ACTION RESEARCH REPORT

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)
KPLI-SCIENCE (JUNE 2009)

IPG RAJANG CAMPUS, BINTANGOR
2010 ACTION RESEARCH
Effect of Positive Reinforcement Power Clap to Pupils Improvement Towards Learning

An Action Research Study
JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN
ABSTRACT
My action research project is conducted to study the effect of positive reinforcement
Power Clap to pupils attitude towards learning. The Power Clap is created by myself
(modified from co-curricular activities) and is made to motivate pupils thus allowing them
inculcate thinking skills while having fun during lesson. The result from my study shows that the
positive reinforcement Power Clap has significance increase to 60% in pupils giving correct
answers from Stage A (1st-2nd Week: Without positive reinforcement) to Stage B (3rd-4th Week:
With positive reinforcement). However on the implementation of Power Clap for the last three
weeks shows a decrease of result approximately about 20.1% in successful completion of the
worksheet done by the pupils. This decrease maybe cause by lack of diversification in usage of
other positive reinforcement methods. Other ways of positive reinforcement and improvement of
Power Clap should be implemented to make a good rapport between teacher and pupils. As a
result pupils will reap the benefits and eventually improving pupils performance in Science.
ACTION RESEARCH 2010

KPLI-SR SCIENCE JUNE 2009
Page 1

CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Several pupils from year 5, SK ST Paul, Roban are the focus of this study. The school
has been in existence since August, 1934 as a result of action from Penghulu Enteri ak Chuong
(father to YB Datuk Peter Nyarok).
Pupils mostly from the school come from long houses and malay villages where their
parents come from the low-income group. Unwanted pupils (slow learning/discipline problem)
are usually transferred to the school from the nearby area. Therefore I can say that the pupils
here are mostly in the level of medium and low in term of education.
The majority of my pupils from year 5 are chosen for the purpose of my action research.
The feedback of my study mostly is gathered from them. My study will allow my pupils to react
to the positive reinforcement which is Power Clap that I enacted to them and to reap the
benefits for fellow teachers.
Our aim is to develop pupils interest and creativity through the positive reinforcement
that is given to them. It is crucial to keep their interest to Science. The success then will promote
the acquisition of scientific and thinking skill to the pupils.

Page 2

Problem Statement
Pupils will be bored after a while during the lesson if not given positive reinforcement. Failure to
do this will make the pupils cannot concentrate and understand the lesson.
Hypothesis
There is significance difference between the pupils who concentrate toward learning session
before and after using positive reinforcement Power Clap.
Data Collection
Using checklist
i) questioning technique (pupils can answer or not)
ii) worksheet (performance in each worksheet)
iii) observation during class (pupils paying attention or not)
Conceptual Framework
The objectives of this Action Research were
i)
to make sure that the positive reinforcement method Power Clap can be use to
motivate pupils
ii) to sharpen teaching skills and raise awareness about the benefit of positive
reinforcement to the pupils

Page 3

Assumptions
Some assumptions made to conduct the study were:
Pupils can understand basic English Language fairly well as a medium of instructions
Pupils would appreciate the positive reinforcement Power Clap given to them as
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to make them learn better.
Scope and Limitation of Studies

This study was conducted in only Primary 5 class at SK St Paul, Roban. Period of study
will be in the 13 weeks during the practicum event. This study is to seek the effectiveness of
positive reinforcement Power Clap to the selected pupils towards Science.
Significance of the Action Research Project

This project benefits the school, teacher, and especially the pupils. Appropriate and
professional action should be taken as the result of this study will improve the school staff and
the development of the pupils. Any imperfection should be improve to increase and progress
further.

Page 4

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Review of Related Literature Studies
Positive Reinforcement
According to Logsdon (2010), positive reinforcement is the presentation of something
pleasant or rewarding immediately following a behavior. It makes that behavior more likely to
occur in the future, and is one of the most powerful tools for shaping or changing individual.
Questioning
I will be using questioning techniques as a method of data collection. Ryburn and Forge
(1964) stated that questions should be ask before the name of the pupil. If the teacher states
the name first before the questions, the others will tend to relax or discontinue thinking about the
answer for the question. It is good to pause for several seconds before calling a name to
respond to the question (Orkin & Drogin, 1975).
Teacher should give pupil time to answer question. A good teacher should not try to force
answer from his or her pupils. The success of the teacher to know the background of the pupils
will benefit both party and importance for the development level of the pupils.

