Kuliah 14 Kritikan Kajian Tindakan

KRITIK TERHADAP KAJIAN TINDAKAN

PENGENALAN
Perlu diketahui bahawa setiap peneylidikan yang kita buat mempunya beberapa batasan yang perlu kita perhatikan dan pertimbangkan dengan baik agar apa yang kita lakukan untuk sekolah kita mendapat manfaat yang sepatutnya. Ianya bergantung kepada sekolah. a. Masa Terhad

KT selalunya mengambil masa yang lama untuk mencapai matlamat kajiannya. Lantaran itu ia memerlukan masa yang lama di samping akan menggunakan perbelanjaan yang agak besar juga. Masa yang lama ini akan menimbulkan beberapa kesulitan kepada pihak penyelidik sekolah. Dalam tempoh penyelidikan berkenaan, guru-guru yang terlibat mungkin berpindah ke sekolah lain dengan sebab-sebab tertentu. Ini akan melengahkan jawatankuasa untuk mencapai matlamat kajian dan lambat dapat menyiapkan laporan yang hendak dibuat. Kadang kala terdapat juga satu inovasi atau satu dapatan lain telah terhasil yang mungkin akan melibatkan kajian yang kita buat terpaksa ditangguh atau diganti atau diperbaiki lagi. Ini adalah natijah dari tempoh masa yang lama diambil untuk menyiapkan KT yang kita lakukan. Kajian tindakan lazimnya dilakukan dalam suasana sekolah terdiri dari ramai ahli yang ingin memberikan sumbangan kerana pada asasnya individu berkenaan juga adalah amalan atau perkara yang menjadi tumpuan kajian. Pemantauan yang rapi terhadap amalan inilah yang memerlukan kesabaran, masa dan ruang untuk ketua yang menjalankan kajian tindakan harus dapat menangani, memahami dan mengambil masa yang agak panjang untuk memastikan kajian berkenaan dapat berjalan mengikut jadual yang telah ditetapkan terutamanya dalam pengumpulan data, kritikan dari ahli dan kitaran
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Kuliah 14 Kritikan Kajian Tindakan yang perlu dibuat berdasarkan temuan-temuan yang didapati disepanjang kajian. b. Kesahan Penyelidikan

Lazimnya kajian tindakan dilakukan oleh sekumpulan individu yang amat berminat untuk menjalankan kajian demi untuk mempertingkatkan pencapaian atau prestasi di sekolah mereka. Ini menimbulkan beberapa kritikan dalam proses menjalankan kajian tindakan dimana penyelidik ini dianggap bias dalam mendapatkan data dan membuat analisis yang tertumpu kepada untuk memberi justifikasi yang positif terhadap kajian mereka. Ini ditimbalbalik oleh sipenyelidik dengan hujjah bahawa dalam suasana sekolah, mereka perlu terlibat dalam kajian berkenaan, kerana mereka juga adalah sebahagian dari iklim sekolah. Sesuatu tidak dapat dipastikan sehinggalah mereka sendiri yang terlibat dalam kajian berkenaan dapat menentukan peranan dan nilai mereka dalam kajian berkenaan. Mereka juga haruslah bertindak sebagai seorang yang professional. c. Kurang mesra dengan kaedah Penyelidikan

