IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education (IOSR-JRME) e-ISSN: 2320–7388,p-ISSN: 2320–737X Volume 7, Issue 1 Ver. III (Jan. - Feb. 2017), PP 37-43 www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/7388-0701033743 www.iosrjournals.org 37 | Page Developing Students’ Research Proposal Design through Group Investigation Method Selviana Napitupulu 1) , David Berthony Manalu 2) 1,2 (Teacher Training Faculty of Universitas HKBP Nommensen, Indonesia) Abstract: This classroom action research was conducted to solve the students’ difficulties in designing a research proposal by applying group investigation method. The subjects were the seventh semester students of English Study Program of Teacher Training Faculty of Universitas HKBP Nommensen who took research on ELT course. There were 38 students organized into 8 groups. This research occupied 2 cycles which involved 4 steps (planning, acting, observing, and reflecting) for each cycle. The findings showed that using group investigation method has successfully developed the students’ ability in designing research proposal . The development was derived from the increasing of students’ mean score in pre-cycle (49.44), first cycle (54.44), and second cycle (66.67).The students’ difficulties (i.e. fail to identify qualitative research, decide research title and problems, quote from references, and determine technique of data collection and analysis) decreased significantly after the second cycle had been conducted. Keyword: classroom action research, group investigation method, research proposal design, students’ development. I. Introduction 1.1 Background The idea of this project arose from the institutional contextual aim to increase the number of the students to complete their study earlier than the normal time length with a better quality of thesis research reports. This purpose accorded with the promotion of the institution accreditation and reputation quality level. Accordingly, this project assessed a set of quantitative and qualitative data by designing a Classroom Action Research (CAR) to a group of students taking the Research on English Language Teaching (ELT) Course in the English Study Program of Teacher Training Faculty of Universitas HKBP Nommensen in the city of Pematangsiantar, the Province of North Sumatera, Indonesia. The project was conducted in the odd semester of the Academic Year of 2014/2015. Historically, the time length average needed by the students of the English Study Program of Teacher Training Faculty of Universitas HKBP Nommensen Pematangsiantar to complete their study is eight and a half semesters. This length can be assumed to have a relation to the application of the teaching approach in the delivery of the lessons in the Research Course with the stress on to enable the students to write a research proposal and report. This focus refers to the fact that a thesis is one of the requirements for the completion of the study of a student in the English Study Program of Teacher Training Faculty of Universitas HKBP Nommensen Pematangsiantar. Facts indicated that Group Investigation Method has a significant effecton students’ achievement in learning. Kagan and Kagan (2009: 179) say that by the active role in the task and the natural curiosity of the students, Group Investigation method makes students interactive in small groups of investigators with intrinsic motivation who are able to interpret findings from the information they gather from a variety of sources. This means that this method can be used to develop the ability of the students to write better thesis research proposals and reports that enable them to graduate less than eight semesters from the faculty. Some previous works indicate that the Group Investigation Method were effective to develop the ability of students in learning. Sharan (1980) reported that Group Investigation Classrooms was found to perform better on high-level questions and those requiring elaboration of responses or the use of problem- solving. In addition to that, Shachar & Sharan (1995) discovered that Group Investigation Method is directly suited to heterogeneous classrooms and it promoted open verbal interaction and enabled students to become resource persons for other students, highlighting the individual strengths of students from different ethnic groups. Further, Mayasari (2012) investigated the implementation of Group Investigation Method to improve students’ writing organization of analytical exposition text. Those facts show that Group Investigation method improves the ability of students in writing and it motivates students in doing works or jobs.