Discovery Learning and Small Group Discussion in Lexicology

Education

Leni Syafyahya

and Efri Yades

Indonesian Department, Universitas Andalas, Padang, Indonesia

Keywords: Discovery Learning, Group Discussion and Lexicology.

Abstract: A learning method that has been used up until the present can be developed towards a better one. Lexicology

teaching methods motivate this only as far the central portion is in the form of memorizing structural

rules/approaches. Therefore, it is necessary to use methods that can challenge students to be active and

creative. Discovery learning methods and small group discussion methods enable this. Discovery learning

involves students in finding their own problems and solving them, and eventually be able to construct a

meaningful concept. That is, discovery learning methods direct students to understand concepts, meanings,

and relationships, through an intuitive process. Small group discussion methods involve students learning in

small groups of a maximum of three people. Lecturers provide discussion topics to be discussed by each

group. Lecturers go around watching groups and occasionally doing language tickets. Common errors are

discussed in the whole class. This encourages group members to dare to express their opinions. Lecturers

record errors that frequently arise. These errors can be raised in the evaluation. Preferably an educated person

corrects the errors. With the application of these methods, it was expected that learning outcomes would be

maximally fulfilled. Assessment was based on the learning outcomes to be fulfilled; attitudes, knowledge,

general skills, and special skills.

1 INTRODUCTION

Leksikologi is a course included in a course in

linguistics. Lexicology courses relate to morphology

and semantic courses and can support learning

outcomes in the curriculum, ie, students can identify

language problems, study language and skillfully

apply them.

Lexicology is a compulsory subject in the

Indonesian Language and Literature Department.

This course is included in the Study Program Subject

(MKPS). This subject is required for all Indonesian

Literature Department students in the middle

semester. In addition, the material in this course is the

basis for studying dictionary making or lexicography

and a requirement for understanding lexicography.

Before the 2011 curriculum this was a 3 credit course.

However, after the 2011 curriculum, this became a to

2 credit course.

The learning outcomes in this course are related

to the expected achievements of the study program:

1) Demonstrate an attitude of being responsible for

work in their field of expertise independently, 2) Able

to apply practical knowledge in the fields of language,

literature, and culture, 3) Able to work in the field of

language, literature, culture, and everything related to

it, and 4) Master various approaches/theories that are

relevant to the study of language, literature, and

culture.

Specific learning outcomes in lexicology course

include an ability to understand the following: 1)

Introduction: Syllabus, Assessment System, and

Academic Norms. 2) Definition of Lexicology and

the scope of the study. 3) Vocabulary: Definition of

Vocabulary, Vocabulary Sources, Development, and

Development, as well as Vocabulary hearings. 4)

Formation of Words. 5) Semantic Aspects of

Vocabulary. 6) Vocabulary Spelling Aspects. 7)

Lexicography. 8) Lexicological Relations with

Lexicography. 9) Dictionaries. 10) Type of

Dictionary. 11) Techniques and Practice of Making

Dictionaries.

In learning all this time, I, as a lecturer in

lexicology, has developed teaching materials from

several forms, namely first teaching in 1994, I made

teaching materials in the form of small notes or data

cards. Then, in the next few years, I developed

teaching materials in the form of notes in plastic and

Syafyahya, L. and Yades, E.

Discovery Learning And Small Group Discussion In Lexicology Education.

DOI: 10.5220/0008679300520056

In Improving Educational Quality Toward International Standard (ICED-QA 2018), pages 52-56

ISBN: 978-989-758-392-6

when teaching the material was highlighted with a

projector. Lastly, I developed lecture material in the

form of power points. In addition, teaching materials

that have been developed in the form of power point,

some parts of the material, I have developed into

textbooks. Students use the teaching book as one of

the lecture references.

The previous teaching and learning process used

the Teacher Centered Learning (TCL) with the

lecturer the center of learning and the student’s

passive listeners. However, since 2016, I have started

to change the learning method to SCL. However, this

SCL method cannot yet be implemented optimally.

This is due to many factors, including the large

number of students in one class and the lecturer's

understanding of SCL. The implementation of

learning methods so far has included;

1. giving training to students both personally and

in groups

2. students learn to look for problems themselves

or in groups and then discuss them together

3. students sometimes make presentations

4. The lecturer provides an explanation of the

material at that time

In addition, the learning process must fulfill the

desired learning outcomes. During this time,

assessment was carried out to measure learning

achievement in several ways. Before, the lectures

began, a Semester Learning Program and Activity

Plan (RPKPS) and a scoring system was formulated,

The Midterm Examination (UTS) was worth 35%,

Assignments 20%, and Final Semester test (UAS)

45%. Also, activeness and creativity in the class

influenced the final value.

