A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of the Jigsaw Reading Technique in Improving the Reading Skills among High School Children

Abstract

Introduction: Jigsaw Reading Technique is one kind of cooperative learning strategy which allows dividing the students in a group to improve reading skills by giving tasks (like reading paragraph) to them. In Jigsaw learning method, students are assigned to a small group that composes different level of skills like a piece of Jigsaw puzzle. Aim: To determine the effectiveness of the Jigsaw Reading Technique in improving reading skills among high school children. Materials and Methods: The interventional study design was a post-test control group study with a quantitative research approach. A simple random sampling method was used to collect the data. The present study was carried out in the selected school of Tah Kelapur district. Yavatmal. The sample size was 60. Validated structured questionnaires were used. Data were collected. The software used in the analysis was SPSS 24.0. Descriptive Statistics and Frequency distribution and comparison were presented for categorical variables. Results: The findings show that assessing the reading skills in the experimental and control group was divided into five categories skimming, scanning, awareness about synonyms and antonyms, deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words from the text, infer mood and author’s attitude or tone. The experimental group was reading with a positive attitude. The mean reading score of the control group was 2.36, the experimental group was 12.43 (p-value=0.001), the calculated t-value is 40. Therefore, the jigsaw reading ability score among high school students is statistically interpreted to have been successful. There was no significant association between reading skill scores among high school students concerning the control group and experimental with any other demographic variables. Conclusion: The comparison of the high school students’ reading skill scores shows a significant difference between the control group and experimental group, that is after the completion of this study, it is revealed that assessment of jigsaw reading technique in improving reading skills among high school children is effective.