Kajian tindakan juga sentiasa atau kerap mencuba mencari makna apa yang dikatakan sebagai kaedah penyelidikan yagn lengkap dan pada masa yang sama terus menyelidik tentang amalan yang dilakukan. Keadaan ini yang dianggap sebagai latihan sambil berkhidmat yang kerap kalinya mengakibatkan perancangan yang dibuat adalah secara ad hoc, telah mengakibatkan orang membuat tohmahan bahawa pengumpulan data yagn dibuat itu tidak bolehdipercayaai. Keadaan ini ada betulnya, namun demikian ia haruslah diverfikasikan dan apa yang dapat kita katakana ialah, dalam keadaan sedemikian, proses yang dijalankan itu adalah yang terbaik dan bolehdipercyaai berdasarkan amalan yang dibuat sehari-hari itulah keadaan sebenarnya. d. Keputusan kajian tidak boleh di generalisasikan ke sekolah lain
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Kuliah 14 Kritikan Kajian Tindakan Ini adalah benar dan menjadi asas kepada kajian tindakan. Namun demikian, sebagai asas kepada konsep penyelidikan, apalah salahnya kita membuat duplikasi kajian yang dibuat dari satu sekolah itu disekolah yang lain pula. Pada saya, kajian tindakan ini wujud di Negara barat yang mana dasar pembentukan kurikulum dan amalannya agak sedikit berbeza dari kita di Malaysia. Di Malaysia, kita mengamalkan kurikulum berpusat, malahan setiap kurikulum itu disisipkan pula dengan huraian sukatan pelajaran yang menjelaskan dengan terperinci bagaimana sesuatu tajuk itu harus disampaikan di bilik darjah. Keadaan ini agak berbeza dari apa yang diamalkan di Negara dimana kajian tindakan ini wujud. Tidak ada salahnya kita meniru prosedur yang dilakukan oleh sesebuah sekolah itu yang telah mendapat kejayaan cemerlang agar sekolah kita juga boleh mendapat kejayaan yang sama. Itulah hasrat kita, bantu membantu dalam mencari kebenaran dan keredhaan dari yang maha kuasa. e. Perwakilan proses kajian tindakan mungkin mengelirukan dari menjelaskan Produr melakukan kajian tindakan ini agak komplek juga yang melibatkan kitaran yang boleh bergerak kehadapan dan balik kebelakan mengikut keadaan dan maklumat yang didapati dari kajian . Keadaan yang sebegini sebenarnya tidak membantu penyelidik malahan boleh mengelirukan penyelidik untuk sampai kepada apa yang dihasratkan pada peringkat awalnya seperti yang telah ditetapkan dalam persoalan kajian. Persoalan kajian juga boleh berubah mengikut keadaan seperti apa yang dihasratkan. Keadaan ini disebut juga sebagai satu proses yang celaru (McNiff, 1988). Penataran prosedur gambarajah kajian tindakan yang dibentangkan oleh Elliot adalah terlalu (Ebbutt, 2985). f. Retorik kajian tindakan mengelirukan, atau bertentangan dengan prinsip utama proses kajian tindakan

Dalam kebanyakan hal, kajian tindakan merupakan satu kaedah amalan penyelidikan yang betul mengikut caranya yang tersendiri. Ini
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Kuliah 14 Kritikan Kajian Tindakan telah menimbulkan polemik dikalangan penyelidik. Antaranya Lewis (1987) menegaskan bahawa, beliau tidak mendapat bukti yang jelas cara Carr dan Kemmis memahami keadaan sebenar guru-guru di sekolah dan permasalahan yang dihadapi oleh guru sebenarnya.

Nota Tambahan dari:

http://www.attu70.dsl.pipex.com/student/critintro.htm (22-0702012)

What and why? So that you can decide to what extent research may be useful in practice you will need to be able to read research critically, to see if the findings are trustworthy, and be able to compare it with other related research. The activity of critiquing research is therefore fundamental to research utilisation and evidence based practice. To critique research, you first need to have a reasonable knowledge and understanding of the research process and research methods, so that the research paper in question can be interpreted and understood. You then need to ask appropriate critical questions about the way in which the research was conducted. No research will be perfect, and it is usually a compromise between the ideal, and what is actually practical, but the way it has been carried out will greatly influence its validity, reliability, the extent to which it can be applied to other populations, and ultimately, its trustworthiness, and usefulness for practice. When? Whenever you read research you need to do so with a critical view it is just not safe to assume that because research is published it is
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Kuliah 14 Kritikan Kajian Tindakan therefore safe. When writing academic essays it is not good enough merely to cut and paste research findings as is, as if they are selfevidently trustworthy. Critiquing therefore should occur at some level whenever reading research. This could be fairly informally, whenever reading research; more deliberately and formally when synthesising reading and evidence for essays and dissertations; and in considerable detail when completing assignments that require critique of a particular research paper, or a small number of them. At the informal level, the critiquing process will be largely a mental activity, which will become better able to do the more practice you have, whereas for essays and literature reviews you will need to make notes relating to relevant aspects of the research process so you can come to an informed judgement that you can explain and justify in writing.

