Comic-based Treffinger Model in Story Writing Learning
Andoyo Sastromiharjo and Putri Oviolanda Irianto
Indonesian Education Department, School of Postgraduate Studies, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi
No. 229, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Treffinger Model, Comic, Fantasy Story.
Abstract: Writing a story is a creative activity because the writer is able to express ideas corresponding to the result of
their imagination. Playing with this kind of imagination requires creative thinking. Psychologically, junior
high school students are entering a zone which is full of various imaginations. However, in fact, there are a
lot of students who are incapable of expressing ideas creatively. This weakness is caused by the way of
thinking which developed in learning Indonesian and Indonesian literature that has not led to the
empowerment of divergent thinking. In other words, the students are accustomed to think convergently, and
therefore, to develop and diversify ideas became difficult. In order to cope with this condition, a learning
model that can develop the students’ divergent thinking is needed. As an effort to improve the existing
learning condition, this study proposed to use comic-based Treffinger model as an interesting alternative in
writing learning. The data in this study collected through pre-test and post-test. The results showed that by
using comic-based Treffinger model, learning atmosphere becomes interesting and the students able to
produced ideas more creatively. This collaboration can produce stories full of fluent, original, elaborate,
flexible, and new ideas. In other words, through this learning model, the students can freely develop their
imagination so that the stories produced are well established.
1 INTRODUCTION
The law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 24 of
2009, Article 25 section (3) states that Indonesian
language must be used as the language of instruction
in national education. By paying an attention to the
content of the previously mentioned law, the world of
education gets a reinforcement to uphold the
Indonesian language for the nation of Indonesia. The
reinforcement can be in a form of Indonesian
language learning model that enables the students to
master the Indonesian language so that the
knowledge, skills, and attitudes in using Indonesian
language can be implemented into daily life.
In line with the development of life and
information technology, there are still many
Indonesians who experience difficulties to express
their ideas in a form of writing (Anshori, 2006).
Moreover, a research conducted by Gipayana (2004)
shows that the students’ writing knowledge and skill
are still low, the classroom environment is not
conducive, and the assessment system does not
encourage the students to write better. A research
conducted by Winarti (2013) also indicates that high
school students’ mastery of writing in Bandung is not
yet good. Similar opinion is also shared by Alwasilah
(2013) who said that there is a number of errors in the
national education system, particularly in learning
writing.
Writing is an effective and efficient media to
deliver any kinds of ideas and knowledge, or anything
that represents human creativity. Writing skills
demand the students to be able to think creatively so
that the text produced by them is not saturating.
Thahar (2008) states that human’s creations resulted
from their creative work must be new and have not
been existed before. Since creativity is derived from
a great interest, accompanied by the will to
continuously practice, and being not easily satisfied,
the students need to be continually and continuously
led in order to maintain their creative thinking ability.
A very essential material to drill creativity is
fantasy story because this kind of story empower the
writer’s thought to produce creative ideas. Therefore,
the learning of writing fantasy story is not only
guiding the students to practice their writing skills,
but also honing their creations based on imagination.
In the 2013 curriculum class VII, the basic
Sastromiharjo, A. and Irianto, P.
Comic-based Treffinger Model in Story Writing Learning.
DOI: 10.5220/0007174707630767
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 763-767
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
763

competence that demand writing in fantasy story
learning is Basic Competence 4.4 “To present
creative ideas in the form of fantasy story in oral and
written form by paying attention to the structure and
language usage.”
Based on the elaboration, one way to cope with
the writing problems is by implementing learning
model that is able to stimulate the students to develop
their creative thinking in writing. One of the learning
models that can be implemented is Treffinger
learning model (created by Donald J. Treffinger).
Treffinger learning model is one of the learning
models that directly deals with the creativity
problems. By involving both cognitive and affective
skills at every stage of this model, Treffinger shows
relationship and dependency between the two in
encouraging the creative learning process.
The problem that is aimed to be solved by this
model is that whether the comic-based Treffinger
learning model is effective to improve the students’
skills in writing fantasy story.
2 THEORETICAL REVIEW
Dr. Donald J. Treffinger is the first person to
introduce Treffinger learning model in 1986. He is the
president of creative learning center in Sarasota,
Florida. He has written more than 60 books and 300
articles of scientific work. Treffinger is also actively
involved as a speaker or instructor throughout US and
lecturer in other countries that focuses on creativity,
CPS, talent development, and problem-solving
techniques (Treffinger, 2006).
Treffinger learning model is also known as
Creative Problem Solving (CPS) that attempts to
engage students to think creatively in facing
problems. According to Treffinger (as cited in Huda,
2013), the initiation of this model is because of the
development era condition that is rapidly changing
and the more complexity of the problems
encountered. In order to cope with the problem,
creative thinking is needed, so that any kind of
problems can provide various alternatives.
