EFL STUDENTS’ AND TEACHERS’ BELIEFS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF LEARNER AUTONOMY THROUGH INDEPENDENT LEARNING ACTIVITY UNIT (UKBM)

ABSTRACTHamsah, Ratnasari Handayani. 2019. EFL Students’ & Teachers’ Beliefs  In The Implementation Of Learner Autonomy Through Independent Learning Activity Unit (UKBM)  Undergraduate Thesis, English Department, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang. Advisor: (I) Prof. Dra. Hj. Utami Widiati, M.A, Ph.D, (II) Dr. Ekaning Dewanti Laksmi, M.Pd, M.A Key Words: UKBM, learner autonomy, students’ belief, teachers’ belief, dimensions of learner autonomyAiming mainly to shift the responsibility of the study from the teachers to the students themselves, the effort in nurturing autonomy skill into students’ learning routine in formal education is developing. In Indonesia, the government has created a new media to implement learner autonomy through an independent project-based learning for high school students called Unit Kegiatan Belajar Mandiri  (UKBM). Although the breakthrough was considered an important improvement to bring the education for high school students a step higher, the investigation to discover EFL students’ and teachers’ perception on the concept must be taken into consideration to find out how teachers and students perceive the concept of learner autonomy when it is implemented through English UKBM.  Using a qualitative case study research design, this stidy was conducted at SMAN I Kepanjen employing 2 classes of social majors in eleventh grade. The sampling technique was purposive sampling method since the researcher needed to make sure that the samples have had enough experience in using UKBM. Out of 7 classes in eleventh grade that implemented UKBM, 64 students and two English teachers from XI IIS 1 and XI IIS 3 were involved in this research. The data were collected through questionnaires, interview and observation known as The Triangulation technique to ensure the reliability of the data to find out teachers’ and students’ belief on learner autonomy that was implemented through UKBM. The questionnaires were written based on the four dimensions of learner autonomy adopting Borg and Busaidi’s questionnaire (2012), and was tried out as well as validated to make sure the instruments were good. The questions for the interview was also validated and revised by the expert to be able to obtain accurate data.The result of this study showed that there were some similarities and differences in students’ and teachers’ beliefs towards the implementation of learner autonomy through UKBM in SMAN I Kepanjen. The similarities found in this study were the beliefs in; 1) the understanding and awareness on the concept of learner autonomy, 2) group work or peer teaching to nurture learner autonomy, 3) teachers’ role in developing learner autonomy as facilitator, 4) not using UKBM as an out-of-class task, 5) the relation of students’ motivation and responsibility to the effectiveness of UKBM, and 6) the needs to develop an improved version of media to nurture learner autonomy more effectively. The differences that could be concluded in this study were; 1) the responsibility to decide the learning method, 2) the responsibility to monitor the learning progress, 3) opportunities to finish the UKBM alone, 4) the importance on explanation of the material before students were given tasks in UKBM, 5) the responsibility in informing learning progress, and 6) the roles of the teachers in implementing learner autonomy