his study also found the same way as the case above
that the teacher used teacher-centered method in teaching. Many
activities employed in those method are individually tasks which
means those activities make the students focused on individual
points. This kind of situation may cause an unfavorable impact to
students. Sometimes students tend to lose their attention to the
teacher because they think they do not have any roles in the
classroom. It also affects to students achievement. Based on the pre-
test result, students average score (69) falls into Fair category. This
problem makes the teacher need to think even harder in improving
students ability in reading comprehension. Teachers need to make
the classroom learning become meaningful for students ability
development. The way teachers lead and design the class can be the
key factor in reaching the goal. Maintaining students attention and
focus is important for them to grasp the material that the teacher
explains about.

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Regarding the case above, researcher raises a cooperative

learning method to be applied in teaching students. In cooperative
learning method, students are required to work together as a team in
finishing certain task. Working together makes them improve their
attention and focus. According to Brown (2001), pair work and group
work are effective techniques for taking students focus off you as the
center of attention and for getting them into an interactive frame of
mind.
There are many kinds of cooperative learning method. Some of
them are Jigsaw and Teams Games Tournaments (TGT). In this study,
the researcher chose Students Teams-Achievement Division (STAD)
because STAD is one of the simplest techniques of all cooperative
learning techniques, and it is a good model to begin with for teachers
who are new to the cooperative approach (Slavin, 1995). Thus, STAD
is applicable to use in this research since the procedure is easy to
follow and the technique matches with the materials taught in the
junior high school. Those reasons that mentioned above makes the
researcher choose STAD in teaching reading comprehension in SMPN
3 Banjarmasin. Considering, the teachers and the students in this
school are new to any kind of cooperative learning approach.
Based on the explanation above, researcher attempts to
conduct a study on the use of STAD in teaching reading
comprehension for the eighth grade students of SMPN 3 Banjarmasin
academic year 2013/2014.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Teaching Reading in Indonesia Junior High School
In the academic year 2013/2014 SMPN 3 Banjarmasin still uses
KTSP (2006) as the curriculum in teaching the eighth grade students.
Thus, the teaching of reading in SMP level is following the syllabus of
KTSP (2006). According to the syllabus for the eighth grade at the
second semester, there are two kinds of texts offered for eight grade
students. They are recount and narrative texts. Both of the texts require
students to reach these following indicators:

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1. Reading aloud
2. Identifying main idea and specific information
3. Identifying the communicative purpose of the text
4. Identifying the generic structures of the text
In this study, the researcher limits the sub-skills on finding
main idea, finding specific information and guessing meaning from
the context.

Student-Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD)

There are five major components in STAD; class presentation,
teams, quizzes, individual improvement scores, and team recognition
(Slavin, 1995).
1. In class presentation there is a direct instruction or a lecture-
discussion conducted by the teacher. Class presentations in STAD
differ from usual teaching only in that they must pay careful
attention during the class presentation, because doing so will help
them do well on the quizzes, and their quiz scores determine their
team scores.
2. Teams. Teams are composed of four or five students who represent
a cross-section of the class in terms of academic performance, sex,
and race or ethnicity. The major function of the team is to make
sure that all team members are learning, and, more specifically, to
prepare its members to do well on the quizzes. After the teacher
presents the material, the team meets to study worksheets or other
material.
3. The next component is Quizzes. Students will have individual
quizzes after approximately one to two periods of teacher
presentation and one to two periods of team practice. Since this is
an individual quizzes, students are not allowed to help each other.
4. Individual Improvement Scores. This component exists in order to
give each student a performance goal that can be attained if he or
she performs better than in the past. Any student can contribute
maximum points to his or her team in this scoring system. A base

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score will be given to each student based on his or her previous

quiz score.
5. The last component is Team Recognition. In team recognition,
teams gain certificates or other reward whenever their scores
reached the criteria.

