Page 13 - Jurnal Kurikulum BPK 2020

biology class were invited and eleven (11) agreed to participate in the study. Cresswell (1998)
suggested that in phenomenological study, the recommended number of participant are between
five (5) to 25 while Morse (1994) suggested a minimum of six participants. This means that the
sample size of eleven participants is considered adequate.

Data collection

Data collection method is via semi-structured interview with participant each lasting
about 40 minutes. I chose such data collection method because it gives me room to ask follow-
up questions and allows participants to discuss and raise issues that I may or may not have
considered. I will be using the interview protocol adapted from Dye & Stanton (2017) interview
protocol used for upper-division biology students. The wording of the question in the interview
have been formatted based on one to one semi-structure cognitive interview by Willis & Artino
(2013). The interview protocol is used without modification as it was designed to answer the
same research question in the current research. Both upper-division biology education and
matriculation biology are of the same level of education and include similar cell biology
literature. The prepared sets of question consist of five (5) questions with chances of asking
follow-up questions. The questions encourage participants to give information on how, when
and why they did they developed the ability to evaluate their learning approaches over time.
Throughout and right after the interview session, I will be making general impression and
‘memos’ serving as early stage theories and ideas to answer research questions (Field & Morse,
1985).

Data analysis

The audio recording from the interview will be transcribed manually into word
document. Quotes from participants are lightly edited to prevent tempering with the original
meaning. I will be performing multiple readings and interpretation of the raw data. In this
research, I will be implementing an inductive approach data analysis outlined by Thomas
(2006). The implementation of such approach allows the significant themes to emerge
intrinsically from the raw data. In the first stage, coding process is guided by the research
objectives to ensure focus on relevant information. In the second stage, categories are
formulated into frameworks which contain dominant themes. Third stage of data analysis
involve determining the more important themes that will answer research questions. In terms
of trustworthiness within data analysis, I will incorporate members checking where the findings
will be presented to the participants. This is to ensure that I did not misinterpreted or
misreported their statement (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

FINDINGS

Students use different learning strategy for different activity

In this study, student learning techniques can be group into individualistic and
collaborative. Johnson and Johnson (1975) describe individualistic learning where students
work alone and perceive their goal achievement independently of others. This include activities
such as making summary notes, reading books, doing practice questions and memorization.
Collaborative learning however, is when student work in small groups (two to five students) to
support their own and each other’s learning (Johnson & Johnson, 1999). Most student however,
more inclined towards individualistic learning. For example, Zizi, Ikin, Ada and Yusop mainly

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