Investigation of Secondary School Students' Critical Reading Skills and Listening/Watching Usage Strategies by Structural Equation Model

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine secondary school students' critical reading skills and listening/watching strategies in line with different variables, and to determine whether their critical reading skills have an effect on their listening/watching strategies. The sample of the research consists of 800 students, 380 girls, and 420 boys, in the fall semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. The data of the study were collected using the general survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, and a randomized research design. The research data were obtained with "Critical Reading Scale" and "Frequency of Using Listening/Watching Strategies Scale". For the assumption of normality, the skewness and kurtosis values of the data were examined. In the analyses, independent groups t-test, single groups ANOVA, Tukey tests, and path analysis (Path) in accordance with structural equation modeling (SEM) were used. The findings of the analyses showed that the variables of gender, class level, education level of the mother and father lead to a significant difference in the total scores of both scales and in the sub-factors of frequency of using listening/watching strategies. The findings of the path analysis showed that the established model was acceptable, and it was found that students' critical reading levels had a significant and positive effect on the level of listening/watching strategies they used.