The Teaching Procedure of STAD

STAD consist of a regular cycle of instructional activities
(Slavin, 1995).
1. Teach, the teacher present the lesson. Each lesson in STAD begins
with a class presentation done by the teacher.
2. Team study. During team study, team members tasks are to
master the material teacher presented in your lesson and to help
their teammates master the material. Students have worksheets
and answer sheets they can use to practice the skill being taught
and to asses themselves and their teammates
3. Test, the main idea of giving test is individual quiz. Teacher
distributes the quiz and gives students adequate time to complete
it. This time, students are not allowed to work together on the quiz,
at this point students must show what they have learned as
individuals.
4. Team recognition, it figures individual improvement scores and
team scores and awarding certificates or other team rewards.
Improvement points mean students earn points for their teams
based on the degree to which their quiz scores (percentage correct)
exceed their base scores:
Table 1 Degree of Improvement Points
No. Quiz Score Improvement Points
1 More than 10 points below base score 5
2 10-1 poin below base score 10
3 Base score to 10 points above base score 20
4 More than 10 points above base score 30
5 Perfect paper (regardless of base score) 30

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5. Team Scores. Record each team members improvement points and

divide team members improvement points by the number of team
members who were present. Note that team scores depend on
improvement scores rather than on raw quiz scores
6. Recognizing Team Accomplishment. Three levels of awards are
given. These are based on average team score (team average = total
team score number of team members) as follows:
Table 2 Level of Awards
No Criterion (Team Average) Award
1 15 good team
2 20 great team
3 25 super team

RSEARCH METHOD
Research Design
Quantitative approach is used in this research. This research
used experimental research design. Whereas it is not possible for the
researcher to use the random assignment, researcher chooses to apply
quasi-experimental design. The researcher used the pre-test and post-
test group design. The pre-test and post-test group design involved
two groups as subjects, one group received the experimental
treatment while the other did not, with both groups being measured
or observed twice (Fraenkelet al., 2006).
Through this quasi-experimental research, the researcher
wanted to find out whether there is any significant difference
between students reading ability after taught by using STAD and
students reading ability after taught by lecture method.

Population and Sample

The population in this research is the eighth grade students of
SMPN 3 Banjarmasin. Eighth grade students are divided into six
classes. Each class consists of 30-32 students. The total number of
population is 188 students.

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Ferina, STAD as a Strategy of Teaching Reading Comprehension

From the total population of 6 classes of eighth grade students,

researcher chose VIII B as the experiment group and VIII D as the
control group through the use of cluster random sampling. In
deciding the two classes both the experimental and the control group,
the researcher did a lottery. The experimental group VIII B consists of
32 students and the control group VIII D consists of 31 students.
Thus,the total number of the sample is 63 students.

Instrument
In this research, the test used was reading comprehension test
as the instrument. The test consists of 6 passages; each passage
contains of 5 questions items. The items involved in the test are
reading for finding specific information, reading for main idea,
guessing meaning from the context. The test is given as their pre-test
and post-test.
In order to reach content validity, the test is made according to
the English syllabus for class VIII junior high school. After that the
researcher held a discussion with the English teacher in the school to
make sure that the test is suitable based on the syllabus.
To get a reliable instrument, try-out method by using split half
technique was employed. The researcher gives the try-out test to VIII
E class. Then researcher measured the reliability by using Spearman
Brown formula.
By using the formula, the reliability coefficient is calculated.
After researcher gets the reliability coefficient from the formula is
obtained, it is interpreted based on the following criteria (Arikunto:
2006).
Table 3 The Criteria of Reliability Test
No Raw Score Interpretation
1 0.000-0.2000 Very Low
2 0.201-0.400 Low
3 0.401-0.600 Moderate
4 0.601-0.800 High
5 0.801-1.000 Very High

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Data Collection and Analysis

In this research the technique of data collection is by
conducting a reading comprehension test to students. After the test is
done, the result of the test is becoming the source of data collection.
After gaining the data from the test. Thus, the data from the
test result is analyzed by using these following steps:
1. After the researcher conducts the try-out test, the reliability is
measured. The researcher uses Pearson Product Moment
Correlationformula in calculating the reliability. Then, it is
compared with the r value of r table.
2. Before conducting the pre-test and post-test, the researcher
analyzes the data of try-out-test in VIII E class. After the data of
try-out test is stated valid and reliable then the pre-test and post-
test will be given. Each correct answer from the test earns score of
three point three (3.3). The maximum score is 99, but it is rounded
up to 100.
In analyzing the students pre-test and post-test scores, the
students scores are enumerated by using formula below:

