Prospective Teachers' Challenges in Collaborating with Others in Student-Led Discussion

Abstract

Collaboration among students is needed to promote students’ interdependent and social skills. One of the strategies is by applying Student-Led Discussion. The article discusses how English prospective teachers perceive collaboration among them and their lecturer in the implementation of Student-Led Discussion. This is a report of a Classroom Action Research conducted in TEFL Class. The subject was 45 third semester English students in English Education Department of Teacher Training School of Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta. The teaching strategy was implemented in the class following Kemmis and Taggart’ procedures namely, planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. To collect the data, the researcher used observation, interview, and documentation (the scores of the written test). The researcher applied constant comparative to analyze the data in which the results of data analysis in cycle 1 and cycle 2 were compared to make conclusion. In the reflection of phase 1, it was found that the challenges the students encounter were the skills to work and communicate with others, and credit their lecturer more then their peers. The findings showed that discussion requires collaboration skills among the students and between the students and the lecturer. It also needs be well-prepared, monitored, and evaluated.