Page 5

CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Action Research is a term used to describe professionals using their own proactive in order to
improve and is concerned in bringing about change and the aim to find ways of bringing about
change to improve a situation (Tan, 2003). Applied to teaching, action research involves
gathering and interpreting data to better understand an aspect of ones teaching that interest or
concerns oneself (Tan, 2003).
Samples of Study
The sample consists of 10 pupils of Primary 5 from SK St Paul, Roban.
Instruments
All the instruments for this study were constructed using both English and Bahasa Malaysia.
The instrument comprises of:
i) Classroom observations
ii) Questioning sessions
iii) Worksheets
The details of the instruments are as follows:Classroom Observations
Observation was carried out during class with and without giving positive reinforcement
Power Clap to determine the effectiveness of the method towards learning science. Are the

Page 6

pupils paying attention or not to the lesson when positive reinforcements are given to them,
observations are made according to the planned schedule.
Pupils are considered paying attention if they make eye contact with the teacher for at
least half of the lesson. Pupils are considered not paying attention if they are looking elsewhere,
sleepy, and doing something else which are not planned in the lesson (not making eye contact
with the teacher).
Questioning session
Questions are asked to the pupils to let them generate and share ideas. If questions are
answered correctly, then they are considered paying attention while questions answered wrong
and out of the topic will be considered they are not paying attention to the lesson. Positive
reinforcement Power Clap will be use as motivation.
Pupils are considered can answer the question given if they can elaborate or state
something related to the questions. Pupils considered cannot answered the questions if they
remain silent.
Worksheets
Worksheets are given after each lesson to test their knowledge about the lesson that
has been taught. Their development will be monitored, and if the positive reinforcement Power
Clap affects their effort the result will be noted.

Page 7

Positive Reinforcement Power Clap

Power Clap is my creation of positive reinforcement to motivate and keep my pupils
attention towards learning Science. Power Clap is derived and modification of Tepuk
Semangat for the co-curricular activities.
The objective of Power Clap is to motivate pupils while having fun during teaching &
learning processes. Success of this positive reinforcement Power Clap will influence pupils to
inculcate thinking skills thus enable them to acquire the necessary motivation to learn.
Method of Power Clap
1st Variety (Basic)
:
2 times clap/knock (on the tables or on the lap)
Second Step :
2 times clap (normal clapping)
Third Step
Both hands widen and reach out to the sky while shouting Wow.
First Step
2nd Variety (Spiral or Golong-golong)

:
Second Step :
Third Step
Circle/Rotate both hands a few times from the navel area and then
First Step
moving it while maintaining the hand rotation towards the sky.

Finally, when reaching at the highest point shout Wow
3rd Variety (Happy or Manja)
:
Second Step :
First Step

Page 8

Third Step
Right hand reach for nearby friends chin, and say Ala..la..la..la..
4th Variety (Combo: consist of the first, second and the third variety)
:
Second Step :
Third Step
Do the third step for the 1st variety.
First Step
Teacher said: Once more or Sekali lagi..

(Then the pupils will do the 2nd variety)
Teacher said: Once more or Sekali lagi..
(Finally the pupils do the 3rd variety)
Data Collection Procedure

Stages of Data Collection
Data collection was scheduled during teaching period. The timetable below shows when the
positive reinforcement Power Clap will be used to the pupils (Table 1).
Table 1: Stages of data collection
STAGES
A
B
C
D

WEEK
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
APPLICATION OF POWER CLAP

No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page 9

There will be four stages:

i)
Stage A =
ii) Stage B =
iii) Stage C =
iv) Stage D =
Pupils are not given any positive reinforcement Power Clap for the two
weeks period.
Pupils are given positive reinforcement Power Clap for two weeks.
Pupils are not given positive reinforcement Power Clap for the fifth
week.
Pupils are given positive reinforcement Power Clap for the sixth week.
Pupils are given positive reinforcement Power Clap for the seventh and
eight weeks.
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS
Data Collection
Classroom Observations
Page 10
10

NOTE:Pupils are considered paying attention if they make eye contact with the teacher for at
least half of the lesson. Pupils are considered not paying attention if they are looking elsewhere,
sleepy, and doing something else which is not planned in the lesson.
10
10
9
9
8
8
PUPILS PAYING ATTENTION (OBSERVED) (TOTAL OF 10 SELECTED PUPILS)
6
PUPILS NOT PAYING ATTENTION (OBSERVED) (TOTAL OF 10 SELECTED PUPILS)
1
1
0
Figure 1: Class observation result

