Students’ Responses to the Improvements of Learning and Practicum

Services on Poultry Nutrition Science Subject

Ahadiyah Yuniza and Maria Endo Mahata

Department of Nutrition and Feed Technology, Universitas Andalas, Padang, Indonesia

Keywords: Planning, Learning Strategy, Assessment, Practicum Services, Student Response.

Abstract: This research aimed to see the positive impact of learning improvements on Poultry Nutrition Science subject.

This research was conducted on 3 parallel classes; Class A does not experience the improvements, except for

practicum services; Class B only experienced the improvements for 7 meetings (8th meeting until the end of

the semester); and Class C experienced the improvements from the beginning until the end of the semester.

The improvements on this Livestock Nutrition Science subject covered: improvements in learning planning,

improvements in classroom learning methods, assessment strategy, and improvement in practicum services.

The indication of success of this learning system improvement could be seen from the students’ responses

which were observed and seen from their activity and enthusiasm in the class, their attendance in the class

and laboratory, and also the achievement of student's Mid Term Exam and Final Exam scores. The result of

this classroom action research showed good responses, which could be seen on the increase in average score

of Mid Term Exam and Final Exam on the students who experienced the learning methods improvements

(Class C), their satisfaction to the facilitated teaching materials, and the feedback on the assignment and

opinions expressed in the class.

1 INTRODUCTION

Poultry Nutrition Science under the code PT 146 is a

compulsory subject in Study Program of Animal

Husbandry, Faculty of Animal Sciencience, Andalas

University. This subject is given on the 4th semester

after the students took The Basic of Nutrition Science

subject. This subject is taught by 9 lecturers from

Laboratorium of Non-Ruminants Nutrition Science,

Department of Feed Nutrition and Technology.

In 2009/2010 college year, Poultry Nutrition

Science started to apply Student Centered Learning

(SCL) approach which taught in a small class (a

maximum of 40 students). Therefore, this subject will

be taught in 12 parallel classes (10 classes for 2014

curriculum and 2 classes for remedial students in

2009 curriculum).

Since using SCL approach, the teaching method

that is used is Small Group Discussion (SGD) for all

discussion that being taught. The evaluation result to

the learning methods that have been applied by the

lecturers of this subject showed that this SGD method

was not really effective and not fit to all main

discussions on this subject. Many assignments and

presentations presented by the students were far away

from the studied materials, so that the learning was

not yet hitting the target. Even the lecturers felt a lot

of times wasted by using SGD method, while the

learning target was not achieved. Hence, some

lecturers of this subject went back to TCL (Teacher

Centered Learning) by regular lecturing method and

some class discussions. In fact, even the class

discussion was not really effective. The time given to

the students to ask and respond to the teaching

materials was not used properly by the students. Only

2 – 5 students who were actively asking and

responding, while the rest of them remain silent.

The other problem on running a lecture in this

subject was the incompatible lesson planning (RPS)

with the higher education curriculum (K-DIKTI)

which was using KKNI concept. The available RPS

was still referring to the competence-based

curriculum. Therefore, the refinement of RPS

corresponding with the KKNI concept becomes much

more important on developing this subject.

The unscheduled practicum execution on the

offered-subject becomes another problem in the

continuity of the learning process. The lecturers of the

subject will get difficulties on scheduling practicum

to all students, because it is hard to find a right time

156

Yuniza, A. and Mahata, M.

Students’ Responses to The Improvements of Learning and Practicum Services on Poultry Nutrition Science Subject.

DOI: 10.5220/0008682001560159

In Improving Educational Quality Toward International Standard (ICED-QA 2018), pages 156-159

ISBN: 978-989-758-392-6

when all of the students are available. Therefore, the

amount of practicum time becomes diverse between

the parallel classes, and even the executions were not

coordinated well. This matter will affect to the

teaching material mastery, psychomotor aspects, and

also students’ skill on Livestock Nutrition Science

subject.