The creative learning process in this model covers
the divergent thinking process (thinking process
which is in various directions and producing a lot of
alternative solutions) and convergent thinking
process (thinking process that seeks for single
answer). That process assists the students to think
creatively in solving problems, supports the students
in mastering the concepts of material taught, and
providing chances to the students to perform their
competence. By having creativity, the students are
able to discover solutions to problems faced.
Treffinger explains three stages of creative
learning, which are Stage 1: Basic tools (using open
questions and brainstorming), Stage II: Practice with
Process (covering implementation, analysis,
synthesis, and assessment. The affective aspects in
this stage II involve the openness of the compound
feelings and conflict, directing attention to the
problem, using imagination, relaxation, and the
development of psychology “safety” in being
creative).
The concept of Treffinger learning model
development is based on the concept of Joyce, Weil,
and Calhoun (2016) that covers (a) model orientation,
(b) teaching model, (c) instructional effect, and (d)
nurturant effect.
The learning that is conducted by using this model
is fantasy story. Fantasy story as one of the learning
material of Indonesian language subject can enable
the students to earn new ideas to the things that has
never been thought before. According to Harsiati et
al. (2016), fantasy story is one of the story genres that
is essential to drill creativity. Meanwhile, Ryuzaki
(2016) says that fantasy story is a writing genre in a
form of fantasy, wishful thinking, and imagination of
the writer. This story is created with full of creativity
and the development of the writer’s sense of fantasy.
3 METHODOLOGY
The methodology employed in this research is
research and development. This method is chosen to
produce certain product, and examine the
effectiveness of the product. In this research, comic-
based Treffinger learning model is developed in
fantasy story writing skills.
In this research and development, the procedure
that the researcher used is based on Borg and Gall
concept. According to Borg and Gall (as cited in
Sukmadinata, 2012), there are ten steps of research
and development implementation, which are (1)
research and data collection, (2) planning, (3)
development of the draft product, (4) preliminary
field testing, (5) field testing revision, (6) field
testing, (7) the completion of field testing product, (8)
operational field testing, (9) final product completion,
and (10) dissemination and implementation.
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
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4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The effectiveness of comic-based Treffinger learning
model development in fantasy story writing skill in
this research is related to the results of the
questionnaire and investigation. The result of the
questionnaire is elaborated based on the questionnaire
perceptions of model expert, media expert, and
teacher toward the comic-based Treffinger learning
model development in fantasy story writing skill. The
various conditions of research result are summarized
in table 1 to table 5.
Table 1: Product Analysis and Qualification from the
Validator.
Validator
Percentage
Qualification
Follow-up
Learning
Model Expert
85%
Very Proper
Implementation
Writing Expert
95%
Very Proper
Implementation
Media Expert
(Comic)
100%
Very Proper
Implementation
Teacher
85%
Very Proper
Implementation
The table 1 shows that the model implemented in
the classroom has a very high value of properness.
This indicates that the comic-based Treffinger
learning model undoubtedly may become a learning
model that will enable the students to enhance their
ability in writing fantasy story.
Table 2: The Pre-test of the Students’ Fantasy Story Test
Trial Phase (Class VII B).
Interval
Value Change
Four Scale
Notes
Total
Students
1—4
D—A
86 –100
4
A
Very Good
0
76 – 85
3
B
Good
0
56 –74
2
C
Sufficient
6
10 – 55
1
D
Insufficient
24
Total
30
Table 3: The Post-test of the Students’ Fantasy Story Test
Trial Phase (Class VII B).
Interval
Value Change
Four Scale
Notes
Total
Students
1—4
D—A
86 –100
4
A
Very Good
12
76 – 85
3
B
Good
8
56 –74
2
C
Sufficient
8
10 – 55
1
D
Insufficient
2
Total
30
Table 4: The Post-test of the Students’ Fantasy Story Field
Testing (Class VII A).
Interval
Value Change
Four Scale
Notes
Total
Students
1—4
D—A
86 –100
4
A
Very Good
18
76 – 85
3
B
Good
5
56 –74
2
C
Sufficient
6
10 – 55
1
D
Insufficient
0
Total
29
Table 5: The Post-test of the Students’ Fantasy Story Field
Testing (Class VII C).
Interval
Value Change
Four Scale
Notes
Total
Students
1—4
D—A
86 –100
4
A
Very Good
18
76 – 85
3
B
Good
7
56 –74
2
C
Sufficient
5
10 – 55
1
D
Insufficient
0
Total
29
Table 2 to table 5 show that there is an
improvement of the students’ ability in writing
fantasy story from pre-test to post-test. Although
there is a different achievement of the post-test score
as it can be seen in the table 3, table 4 and table 5,
which the difference still indicates an improvement
from the pre-test showed in the table 2. Moreover, the
difference indicates that there is an improvement of
the students’ ability in writing fantasy story from the
post-test in the Test Trial and field testing.