How? LoBiondo-Wood et al (2002) suggest that there are 4 stages or levels of understanding in critically reading research, I paraphrase these here (click the link). To assist with critiquing, there are a variety of Critiquing Frameworks and Critiquing Criteria in the literature. These are sets of critiquing questions that deal with the important aspects of the research process. The critical reader can use these questions as a prompt to aid the process of critiquing research. Not all questions they contain will be answerable or appropriate, so these frameworks are a tool to assist critiquing rather than a rigid prescription for the critical reader. There are many frameworks available in the literature; there is no single correct or best one. Some are very detailed whilst others are brief and succinct. Some ask quite complex questions and may therefore need greater understanding to apply, whilst others are simpler. Some will be suitable for both qualitative and quantitative research, whilst others may not be without some adaptation. The reader should select the framework that best reflects their needs and their level of knowledge and understanding. Sometimes only parts of the framework are applicable, and sometimes it will be a good idea to
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Kuliah 14 Kritikan Kajian Tindakan incorporate the most relevant parts of a few frameworks, so that it offers the necessary coverage. The choice is up to the critical reader; the only rule is that there should be some rationale for the choice, rather than just convenience. One word of caution: some of the simpler critiquing frameworks focus too much on the written presentation of research papers. This can lead to a textual critique (a critique of the way it is written and presented, which is often a reflection of the particular journals style) rather than a critique of the methods used (i.e. what the researcher actually did). Only the latter can help the reader to decide on the worth of the findings.

Where? Critiquing frameworks appear in many research textbooks, journal articles and on the web. Often they will be called something else (such as guidelines for the critical evaluation of research), but they amount to the same thing. A list of some examples and where to find them is attached.

What next? Finally, when some judgement about the particular research is made, it then needs to be related to the other literature on the topic, and the body of knowledge that exists. The reader must ask: how do these findings add to, support or conflict with other sources of evidence? References
LoBiondo-Wood, G., Haber, J. & Krainovich-Miller, B. (2002). Critical Reading Strategies: Overview of the Research Process. Chapter 2 In LoBiondo-Wood, G. & Haber, J. (editors). Nursing research: Methods, critical appraisal, and utilization. (5th Edition). St Louis: Mosby. Polit, D.F., Beck, C.T., & Hungler, B.P. (2001). Essentials of nursing research methods, appraisal, and utilization. (5th Edition). Philadelphia: Lippincott (other books on research)

Kuliah 14 Kritikan Kajian Tindakan

Stages in Critical Reading of Research Articles

Stage Preliminary Understanding (skimming) Purpose Skimming or quickly reading to gain familiarity with the content and layout of the paper Activities or critical questions: Highlight or underline main steps in the research process Make notes (comments & questions) Note down key variables Highlight new or unfamiliar terms & significant sentences Look up unfamiliar terms and write in definitions Comprehensive Understanding Increasing Review all unfamiliar terms before 2nd reading understanding of concepts and research Clarify any additional terms terms Read additional sources as necessary Identify how the main concepts relate to each other and the context of the study Write brief summary of the main idea or themes of the article in your own words Identify any further questions or areas that need further clarification Analysis Understanding (breaking into parts) Break the study into parts; understand each aspect of the study. Relate to steps in the research process At this point you can start to critique the study using a critiquing framework or criteria, applying them to each step in the research process What is the purpose of this article? Am I clear about the specific design used, so I can apply appropriate critiquing criteria? How are the major parts of the article related to the research process? How was the study carried out? Can I explain it step by step? What are the researchers main conclusions? Can I say I understand the parts of the article and summarise them in my own words?

Synthesis Understanding

Pulling the above steps Review notes on how each step compared with the together to make a critiquing criteria (new) whole, making sense of it and Briefly summarise the study in your own words, explaining identifying the main components, and the overall relationships. strengths and weaknesses This is a critical commentary on the study rather than a description or prcis of it (Adapted from LoBiondo-Wood et al, 2002)

Using the process above in conjunction with critiquing criteria or frameworks can help you critique individual articles. If you are reviewing the literature, you will need to assemble and synthesise the evidence from all the studies you have read. Using a spreadsheet can help you organise all the studies in a way that helps you see your critiquing notes simultaneously, allowing you to compare and contrast, and pull findings

Kuliah 14 Kritikan Kajian Tindakan

and conclusions together, so you have a sense of the body of knowledge available. An example of how such a spreadsheet might look appears here. (click link).