There are several problems in achieving student

learning outcomes including the motivation,

response, creativity, and focus of students. Problems

may also be caused by less effective learning

methods. Therefore, changes in learning methods are

needed so that learning outcomes are achieved

optimally.

2 RESULT

2.1 Use of Learning Methods that Can

Challenge Students to be Active

and Creative

In the main lexicology teaching methods have

required students to memorize structural rules /

approaches. Therefore, it is necessary to think about

how to teach lexicology as a language activity that

can challenge students to be active and creative. One

way that can be applied is a pragmatic approach

which may help students improve their lexicology

learning.

The pragmatic approach in language teaching is

also commonly called a communicative approach

(Purwo, 1994; Syafyahya, 2008; Syafyahya, 2017).

The teaching and learning strategies in the

communicative approach is based on students being

active, which is now known as Student Centered

Learning (SCL). The method of active learning is a

development of the theory of Dewey Learning by

Doing (Pannen et.al., 2001). Dewey strongly

disagrees with rote learning 'learning by memorizing'

and believes that students need to be involved in the

learning process spontaneously so students are

actively involved in the teaching and learning

process.

In the SCL approach, several methods can be

applied, namely discovery learning methods and

small group discussion methods. Both discovery

learning methods and small group discussion

methods were applied in lexicology courses. With the

SCL approach, it is expected that learning outcomes

will be optimally fulfilled. Assessment that can be

carried out to check learning outcomes are fulfilled

include assessment of attitudes, knowledge, general

skills, and special skills of students (Simberman,

2017).

Students who studied lexicology courses are

sixth-semester students. There were two classes of

lexicology classes, Class A (36 students) and Class B

(50 students).

2.2 Discovery Learning Method

Discovery learning involves students in finding their

own problems and solving them, and eventually be

able to construct a meaningful concept. That is,

discovery learning methods direct students to

understand concepts, meanings, and relationships,

through an intuitive process.

The Ministry of Education and Culture Act 2013

included discovery learning as part of the 2013

curriculum and defined it as a learning process that

occurs when lessons are not presented with learning

in their final form, but students are expected to

organize the information themselves. That is, in this

learning method, students work to find the concepts

of a problem in the material.

Students in each class were divided into small

groups of three members. Class A contained 11

groups, and class B 16 groups (2 groups are

consisting of 2 people).

Discovery Learning And Small Group Discussion In Lexicology Education

Each group decides what fields they will collect

data from to compile their dictionary. Class A's 11

groups decided to write lexicon dictionaries in the

following fields: internal medicine, agriculture, plant

names, game names, farms, kitchen ingredients,

dance names, animal names, carpentry tools, names

of ornamental plants, and art terms. Class B's 16

groups decided to write lexicon dictionaries in the

following fields: science: sociology, politics, culture,

tourism, sports, law, health, economics, literature,

agriculture, biology, engineering, communication

science, religion, and anthropology.

The learning outcome of the course was that

students could make a dictionary. Before making a

dictionary, students had to first be able to distinguish

the differences between dictionaries and thesaurus

and encyclopedias. The stages in implementing

Discovery Learning are listed below.

Table 1: Stages in Implementing Discovery Learning.

Stage

Activity step

Lecturer

Students

Stage 1

The

simulation

provided a problem

that affects students'

desire to listen

Students

listened

Stage 2

Problem

identification

Gave a large

number of problems

related to

lexicological

material. Then,

some of the

problems were

selected for

students to do.

Students

discussed

Stage 3

Data

collection

Provided field

assignments for

students to find data

Students

collected data

into several

libraries

Stage 4

Data

elaboration

Provided time for

discussion with

students

Students asked

the lecturer

about the data

obtained in

their library

Stage 5

Data

verification

Checked the

correctness of data

that has been

collected by

students

Fixed data if

there is an error

Stage 6

Requested students

to fill in a report

containing blanks

Reported all

field activities

that have been

carried out in

the form

provided by the

lecturer

Every method applied to learning must have

advantages and disadvantages. Likewise, with the

discovery learning method. There are several

advantages of using learning methods with Discovery

Learning:

1. Students are more creative.

2. Students gain field research experience and

provide opportunities for them to do research

and find something for themselves.

3. They learn to apply knowledge based on the

initial knowledge they have gained in the

classroom.

4. It trains for independence and responsibility

for learning

5. It allows students to find interesting new

things that had not been imagined before by

students after gathering information and the

learning process carried out.