Table 6: Normality Test of Pre-Test and Post-Test Data
Test Trial Phase (Class VII B).
Kolmogorov-Smirnov
a
Shapiro-Wilk
Statistic
Df
Sig.
Statistic
Df
Sig.
Pre-Test
,130
30
,200
*
,957
30
,265
Post-Test
,174
30
,021
,944
30
,115
*. This is a lower bound of the true significance.
a. Lilliefors Significance Correction
The normality test of Pre-Test and Post-Test
showed in the table 6 indicates a normal data
distribution with a significance value of 0.05. This
indicates that the students’ ability in writing fantasy
story is in a normal data distribution.
Table 7: Normality Test of Post-Test Data Field Testing
Phase Class VII A and VII C.
Class
Kolmogorov-Smirnov
a
Shapiro-Wilk
Statistic
Df
Sig.
Statistic
Df
Sig.
Post-
Test
VIIA
,166
30
,034
,914
30
,018
VIIC
,156
29
,070
,934
29
,069
a. Lilliefors Significance Correction
Comic-based Treffinger Model in Story Writing Learning
765

Normality Test is used to reveal the condition of
the data. Based on the table 7, it can be seen that the
data is different between class VII A and VII C. In
class VII A, the data of the students’ ability in writing
fantasy story is not in a normal data distribution with
a significance value of 0.05, meanwhile, in class VII
C is in a normal data distribution with a significance
value of 0.05.
Table 8: Homogeneity Test of Post-Test Test Trial (Class
VII B).
Test of Homogeneity of Variance
Levene
Statistic
df1
df2
Sig.
Value
Based on Mean
,000
1
58
,988
Based on
Median
,021
1
58
,885
Based on
Median and
with adjusted
df
,021
1
57,595
,885
Based on
trimmed mean
,001
1
58
,977
Based on the homogeneity test in table 8, it
indicates that the data is homogenous. In other words,
the data of the students’ ability in writing fantasy
story comes from a similar variance (homogenous).
Table 9: t test on Design Trial Class.
Test Statistics
a
Pascates
Mann-Whitney U
362,000
Wilcoxon W
797,000
Z
-,913
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
,361
a. Grouping Variable: Class
Table 9 shows that significance Value (2-tailed) =
0,361 that is bigger than the Significance level (α)=
0,05 (0,361 > 0,05) so that H
1
is accepted. Therefore,
it can be indicated that there is a significant difference
in the post-test design trial. The significance different
can also be seen from the mean of the students’
fantasy story writing skills, where the post-test score
in VII A class is 86, meanwhile the post-test score in
VII C is 84.
Based on the analysis and result of statistical
calculation conducted through the comic-based
Treffinger learning model development in fantasy
story writing skill activity, it is evident that this
research is able to improve the students’ score
significantly. This improvement can be seen from the
high score of the students’ fantasy story writing skills
compared to the prototype and design trial. This is in
line with the research conducted by Simanjuntak
(2015) and Tampubolon (2015) that Treffinger
learning model can improve the students’ writing
skills. Furthermore, the comic used in this research is
also beneficial for the students in comprehending the
fantasy story learning.
The improvement of the students’ score is
influenced by the stages of Treffinger learning model
stages that the researcher based on the comic media.
The ideas produced by the students when they
comprehend the fantasy story structure is facilitated
by the instrument in a form of “Koran” sheet (that is
used during the prototype trial, “Ideku” sheet, until
using the “Cerita Fantasiku” sheet. Thus, the
students’ unique concepts of idea do not easily
vanish. It is in accordance with an opinion from
Sudarma (2013) who states that idea is an intellectual
product. In conclusion, when a person get an idea to
write creatively, it is suggested that the student
immediately write the idea at the same time to avoid
forgetting the imagination. In this case, “Ideku” sheet
accommodate the students’ ideas.
Comic-based Treffinger learning model is proven
to be effective to improve the score so that the
students can also elaborate their imagination
creatively. The students’ fantasy stories have also
contained fantasy story characteristics or features,
which is according to Arnari and Ardy (2016), there
is miracle, using various settings, unique characters,
and it is not a real event. In addition, the fantasy
stories as the students’ works are compatible to the
fantasy story concept stated by Harsiati et al. (2016),
which is able to drill creativity and also able to
developing the writer’s sense of fantasy.
5 CONCLUSIONS
A learning model is able to give a significance
contribution to the achievement of the students’
competence. Comic-based Treffinger learning model
is proven to be effective to improve the students’
competence in terms of expressing ideas creatively.
In addition, the learning atmosphere is fun and the
students’ various ideas are emerged. This learning
model is even able to build the students’ critical
thoughts.
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CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
766

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