= 100

The students scores are interpreted to the schools passing

grade or Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal (KKM) . In SMPN 3 Banjarmasin,
the KKM for English subject is 70. After that the scores are also
interpreted by using the scoring standard below:
Table 4 Score Interpretation
Score Interpretation
90 Excellent
80.00 89.99 Very Good
70.00 79.99 Good
60.00 69.99 Fair
< 60 Failed

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3. After that, the researcher tested the hypotheses. In testing the

hypotheses, t-test technique is used in this research. Specifically,
the t-test is used to examine the mean differences of the two
groups post-test scores in this research. The formula for t-test
calculation used in this research is called as Fisher formula, and is
shown as follow (Sudijono, 2012: 314):
1 2
0=
12 + 22 1 + 2
1 + 2 2 1 2

1 = mean of experimental group

2 = mean of control group
12 = the sum of the square of post-test score deviation from
experimental group
2 = the sum of the square of post-test score deviation from
2

control group
1 = number of the samples from experimental group
2 = number of the samples from control group

4. After calculating the t-test, the researcher compared the t-test with
the t-table. The degree of freedom is df= (N1 + N2) 2, and the
level of significance is 0.05. After that, the researcher draws
conclusion of the hypotheses. If the t-test > t-table, the H0
(hypothesis null) is rejected, it means there is significant different
achievement between the students who are taught reading
comprehension by using STAD and the students who are taught
reading comprehension with lecture method. However, if the t-
test < t-table, the H0 is accepted. It means there is no significant
different achievement between the students who are taught
reading comprehension by using STAD and the students who are
taught reading comprehension with lecture method.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The result of the hypothesis testing using t-test, the t-test value
is higher than t-table (2.39315> 2.00). On the other hand, it means that

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alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. There is a significant

difference in students achievement in reading comprehension
between students who are taught by using STAD and those who are
taught with lecture method at the eighth grade of SMP Negeri 3
Banjarmasin academic year 2013/2014.
Reading comprehension test was used as the instrument in this
research. So, the source of data result was from the result after the
reading comprehension test was conducted. The test was carried out
to both experimental and control class as their pre and post-test. The
pre-test average scores for both experimental and control class were
in the same category, fair category. Due this result, it can be assumed
that both classes were homogenous. The results of students
achievements in pre-test were increased to their achievement in post-
test for both experimental and control class. After the experimental
class got teaching learning activities with STAD for three meetings,
then the post-test were administered. The result of students
achievement in post-test increased to very good category (85.12). The
post-test was also given to control class after the students had
teaching learning activities with lecture method for three meetings.
The result of their achievement in post-test increased to good category
with the average score 77.98. From the post-test results in both classes,
it can be concluded that the difference is significant, it is 7.14.
As soon as the pre-test was done for the experimental class, the
teaching and learning with STAD was applied. Throughout STAD,
the students made cooperation and worked together with their
friends in groups. Before they were assigned into group, there were
class presentations. Each lesson in STAD started with class
presentation, where it had direct instruction or a lecture-discussion
and presented the lesson that is conducted by the researcher
(researcher acted as the teacher in this research). After that, students
are divided into groups and had Team Study Activity. During the
Team Study, each group had to make sure that all the members
understood the material and worksheet given, so they were very well
prepared for quiz at the end of the lesson. Last, they had individual