According to Figure 1, there is significance increase in pupils focus to the lesson if they
are given the positive reinforcement Power Clap. The highest result is 10 pupils (100%) giving
full attention on the seventh week, where the positive reinforcement Power Clap was applied
during the lesson. The lowest number of attention given by the pupils is 3 (30%), which are both
Page 11
11

on the first and fifth week. On the first and fifth week, the pupils are not given any positive
reinforcement Power Clap and thus not giving any attention to the class lesson.
For the first and second week the number of pupils giving attention is 30% and 40%
respectively. The low number may be because no positive reinforcement Power Clap was
given to the pupils during lesson. It may also due to the first time the pupils from Primary 5 meet
their new trainee teacher thus therefore they still trying to get to know me first.
However there is a drop from 10 pupils giving their attention on the seventh week to 6
pupils even though the positive reinforcement is being applied to the class. The failure of
decreasing in numbers is maybe due to the pupils being bored as the same power clap is being
used all the time. Therefore the positive reinforcement Power Clap must be made in a variety
of way as to attract their attention to the lesson given by teacher. Various way of clapping may
be introduced in the future to improve the positive reinforcement Power Clap.
Questioning session

Page 12
12

NOTE: Pupils are considered can answer the question given if they can elaborate or state
something related to the questions. Pupils considered cannot answer the questions if they
remain silent.
PUPILS CAN ANSWER THE QUESTION (TOTAL OF 10 SELECTED PUPILS)
55
5
PUPILS CANNOT ANSWER THE QUESTION
Figure 2: Questioning session result

Page 13
13

Figure 2 shows the result of questioning session from the first week to the eight week of
the application of the positive reinforcement Power Clap. There is significance difference in the
answer provided by the pupils during lesson when they are given the positive reinforcement
Power Clap. There is important increase about 60% in pupils giving correct answers from
Stage A (1st-2nd Week) to Stage B (3rd-4th Week). The increase of correct answer given by the
pupils is due to the success of applying the positive reinforcement method, the Power Clap.
The highest result is 90% which are on the 3 rd, 4th and 7th week. 9 out of 10 pupils are
able to answer the questions given by the teacher during these weeks. This is because the
pupils are having fun doing the positive reinforcement Power Clap while indirectly motivating
themselves.
The lowest result which is 10% is on the 3 rd, 4th and 7th week. 1 pupil cannot give the
answers for the questions for him or her respectively for the three weeks stated before. The
pupils who cannot answer the questions may be because they lack the knowledge of certain
important English terms which are necessary to understand the lesson that are being taught.
The failure to make them understand about the necessary words will hinder them in advancing
to the next stage of learning Science.

Page 14
14
Worksheets
NOTE: Pupils are observed if they do well in their worksheet which has been provided for their lesson every week.
10
10
10
10
10 10
9 9
8
7
7
6
3
2
WEEK 3 (with
22
1
1
0

Page 15
10
10
10 10
9 99
9
8
6
5
55
3
WEEK
5 (without
2
10
10 10
4
3 34 (with
WEEK
10
WEEK 2 (without 3
55
WEEK 1 (without
99
8 8
6
5
6
5
9 99
10
8 8
10
44
WEEK 6 (with
4
WEEK 7 (with
3 WEEK 8 (with
Figure 3: Worksheet result

Page 16
Figure 3 shows the result from the worksheet that has been given to them by the teacher
during the lesson in class. There are ten marks allocated for each worksheet. 10 pupils from
Primary five have been selected as the test subjects for this action research.
From the results, there is significance change in the pupils improvement when they are
being given the positive reinforcement Power Clap. There is increase in average of 50.2% for
the ten pupils from Stage A (1st-2nd Week) to Stage B (3rd-4th Week).
There is no positive reinforcement Power Clap in the fifth week. However, the success
of incorporating the positive reinforcement Power Clap in the sixth week has been resulting in
increase about 20.8% of good result from the pupils. The pupils seem to like to be given the
positive reinforcement as the motivation make the class session more fun and entertaining.
The result was positive starting from sixth and seventh week as the pupils are given the
positive reinforcement Power Clap for both weeks. However on the eight week where the
positive reinforcement Power Clap has been applied for the consecutive three weeks since the
previous two weeks, there is a decrease approximately 20.1% in successful completion of the
worksheet done by the pupils. Even though the positive reinforcement Power Clap is being
applied to the pupils, it seems that they are being bored because of lack of variability in the
motivation method. Thus, the Power Clap should been diversify to keep the attraction and the
fun in learning Science. More study should be done to improve this method.

