ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF STAD IN TEACHING READING AT VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOLS

Abstract

This study explores English teachers’ perceptions of implementing Student Team Achievement Divisions (STAD) in teaching reading at Vocational High Schools (VHS). The study focuses on its benefits, challenges, and strategies. This study employed a qualitative descriptive design. The participants comprised five EFL vocational teachers selected via purposive sampling. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and classroom observation as supporting data and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that teachers perceived STAD as beneficial in increasing students’ enthusiasm, improving time efficiency, promoting peer tutoring, developing students’ self-awareness, and enhancing social interaction during reading activities. Teachers reported that STAD’s cooperative team structure supports students in discussion so that their understanding of vocabulary and key ideas of functional texts is improved. However, challenges included students’ limited background knowledge, time-consuming preparation, student passivity, technology dependence, classroom management challenges, students’ role distortion, and inadequate facilities. Teachers applied continuous monitoring, thorough preparation, maintaining teacher credibility, providing motivation and rewards, and extra classes to address these challenges. Overall, STAD was perceived positively because it supported cooperative learning while strengthening reading comprehension and social affective outcomes in VHS. This study contributes to the understanding of STAD implementation in teaching reading at VHS.