Links and Resources for Critiquing:

General research resources, understanding research methods:
The Knowledge Base An excellent on-line research methods text book, and other http://www.socialresearchmetho research resources ds.net/ Project Gold Research Methods A user-friendly research glossary on-line. Glossary http://www.bath.ac.uk/elearning/gold/glossary.html Statistics on-line http://www.statsoft.com/textboo k/stathome.html Hyperstat http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat SOSIG Research Methods The Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) research methods resources - lots of resources for learning about qualitative and http://www.sosig.ac.uk/roads/su quantitative research. bject-listing/World-cat/meth.html

A very comprehensive statistics textbook on-line, the entire book can be downloaded for free. You will find a full explanation of all major statistical tests and concepts. As comprehensive, simpler

Books:
Recommended Text Books http://www.researchbooks.co.uk/rec ommended%20research%20text %20books.htm

Some suggested research textbooks that may assist with understanding and critiquing research, with details of library shelf numbers and purchase details. This is just a small selection of the many available.

Critiquing skills & resources:

How to read a paper http://www.richardingram.co.uk/howto.htm

A British Medical Journal series of 10 articles assisting novices to read and understand research papers. Full text available on-line. Fairly simple to read, very helpful.

Critical Appraisal Resources for A useful web site on critical appraisal from the Library at assessing Health and Medical University of Kent at Canterbury Research http://library.ukc.ac.uk/library/info/sub jectg/healthinfo/critapprais.htm Critical thinking Not a critiquing framework, but a useful guide to what http://www.canberra.edu.au/studyskill critical thinking involves. Canberra University, Australia. s/learning/critical

Kuliah 14 Kritikan Kajian Tindakan

Critiquing guides / frameworks:
Guidelines for Critiquing Research Articles http://www.sonoma.edu/users/n/nola n/n400/critique.htm Framework for critically appraising research articles http://hsc.uwe.ac.uk/dataanalysis/crit Frame.asp Guidelines for critiquing research articles http://www2.msstate.edu/~bsc2/guid elines.htm

Sonama State University, California, USA. The guidelines are from Polit, Beck and Hungler 2001: A comprehensive critiquing framework, derived from Polit et als book. A critiquing framework within the UWE Data Analysis Web Site (co-authored by me!). User friendly. Example critiques also on the site

From Mississippi State University, USA. Simple critiquing framework, but perhaps a poor example as it tends to focus on textual critique, rather than critique of methods.

CASP Critiquing Tools CASP (Critical Appraial Skills Programme an NHS site). http://www.phru.nhs.uk/Pages/PHD/r Now has an excellent range of tools for evaluating different esources.htm types of studies and reviews. Studying systematic reviews http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m06 89/11_50/80531397/p1/article.jhtml

An on-line article discussing critical reading of systematic reviews

Ciliska, D., Cullum, N., & Marks, S. (2001). Evaluation of systematic reviews of treatment or prevention interventions. Evidence-Based Nursing. 4(4), October, 100-104 Full text available from Ovid Online (Athens password required) Ajetunmobi, O. (2002). Making Sense of Critical Appraisal. London: Arnold.
view or purchase on-line Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ ref/research/webeval.html

A useful article on critically appraising systematic reviews.

An excellent little book offering criteria / frameworks for critiquing various types of research, plus audits, systematic reviews and economic evaluations. Includes basic research knowledge and explanation of statistics in order to apply these to papers you might be critiquing Some criteria to help you evaluate web content (usually not primary research)

Example critiques:

Kuliah 14 Kritikan Kajian Tindakan

1) Data Analysis - Critical Appraisal - worked example 1 http://hsc.uwe.ac.uk/dataanalysis/critWorked.asp 2) Data Analysis - Critical Appraisal - worked example 2 http://hsc.uwe.ac.uk/dataanalysis/critDevelop.asp

From the UWE Data Analysis Web Site

http://hsc.uwe.ac.uk/dataanalysis/index.asp

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Glossary
Population
A well-defined group or set that has certain specified properties (e.g. all registered midwives working full-time in Scotland). A selection (sample) of the population may be made for study in research Go to on-line glossary

Reliability
Reliability is concerned with the consistency and dependability of a measuring instrument, i.e. it is an indication of the degree to which it gives the same answers over time, across similar groups and irrespective of who administers it. A reliable measuring instrument will always give the same result on different occasions assuming that what is being measured has not changed during the intervening period. Go to on-line glossary

Validity
In research terms, validity refers to the accuracy and truth of the data and findings that are produced. It refers to the concepts that are being investigated; the people or objects that are being studied; the methods by which data are collected; and the findings that are produced. There are several different types of validity: Go to on-line glossary

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