Based on the aforementioned descriptions, then

the classroom action research was conducted to learn

the positive impacts of the planning improvements,

learning strategies, and the practicum services

improvements. The impacts can be observed and seen

from the students’ responses to the modifications and

improvements on learning strategies and practicum

services.

2 RESEARCH METHOD

This classroom action research will be done on

three parallel classes on Poultry Nutrition Science

subject. Class A as a comparison control with no

learning improvements treatment, class B will be

given the learning improvements starting from 8th

meeting until the end of the semester, while class C

will get the learning improvements from the

beginning of the semester until the last meeting. The

learning improvements including: improve the lesson

plan, improve the learning method and practicum

services, and improve the grading system.

a. Lesson Plan (RPS)

The first step is to do an improvement on the

lesson plan (RPS) to be effective, especially on

the formulation of the learning outcomes, the

expected final ability, the learning form including

creating several learning methods that suit to the

main discussion, assessment indicator criteria,

and value quality.

b. Teaching Methods Development

From the meta-analysis on a number of learning

form (LP3M Unand, 2014), group learning was

judged to be more effective to push the academic

achievements, more suitable to build the expected

attitude on the learning outcomes, and further

enhance the persistence of teaching material

learned. Therefore, the teaching methods that are

going to be applied to improvement of Livestock

Nutrition Science subject are: Small Group

Discussion (SGD) and Cooperative Learning

(CL). Both methods use small groups on the

learning process. The improvements that will be

done in this group learning are providing some

alternative teaching methods (not only SGD), and

also develop the SGD execution on the class

(implementation).

c. Practicum Services Improvements

Practicum will not be managed by each lecturer of

the parallel class as what it has usually been done.

Practicum services will be coordinated by the

subject coordinator along with The Head of Non-

Ruminants Nutrition Laboratory to manage 10

parallel classes.

The practicum services improvements included

the preparation and the implementation of the

practicum. The preparation stage start by

recruiting and selecting senior students or even

the fresh graduates to be the practicum assistants,

and then give some briefings for the selected

assistants, after that, make a practicum schedule

for 70 groups in 10 shifts which every shift will

only serve 7 groups, and the last preparation step

is to open registration for the students into 70

groups provided according to the students’

college schedule. Hence, every group will consist

of several students from varying parallel classes.

The improvements on the practicum

implementation are: facilitate the practicum

process and every shift will be directed / guided

by 1 practicum assistant, 1 laboratory assistant,

and 1 subject lecturer.

d. Students Grading Improvements

The improvements on student grading system

from the cognitive field will be done firstly by

deciding the value quality of each topic which is

stated in RPS, after that, the questions will be

arranged based on those value qualities either

from the quantity and the quality of the questions.

The improvements from the psychomotor field

will be done by observing on the practicum

process and also the practicum result. Later on, the

improvements on the student grading system can

be done by including the affective domain in the

final score. Affective domain can be valued

through the observation on the teaching and

learning process in the class.

The written examination result will be handed to

the students immediately as a feedback of the

teaching and learning so that either the lecturers

or also the students can do some improvements

before the semester end. For the lecturers, by

performing the observation during the semester,

Students’ Responses to The Improvements of Learning and Practicum Services on Poultry Nutrition Science Subject

157

students’ weaknesses can be seen earlier so that

they will have enough time to improve their

student’ quality.

e. Classroom Action Research Parameters (PTK)

The success indication of this learning

improvement activity can be seen from the

students’ responses as PTK parameters, the

responses are in form of the result of the

questionnaires about their responses to the

learning improvements and practicum services

improvements that would have been done. If their

responses are positive and they pleased with the

improvements, so they are expected to be

motivated and become more passionate on

learning, and it can positively affect the outcome

result of the learning and also to the final grade

distribution.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

According to the observation result and the available

RPS evaluations, then the improvements to RPS

especially on the learning form and value qualities are

done. Aside from that, we also improve the

composition of the teaching materials and the

expected final ability from each main discussion. The

learning form that we used is corresponding with the

requirements of each main discussion. The second

step of the planning improvements is by completing

and enriching the teaching materials in the form of

Power Point slides, reading materials (handouts),

films / videos, and group / individual assignments.

