N-Gain Algorithm for Analysis of Basic Reading

Sesmiyanti1, Rindilla Antika2, Suharni3

{[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]}
1,2,3STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat, Padang, Indonesia

Abstract. The background of this research is to observe the effectivenes of the Basic
Reading textbook as one of learning materials for reading subject. It is intended to
discover the implementation of the Basic Reading textbook in one of the private
universities in West Sumatera. The method of this research is descriptive research which
quantitatively approaches. The second-year students of English Department at one of the
private universities in West Sumatera were taken as the sample for this research. Data
collection techniques were used tests; reading tests and observation; to identify students’
soft [Link] researchers used one group pretest-posttest design which is calculated by
using N-Gain Normalization. The data showed that there is significantly different
between the result of the test before and after using the Basic Reading textbook. The
result of N-Gain calculation shows 0.43 which is categorized as moderate which means
the book improves students’ cognitive learning outcomes in the reading subject. Thus,
students also instill core ethical values in daily living. It can be concluded that the
textbook used increased students’ hard and soft skills.

Keywords: Basic Reading textbook, N-Gain, Character Values.

1. Introduction
Reading is an acitivity that used by the students in getting new information and improving
their knowlegde. Reading is an activity to comprehend the material that will be learned by the
students in school. By reading, students can get and catch the ideas from the lesson which they
have study, especially in reading. Reading is one of the important activities that can help
students to understand information from the texts. Reading can make students involved in
getting new information, improving their knowledge, and supporting basic background
knowledge to be connected. Without reading, students cannot improve their understanding of
the material; they become less information and also knowledge. Thus, reading is very useful
for the students in the learning process. It is stated that “reading is probably the most
important skill for the student learning development because students use written texts in
searching for information and acquiring new data of knowledge” [1].
Teaching and learning processes can be affected by learning materials especially in the
reading classroom. In the reading classroom, learning and understanding a text can be
influenced by the format and the medium of the text being read [2]. It means that in teaching
and learning reading subject, learning tool helps both students and instructors to understand
and comprehend the lesson. A textbook has an essential role in the courses, the students, and
also the instructor.“Textbooks include the essential elements of language and culture and that
they correspond to learners’ needs, cultural background and level of linguistic proficiency”
[3]. It means textbook is one of important thing by the student in improving their ability in
reading. At present, lecturers are required to be able to make and develop teaching material
that can increase students 'interest in reading and can improve students' critical and innovative

ICLLE 2019, July 19-20, Padang, Indonesia

Copyright © 2019 EAI
DOI 10.4108/eai.19-7-2019.2289527
thinking skills. For this reason, teaching materials need to be developed that can cover both
abilities, they are hard skills and soft skills.
Teaching materials used by lecturers today especially in one of the private universities in
West Sumatera Indonesia have not been able yet to create learning and teaching processes that
can make an interactive classroom atmosphere. This is because; teaching materials given to
students tend to be only monotonous texts. Teaching materials given to students are more
oriented towards hard skills. Besides, the teaching material used is also not able to motivate
students to achieve not only hard skills but also soft skills that are expected to be suitable for
the learning objectives. It states that “textbook need to fulfill these criteria; 1) Textbooks
should be revised from time to time to make sure they are free from spelling, grammatical and
lexical mistakes; 2) An appropriate plan should be organized in which the roles of textbook
developers, teachers, students, and educational managers at a specific stage of learning and
teaching are stated clearly; 3) In revising the textbooks, good qualities of the textbooks should
be retained and the shortcomings should be eliminated or at least reduced; 4) Teachers and
supervisors should be consulted when selecting the textbook material, and they should
participate in making any modifications or improvements concerning the textbooks; 5)
Finally, materials development is by now an area of specialization with abundant
literature[4]”. These criteria above are used to develop a reading textbook subject to fulfill
both hard skills and soft skills criteria in learning achievements.
Therefore, textbook writers are required to appreciate and employ principles of materials
development in the process of writing and revising books. Thus, the textbook used in a reading
subject needs to be evaluating, developing and also modifying for the learning process. The
purpose of textbook development relates to create better lesson and to improve learning
outcomes. The instructors have developed and modified a textbook for reading subject which
named a Basic Reading textbook. Basic reading is not only the name of the textbook but also
as the subject in reading in the first semester for English department students in this private
university in West Sumatera Indonesia. It is concerned with the subject for the next level of
reading course. Here, the basic reading subject is one of the important subjects and it is chosen
as an appropriate textbook that is needed for teachers and students.
The textbook was organized based on multimodality and character education values.
Multimodality is a combination of elements such as visual design, text style, and physical
make-up. The design of the textbook consists of pictures, highlight, font colors, font style,
table, graphic, etc. It is defined that multimodality as two means of representation and
communication, such as still image, gesture, posture, speech, music, writing, or new
configurations of the elements [5]. It means multimodality is the combination of several
semiotic modes, which is nearly always present in communication. Another factor that
underlying the development of this book is character education. “Character education is an
action which done nationally and intentionally to create ethical, responsible, and caring young
people which is actively carried out at school, districts, and states to embed important essence
values such as honesty, responsibility, caring, respect, and others” [6]. The core values
develop in this textbook oriented to eighteen values of Ministry of Indonesia National
Education such as religious, honesty, tolerance, discipline, hard work, creativity, independent,
democracy, curiosity, spirit of nationality, love country, appreciate for achievement,
friendship, love peace, like to read, care for environment, care for social, and responsibility[7].
The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the use of the Basic Reading
textbook can improve both students’ hard skills and soft skills in reading courses at one of the
English Department in Private University in West Sumatera Indonesia. The result of this
research is aimed to develop a textbook which can increase students cognitive abilities, skills,
and attitudes in the learning process which is suitable with the learning outcomes of higher
education program based on Indonesian National Qualifications Framework (KKNI) [8].