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Ferina, STAD as a Strategy of Teaching Reading Comprehension

quiz. The students were worked individually in doing this quiz. The
students average scores on quiz were important to their team
achievement. Those groups whose average score reached criteria were
gotten the reward. The post-test was given after the three-meeting
treatment. The result showed improvement in the students
achievements on three sub-skills. The improvements in reading for
main idea increased to 88.21%, reading for specific information
improved to 89.64%, and guessing meaning from the context raised to
77.50%. In rank, the highest achievement started from reading for
specific information (89.64%) to reading for main idea (88.21%) and
the lowest was guessing meaning from the context (77.50%).
Conversely, the highest improvement was shown by the result of
guessing meaning from the context from 57.85% to 77.50%. It is
followed by reading for main idea, the percentage moved from
65.35% to 88.21% and the last one is reading for specific information
from 83.92% to 89.64%. In conclusion, the students ability in the three
sub-skills had improved.
Furthermore, students ability in reading comprehension in
control and experimental class were similar in their pre-test results.
The highest and lowest achievements were the same i.e. in reading for
specific information (82.14%) and guessing meaning from the context
(54.28%). Discussing about students in control class after all
improvement in three sub-skills in post-test, the occurrence of
improvement was not as much as occurred in students post test
result in experimental class. Even though control class students post-
test result in reading for specific information increased to 89.28%
which was higher than the improvement in experimental class but the
improvement happened in the rest two sub-skills for control group
i.e. reading for main idea (72.50%) and guessing meaning from the
context (54.28%) were still lower than in experimental class.
In conclusion, control class students achievement was not as
improved as experimental class students achievement. The
achievement in experimental class was higher than in control class.
This result was proven that the students who taught with STAD

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method gave significance difference in students improvement in

their reading comprehension ability in all three subskills rather than
students who taught with lecture method. Students who taught with
cooperative learning, STAD, learned and worked together in team.
They cooperated each other in understanding the material and also
finished the worksheet. Students really paid attention and focused to
the teacher during class presentation when they were assigned in
team so they could do well in understanding the lesson material
about recount text in reading comprehension. It had been proven by
their achievement in reading comprehension that was improved from
pre-test to post-test results. This is go together with the statement of
Brown (2001:113) that pair work and group work are effective
techniques for taking students focus off you as the center of attention
and for getting them into an interactive frame of mind even at the
most beginning level.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION

From the research result, the researcher can conclude that:
1. According to the t-test result, it can be seen that there is a
significant difference in students achievement in reading
comprehension between students who are taught by using STAD
and those who are taught with lecture method at the eighth grade
of SMP Negeri 3 Banjarmasin academic year 2013/2014. It is
indicated by the students' average score from post-test result in
experimental class is 85.12 (Very Good category) but, the
students average score from post-test result in control class is
only 77.98 (Good category).
2. Lecture method are less effective to use for junior high school
students than STAD since the result showed that the students
achievement who are taught with Lecture method are lower than
the students achievement who are taught with STAD.
3. The application of STAD in teaching which acquired students to
work together in team is helpful in keeping students attention
and focus toward the teacher.

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Ferina, STAD as a Strategy of Teaching Reading Comprehension

There are several suggestions that the researcher would like to

recommend:
1. The English teacher should take this research result as a
consideration to use STAD in classroom learning as an alternative
choice of technique in teaching reading.
2. It is suggested that the learning process does not only consist of
lecturing but also give time to students to work together with
their friends. Since the research result showed that the use of
cooperative learning gave more significant improvement for
students achievement than lecture method, the technique is
worth using.
3. The use of STAD is suggested for other researcher. They can
conduct this kind of research by adding some modifications, for
example in different field and location, with different sample, and
level of education.

REFERENCES

Andik. (2013). Improving Reading Comprehension By Using Think,

Pair, And Share Technique. JP3, 1 (12)
Arikunto, S. (2006). Prosedur Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Praktik.
Jakarta: Rineka Cipta.

Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to

Language Pedagogy (Second Edition). New York: Mc. Graw Hill
Companies, Inc.

Fraenkel, J. R., Norman E. W., & Helen H. H. (2006). How to Design

and Evaluate Research in Education (Eighth Edition). New York:
Mc. Graw Hill Companies, Inc.

Grabe, W. & Fredericka L. S. (2002). Teaching and Researching Reading.

England: Longman.

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Sudijono, A. (2012). Pengantar Statistik Pendidikan. Jakarta: Rajawali

Press.

Slavin, R. E. (1995). Cooperative Learning (Second Edition).

Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon.

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