The Effect of Understand-Answer Strategy Instruction on Reading Comprehension of Students with Ld

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of the Understand-Answer Strategy on the reading comprehension skills of students with learning disabilities. The research was carried out on students with a diagnosis of learning disability studying in secondary schools in Pendik, Istanbul, affiliated with the Ministry of National Education. The selected students are between the ages of 12 and 13, with two girls and one boy. The research was carried out with a single-subject design, a "Multiple probe design between subjects". The dependent variable of the study is the number of correct answers given to the reading comprehension questions in a written reading comprehension text. The independent variable of the research is the Understand-Answer Strategy. The experimental process consisted of the stages of determining the starting level, teaching the Understand-Answer Strategy, end-of-teaching evaluation, monitoring, and generalization. At the end of the study, the opinions of the students and their families were also considered. The Understand-Answer Strategy consist of activating prior knowledge, discussing the strategy, being a model, guiding practices and independent practices. At the end of the research, the opinions of students and their families were examined as social validity data. In all evaluation conditions, students were asked to read a narrative text and then answer eight reading comprehension questions. The scoring of the data was determined by the correct answers given by the students to the questions. The research findings have shown that the Understand-Answer Strategy is effective in improving the reading comprehension skills of students with learning difficulties. Furthermore, students who learned this strategy were able to provide correct answers to reading comprehension questions 1, 3, and 5 weeks after the end of the application, and it was observed that students who learned the strategy with different participants generalized their reading comprehension performance. According to the social validity findings, students and their families expressed positive views about the Understand-Answer Strategy.