2. Method
This research was pre-experimental research that used One Group Pretest-Posttest Design.
It was conducted using basic reading textbooks as a learning resource to improve students’
learning outcomes in reading courses. The population of this study was third-semester students
of English Language Education STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat in Padang West Sumatera,
Indonesia where the sample was chosen by using a cluster sampling technique. The
instruments in this research were reading tests and observation. Tests are used to find out the
improvement of student learning outcomes in the cognitive fields and observation is used to
discover students’ soft skills improvement. The technique of data analysis used One Group
pretest-Posttest Design. The design of the effectiveness test uses One Group Pretest-Posttest
Design, with one class used to teach basic reading in learning[9]. After that, the pretest is
given at the beginning of learning and the posttest at the end of learning. Then tested using the
T-Test (Paired Samples T-Test) which is used to test the average difference of more than two
samples, the same data variation, but the sample is not related to one another, and it is
calculated with normalized N-gain. The Normality gain score is a technical analysis to
determine the level of increase in learning outcomes before using the basic reading textbook
on learning and after using it. The Hake’s formula [10] can be seen below:

𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 (𝑃𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡)− 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 (𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡)

Normalized Gain =
𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 (𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙)− 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 (𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡)

Gain criteria:
g > 0,7 : High
0,3 < g < 0,7 : Moderate
g < 0,3 : Low

3. Result And Discussion

There is substantial evidence that character values have been integrated in learning
materials [11,12,13,14,15,16] especially in Indonesia curriculum [17,18,19,20]. Indonesia
curriculum is focused on character education which is hoped can produce students who have
good moral values. This research also integrated character education into learning materials
which is called “Basic Reading” textbook.
The implementation of the basic reading book in reading was carried out in eight
meetings. The data of the research has begun with doing a pretest to find out the initial
conditions of students 'ability in reading before they use the basic reading book, then after the
implementation of the book in reading the posttest is done to find out students' understanding
of using the book in the learning process. The description of the result of cognitive that has
been gotten from pretest and posttest can be seen in table 1 below;

Table 1.
Description of the cognitive result
 Kind of the amount of Average Standard Standard
test the student Error Deviation
Pretest 27 63.63 1.58 8.20

Posttest 27 80.52 1.17 6.12

Based on the data of cognitive learning outcome, it can be seen the average cognitive
learning outcomes before using basic reading textbooks or pretest is 63.63 with a standard
deviation of 8.20, the standard error is 1.58. Then, cognitive learning outcomes after using the
basic reading textbook which has been used by students in the title with the same subjects for
the results of the posttest are 80.52 with a standard deviation is 6.12 and standard error is 1.18.
It means students’ reading ability was increased after using the Basic Reading textbook. The
result of the pretest and the posttest scores are used to determine the effectiveness of the Basic
Reading textbook by using the N-Gain normalization formula. This formula is used to analyze
the comparison of pretest and the postest score [10]. It can be seen in the table below;

Table 2.
Summary of Pretest- Postest and N-Gain
Score Minimum Maximum Average
Pretest 50 78 63.63
Postest 66 94 80.52
N-Gain 0.26 0.86 0.46

In table 2, it can be seen that the minimum score for pretest is 50 and the maximum score
of the pretest is 78 while the average score is 63,63. Meanwhile, after the implementation of
the Basic reading Textbook, students’ minimum score for the posttest is 66 and the maximum
score for the posttest is 94 while the average score is 90.52. Based on the result of the
minimum and the maximum score of pretest and posttest of students’ reading ability, it can be
said that students’ ability in reading is improved. Furthermore, the calculation of the N-Gain
Normalization result shows the average score is 0.46 which categorized as moderate. The table
of classical N-Gain’ result can be seen as the following table below;

Table 3.
The result of N-Gain criteria
Score range Students Percentage (%) Criteria
g>0.7 1 0.04 High
0.3<g>0.7 24 0.89 Moderate
g<0.3 2 0.07 Low