Page 17
CHAPTER 5
SUMMARY
Summary of Findings
Conclusions
Evidence from the action research indicated that there was improvement in pupils
participation when positive reinforcement Power Clap is being integrated into the teaching by
the teacher. There was significance difference between the way the pupils react when they are
given and not given the positive reinforcement Power Clap.
Recommendations
From the aforementioned findings and conclusion the following are recommendations:
1) Action research should be carried in all school to improve the learning experience.
2) Teacher need to give positive reinforcement to motivate and keep the interest of their
pupils to learn Science.
3) The positive reinforcement Power Clap should be diversify and other variety of positive
reinforcement should be use to attract pupils to the lesson.
4) More action research should be done about the effect of positive reinforcement to pupils
bad behavior.
Reflection
Action research is crucial in the development of our Educational Programme. The
success and findings can be used to improve teacher teaching method. Good interpersonal skill
and application of variety in positive reinforcement such as Power Clap can influence the
attitude of pupils towards learning. We as a teacher should improve our ways of teaching and
diversify our method of persuading our pupils to learn.
APPENDIX
Page 18
Table 2: Class observation

NUMBER OF PUPILS PAYING ATTENTION (OBSERVED)
APPLICATION OF
STAGES
WEEK
(TOTAL OF 10 SELECTED PUPILS)

YES
NO
POWER CLAP
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
A
B
C
D
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
3
4
8
8
3
9
10
6
7
6
2
2
7
1
0
4
Table 3: Questioning session

NUMBER OF PUPILS ANSWERING THE QUESTION
APPLICATION OF
STAGES
WEEK
(TOTAL OF 10 SELECTED PUPILS)

CAN ANSWER
CANNOT ANSWER
POWER CLAP
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
A
B
C
D
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
2
4
9
9
4
8
9
5
8
6
1
1
6
2
1
5
Table 4: Worksheets result

N
WEEKLY WORKSHEET (MARKS 10/10)

STUDENT
O.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
GENDER
M
M
M
M
M
F
F
F
F
F

1
5
5
1
2
3
2
5
4
5
3
2
6
5
3
2
3
3
4
4
5
4
3
10
10
7
6
9
6
8
10
10
10
Page 19
4
9
10
8
9
10
8
9
9
10
10
5
5
7
4
4
7
5
7
6
7
7
6
9
9
8
9
9
8
8
9
9
9
7
10
10
9
9
9
9
10
9
10
10
8
8
7
6
6
7
6
9
10
8
7
REFERENCE
Logsdon, A.. (2010). Positive Reinforcements - Fix Behavior Problems with Positive
Reinforcement.
Retrieved
from
the
World
Wide
http://learningdisabilities.about.com/od/behaviorproblems/p/reinforcers.htm
February 2010.
Orkin, M. and Drogin, R.. (1975). Vital Statistic. McGraw-Hill Inc. Hayward.

Page 20
Web
at
on
11th
Ryburn, W.M. & Forge, K.B.. (1964). Principles of Teaching. Oxford University Press. London.
Tan, L.W.. (2003) Questioning Techniques: An Action research Study. SK Hua Hin (Eng) Sg.
Merah, SK Bandaran Sibu. Sibu.

Page 21

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JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

KPLI-SCIENCE (JUNE 2009)

Effect of Positive Reinforcement Power Clap to Pupils Improvement Towards Learning

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

Scope and Limitation of Studies

Significance of the Action Research Project

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

Positive Reinforcement Power Clap

2 times clap/knock (on the tables or on the lap)

2 times clap (normal clapping)

2nd Variety (Spiral or Golong-golong)

2 times clap/knock (on the tables or on the lap)

2 times clap (normal clapping)

moving it while maintaining the hand rotation towards the sky.

2 times clap/knock (on the tables or on the lap)

2 times clap (normal clapping)

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

2 times clap/knock (on the tables or on the lap)

2 times clap (normal clapping)

Do the third step for the 1st variety.

Teacher said: Once more or Sekali lagi..

Data Collection Procedure

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

APPLICATION OF POWER CLAP

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

There will be four stages:

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

PUPILS PAYING ATTENTION (OBSERVED) (TOTAL OF 10 SELECTED PUPILS)

Figure 1: Class observation result

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

PUPILS CAN ANSWER THE QUESTION (TOTAL OF 10 SELECTED PUPILS)

Figure 2: Questioning session result

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

JEREMY HELMY BIN JEN (840111-13-5189)

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

Figure 3: Worksheet result

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

Table 2: Class observation

(TOTAL OF 10 SELECTED PUPILS)

Table 3: Questioning session

(TOTAL OF 10 SELECTED PUPILS)

Table 4: Worksheets result

WEEKLY WORKSHEET (MARKS 10/10)

ACTION RESEARCH 2010

ACTION RESEARCH 2010