The effect of two educational models on the development of reading comprehension among first grade intermediate students

Abstract

This paper aims at identifying the effect of two teaching models on
developing reading comprehension among first intermediate school
students. For the sake of achieving this aim, the researcher adopted
an experimental design of partial adjustment which is the design of
(two first and second experimental groups) and (pre and post tests).
The sample of the study comprised (52) male first intermediate year
students who are studying in Alwathiq Secondary school, Khalis
Directorate of Education/ Diyala Province who are randomly
distributed into two experimental groups of (26) students each. The
first experimental group is taught according to Suchman model,
while the second experimental group is taught via using Thelen
model. The researcher, then, matched between students of both
groups in the variables of (students' periodic age, fathers' academic
achievement, mothers' academic achievement, pre reading
comprehension test, and language proficiency test).
Moreover, the researcher tried to adjust some intruding variables
which might influence such type of experimental designs according
to previous literature and past studies. After specifying the topics to
be taught, which included certain topics extracted from the reading
comprehension book designed for first intermediate school students
in a total number of (8) headings, the researcher has set (eight)
lesson plans for the first experimental group according to Suchman
model, as well as other (eight) lesson plans for the second
experimental group in light of Thelen model. She has also set an
objective reading comprehension test comprising of (30) multiple
choice and essay items, she verified its validity, the recognition
power in its items and their difficulty coefficient.
Furthermore, via using Chi Square in data analysis, the study led to
the following result:
- There is statistically significant difference between students in
the first experimental group who were taught reading according to
Suchman model and students in the second experimental group who
were taught reading according to Thelen model in terms of their
average scores in the pre and post reading comprehension
improvement tests.
In light of the study results, the researcher recommended the
necessity of making use of Suchman and Thelen models in teaching
reading comprehension for first intermediate school students. The,
and in continuation of the present study, the researcher suggested
performing a number of studies and researches in the field of
reading comprehension as, for instance, conducting a study that is
aiming at finding out the impact of using two teaching models in
improving reading comprehension.