There are several advantages of using learning

methods with Discovery Learning, namely:

1. Students have different degrees of motivation

to find information.

2. If students are not equipped with a framework,

sometimes there is confusion in their

implementation.

3. This method is not effective when applied in

teaching large classes or students in large

numbers because it takes a long time to help

them find theories or problem-solve.

2.3 Small Group Discussion Method

The method of a small group discussion is a learning

process that aims to help students develop skills in

analyzing problems. Also, small group discussions

teach students to learn to interact with competing

opinions and information.

Small group discussion methods were

implemented using the following steps:

1. Students were divided into small groups of

three people.

2. Before the discussion began, students were

given practice questions or problems that

were in the semester plan to be discussed and

analyzed in groups.

3. The teacher made sure each group member

participates.

4. After the group discussion was complete,

each group was instructed to select a

spokesperson in the class discussion.

5. Group members answered each question.

6. Explanation and conclusion was carried out

by the lecturer.

ICED-QA 2018 - International Conference On Education Development And Quality Assurance

Small group discussion is a way of presenting

teaching materials by conducting discussions in small

groups. In this case, the students were given a

problem in the form of problematic statements or

questions to be discussed and solved together. The

material discussed was based on their research in the

field or discovery learning.

The use of small group discussion learning

methods can help students learn a number of things

including (a) being a good listener; (b) working

together to make group assignments; (c) providing

and receiving feedback; (d) respecting differences of

opinion; (e) supporting opinions with evidence; and

(f) appreciating varied points of view.

Each group of three students was led by a

chairman and a notepad was used. After the groups

were formed the purpose of the discussion was

formulated. Each group was being given topics or

problems based on the semester plan. Each group

member was required to search, collect, and compile

information about the topics or problems determined

for their group and was required to report on the

results of their search in a reading report. Reading

reports made by each group member became material

in later group discussions.

In carrying out the discussion, students discussed

information search results (discovery learning) for 75

minutes, and the results were written up. When

students were discussing the information the lecturer

visited each group and gave instructions if needed.

This was done so that students remained serious about

discussing the topic specified and not doing anything

else until the discussion ended. After the discussion

was complete, all the papers recording the result of

the discussions were collected.

Next, one group was appointed to present their

paper and other groups to give comments, questions,

and comments. In order for each student to get the

opportunity to respond, the lecturer ensured each

student had a turn and recorded who had or had not

responded. After the students presented and discussed

the paper, the lecturer reviewed the topics discussed

that day. Sometimes, after the group discussion, a

discussion panel forum was held to respond to each

group's report. When the discussion panel was

conducted, three to four groups were displayed. A

spokesperson who presented the results of the group

discussion was appointed for each group, while the

other groups gave comments, responses, or questions.

Finally, the lecturer provided feedback through

summaries or strengthening the material.

In the classroom implementation, small group

discussion learning methods had advantages. The

advantages of using small group discussion learning

methods included:

1. the class atmosphere was more exciting,

2. students could establish social relationships

between individuals,

3. students could understand the results of the

discussion, and were aware of the rules.

4. students had the opportunity to convey their

ideas, thoughts, and opinions about the topic

being discussed and were excited to do so.

As student established interpersonal relationships

they could develop a sense of self-esteem, tolerance,

democracy, and critical thinking, as well as

systematic thinking. Also, the results of the

discussion could be understood by students because

they actively followed the debate in the discussion

groups. Students followed and obeyed the discussion

group rules.

In contrast, the small group discussion learning

method had some disadvantages.

1. Some students were less active, causing

indifference and not taking responsibility for

the results of the discussion

2. It was somewhat difficult to predict the results

the students could achieve due to long time

usage;

3. Some students had difficulty expressing their

ideas or opinions scientifically.

3 CONCLUSIONS

Discovery learning and small group discussions were

found to be beneficial in general lexicology courses.

These methods made students active, creative and

passionate so that lectures became more exciting and

not boring and the learning atmosphere is more

conducive. This positive atmosphere in the teaching

and learning process had a direct effect on the

learning objectives and the students undoubtedly

understood the learning material to the maximum

extent possible. Hence, learning outcomes were also

well achieved. With the application of this method,

the assessment system for students is also helped as

the lecturer can provide an assessment of the ability

of students as the method is being conducted. Finally,

the assessment of learning outcomes in the areas of

attitudes, knowledge, general skills, and special skills

of students were fulfilled.

Discovery Learning And Small Group Discussion In Lexicology Education

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ICED-QA 2018 - International Conference On Education Development And Quality Assurance