Praktik Guru dalam Mengajarkan Instruksi Membaca Langsung untuk Siswa Tunagrahita

Teacher's Practice in Teaching Direct Reading Instruction for Mentally Retarded Students

Kata-kata kunci: reading, mentally retarded students, direct instruction, teacher's practice, special education.

Adanya bukti bahwa penggunaan Direct Instruction bermanfaat bagi siswa tunagrahita. Meskipun demikian, sebagian besar penelitian sebelumnya berfokus pada efektivitas penggunaan Direct Instruction pada hasil belajar siswa. Selain itu, kurangnya perhatian terhadap praktik guru dalam mengajar membaca kepada siswa tunagrahita. Penelitian ini bertujuan (I) untuk mendeskripsikan praktik guru dalam mengajarkan membaca kepada siswa tunagrahita dengan menggunakan Direct Instruction, (II) untuk mengetahui kendala yang dihadapi guru saat mengajar membaca kepada siswa tunagrahita, dan (III) untuk mengungkapkan kompetensi membaca yang diperoleh siswa tunagrahita selama pembelajaran membaca.

Penelitian ini menawarkan penelitian kualitatif dengan subjek dua guru bahasa Inggris. Guru pertama mengajar empat siswa di kelas delapan, sedangkan guru kedua mengajar enam siswa di kelas sepuluh. Data pertanyaan penelitian pertama dan ketiga dikumpulkan dari serangkaian observasi yang dilakukan sebanyak empat kali untuk setiap guru. Sementara itu, data pertanyaan penelitian kedua dikumpulkan melalui wawancara dengan guru yang pertanyaannya membahas kesulitan guru dalam mengajar membaca kepada siswa tunagrahita ringan menggunakan Direct Instruction

Melalui serangkaian pengamatan, temuan mengungkapkan bahwa ada persamaan dan perbedaan dalam penerapan setiap fase Direct Instruction oleh kedua guru. Persamaannya terdapat pada tahap presentation and guided practice, sedangkan perbedaannya terdapat pada tahap review and check previous work, feedback and corrections, and independent practice. Praktik-praktik ini menunjukkan bahwa setiap guru mengajar siswa tunagrahita pada tahapan yang berbeda berdasarkan kemampuan mereka. Penelitian ini juga menemukan bahwa tingkat membaca siswa tunagrahita, keterbatasan kosakata, kurangnya konsentrasi dan daya ingat, serta keterbatasan media dan fasilitas ruang kelas, menjadi kendala yang dihadapi guru saat mengajar membaca.

Terlepas dari kenyataan bahwa ada hambatan dalam mengajar instruksi membaca langsung, siswa tunagrahita memperoleh beberapa kompetensi membaca. Mereka memiliki keterampilan lower order thinking yang memungkinkan mereka untuk mengenali, mengklasifikasikan kata-kata dalam konteks, mengenali arti kata-kata. Beberapa dari mereka juga dapat membaca teks tanpa bantuan guru dan memahami teks yang disajikan oleh guru selama proses pembelajaran.

Keywords: reading, mentally retarded students, direct instruction, teacher's practice, special education.

There is evidence that using Direct Instruction benefits mentally retarded students. Nonetheless, most of the previous studies focused on the effects of using direct instruction on students' learning outcomes. Furthermore, there is a lack of concern about teachers' practices in teaching reading to mentally retarded students. This study aims (I) to describe teacher practices Direct Instruction in teaching reading to mentally retarded students, (II) to investigate obstacles that teachers face when teaching reading to mentally retarded students, and (III) to reveal reading competencies that mentally retarded students gain during learning reading.

This study offers a qualitative research with two English teachers as the subjects. The first teacher taught four students in the eighth grade, while the second teacher taught six students in the tenth grade. The data of the first and the third research questions were collected from a series of observation which were done for four times for each teacher. Meanwhile, the data of the second research question was gathered through interviews with teachers which the questions addressed the teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading to mild-mentally retarded students using Direct Instruction.

Through a series of observations, the findings revealed that there are similarities and differences in the application of each phase of direct instruction by the two teachers. The similarities are found in the presentation and guided practice stages, while the differences are found in the review and check previous work, feedback and corrections, and independent practice phases. These practices demonstrated that each teacher taught mentally retarded students at different stages based on their abilities. This study also discovered that the reading level of mentally retarded students, their limited vocabulary, lack of concentration and memory span, as well as the limitations of media and classroom facilities, are the obstacles that teachers face when teaching reading.

Despite the fact that there are obstacles in teaching direct reading instruction, mentally retarded students acquire some reading competences. They have lower-order thinking skills that enable them to recognize, classify words in context, recognize the meaning of words. Some of them are also able to read texts without the assistance of the teacher and understand the texts presented by the teacher during the learning process.