Teaching methods improvements to this

Livestock Nutrition Science subject has been done by

adding some learning methods, besides applying

regular lecture and group discussion (SGD), we also

applied Cooperative Learning (CL).

Small Group Discussion (SGD) is a method to

present the teaching materials where the students are

given several problems which could be in form of

problematic statements or questions that should be

discussed and solved together. The improvements on

this teaching strategy including 2 steps: the

preparation and the implementation. The preparation

step started by creating groups’ assignments

planning, and then randomly form small groups

consists of 5 person each group. The implementation

step started by deciding the topics (either statements

or questions that are problematic) for each groups,

formulating the aim of the discussion, the group

discussion implementation and choosing the

spokesperson for the presentation, and putting down

important points from the discussion in form of a

report. The subject lecturer monitored the discussion

and gave comments, responses, and questions. The

feedback can be given by a summary or material

affirmation.

Cooperative Learning (CL) is a part of learning

methods where the students were interacted each

other to gain and apply particular elements of a

teaching material and also find the general outcome

of the learning. The implementation of this CL

method is to choose which CL models that suit to

deliver the main topic. There are 9 learning models in

Cooperative Learning (CL), but only 3 of them that

were used on this research, they are: Think-Pair-

Share, Numbered Heads Together, and Three

Minutes Review.

Think-Pair-Share is a method where the lecturer

gives some statements or questions that require the

students to analyze, evaluate or synthesize, then the

students are given 3 minutes to think a fast response.

The students then back to their own group to share

responses. The scope of the discussion elevates and

all the students have a chance to learn by reflection

and verbalization. Numbered Heads Together

(Kagen) is a method where the lecturer gives a

question to group members. The question usually a

natural fact but needs a higher level of thinking. The

students discuss the problem and ensure that each

member know the discussed answer. Three-Minute

Review is a method where the lecturer provides some

times during a the learning process, the lecturer gives

3 minutes to the group to review what have been

discussed, ask a question, or clarify the answer.

The implementation of the designed RPS

improvements, learning method developments,

practicum services improvements, and grading

system developments are done by applying them to

the class that being taught. The lecturers, as

facilitators, motivated and gave some attentions,

cheers, and beliefs to the students that they were able

to reach the expected competences. The lecturers

should be capable enough to find a way to help the

students searching and finding the solution of each

problem on the related materials; also capable enough

to give feedbacks by monitoring and correcting the

idea or the result of the students’ performance in order

to reach the optimum target.

The success of this PTK can be seen from the

students’ score on Mid Semester Exam and Final

Exam from 3 classes that were given different

treatment. The result shows that there is an escalation

on the average score of Mid Semester Exam and Final

Exam from Class C which experienced the treatment

of the learning improvements and practicums services

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improvements compare to the class that was not

getting any treatment of learning improvements

(Class A). The same goes to the class that experienced

a treatment of learning improvements from 8th

meeting until the end of the semester (Class B), it

shows that the average score of the Final Exam is

bigger than the Mid Semester Exam of the same class

(Class B) compare to the first class.

After the application of this PTK, the Mid

Semester Exam scores gained by the students on the

Poultry Nutrition Science are on the normal

distribution, with the average score was 68,5 while

the Final Exam average score reached 71,15. In the

class that was not getting any learning improvements

treatment, the average score of Mid Semester Exam

was 54,7 and the average score of Final Exam was

60,6. Therefore, the Classroom Action Research on

Poultry Nutrition Science subject that was applied to

Class B and Class C can move the peak of the normal

curve to the right (increasing the average value).

4 CONCLUSIONS

A good lesson planning, proper learning model

application along with handout facilities and the copy

of teaching materials, structured assignments, and a

good practicum services could increase the learning

achievements in poultry nutrition science subject.

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