Based on table 3, it can be seen that the percentage of students who classified to the high
gain criteria is 0.04%, the moderate gain is 0.89% and the low gain is 0.07%. By increasing
the value of the pretest and posttest, thus, the use of basic reading textbooks has been effective
to be applied. To evaluate the effectiveness of using the textbook that has been implemented,
hypothesis testing is done by using the t-test (t-test). The results of the t-test can be seen in
table 4;
 Table 4.
T-test result
Data Mean Number of T-test P value Criteria
Student (N)

Pre test 63.63 27 13.10 0.000 Significant

Post test 80.52 27

Referring to the calculation obtained t = (13.10) with a probability of 0,000 (p-value

<0.05) so that H0 is rejected. The data shows that there are significant differences between the
value of cognitive learning outcomes before the application of basic reading books and after
applying the textbook. Based on the average value pretest score which is 63.63 and posttest
value 80.61, it is concluded that student cognitive learning outcomes increased. Improving
cognitive learning relates to N-gain analysis is known that the categorization of cognitive
improvement in learning outcomes is moderate so that the pretest and posttest scores are
different. The results of the T-Test (Paired Samples T-Test) indicate a significant difference;
the results are sharpened by improvement cognitive values of pretest and posttest.
Furthermore, the results of students’ soft skills also show that students’ core ethical values
have changed significantly. Before implementing the Basic Reading textbook, the students
were often doing their assignments individually which makes them often do cheating. It also
obstructs their sense of cooperation. Furthermore, the students also late in submitting their
assignments which caused by their lack of motivation in reading [21] and sometimes they did
not do the assignment. The Basic Reading textbook developed to instill core ethical values to
the students of the English Department of STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat, Indonesia. The
character values embedded in this textbook are based on the core character values developed
in Indonesia Education Curriculum [7],[8]. The implementation of character education in
colleges and schools should meets the characteristics of character education such as value-
based education; college culture-based character education; and character education [22]
which requires aspects of knowing the good, desiring the good and acting the good [23].
The observation shows that after utilizing this book, students’ ethical values are
developed. They became more disciplined, responsible and respectful students. In doing their
assignments, they often do cooperatively and help each other. It means even though the
implementation of this textbook does not give a significant effect on students’ character
values, but it can instill students' ethical values. It is because text plays a crucial place in
education which contains character and moral values [24].
The results of the N-gain value explain the use of basic reading textbooks in reading
subjects has an impact on improving students' thinking skills. Improving students 'thinking
skills both from soft skills and hard skill is caused by the book material that contained in
character education which had an effect on improving students' soft skills and also the use of
multimodality which could make students interested and understand the texts they read and
increase their curiosity on a topic in learning reading. The results of this study show the use of
basic reading textbooks can improve student learning outcomes.
Cognitive learning outcomes are categorized as moderate from learning outcomes in using
basic reading textbooks that enable students to improve their reading skills. It is caused by the
contents of this textbook consists of basic skills of reading such as understanding topic,
understanding paragraph, using context clues, scanning, skimming, and previewing. This
textbook points the students to be able to practice their reading skills. It because in each part
of this book, the students are asked to practice one reading skill. By applying a reading skill
for each chapter, the students focus to use it effectively and it will be used unconsciously
while they have reading difficulty [25].
This reading textbook is also arranged to sharpen students’ reading skills which already
had. They are given the knowledge first and then they are asked to apply their skills in the
exercises contained in this book. These exercises direct students to solve problems that instill
character education values. It also aims to build up students to think critically, creatively, and
innovatively in solving problems related to their surrounding environment. The result of this
study shows that the implementation of the Basic Reading textbook can improve students’
reading skills.
Moreover, the implementation of this textbook establishes the students in acquiring
different learning experiences that they build from previous learning. They also can interact
with peers, work together in expressing opinions, and do disscussion in solving problems. This
book is arranged in uncomplicated and straightforward design to understand the text which
serve with many illustrations in the form of pictures as examples and exercises that clarify the
material contained in the textbook.

4. Conclusion
Based on the result and discussion above, it can be concluded as that the Basic Reading
textbook is effective to be used. It can be seen on the results of N-gain calculations have
gotten from the increase in the cognitive learning test of 0.43 which is categorized as
'Moderate'. The T-test result also shows that there is significant different between the pretest
and the posstest’s score of students’ reading ability which means the Basic Reading textbook
is effective in improving students’ reading ability. Furthermore, the result also shows that
students’ ethical values are changed after the implementation of this book.

Suggestions
The results and the conclusion of this research retaled to improve students’ reading ability
and instill character education, it can be suggested that learning tool such as textbook plays
essential role in the teaching and learning procees of reading subject. The content of the
textbook should be designed interestingly and creatively to encourage students foster a love of
reading. It is also suggested that the textbook designed should integrated character education
not only in the teaching process but also in teaching materials to produce young good
character people.

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Acknowledgments.
Gratefully and thankfully, the researchers express their gratitude to the Minister of Research,
Technology and Higher Education of Indonesia for funding this research. The researchers also
express their gratitude to the Head of English Department and colleagues at STKIP PGRI
Sumatera Barat for their support in doing this research.
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