Reading Comprehension Difficulties and the Relevance of Contextual Teaching and Learning in Grade V Elementary School: A Descriptive Qualitative Study

Abstract

Reading comprehension is essential for elementary students because it supports learning across subjects, yet preliminary evidence at SDN Cipinang Besar Selatan 07 Pagi showed persistent difficulty in understanding and retelling texts. This study aimed to describe Grade V students' reading-comprehension difficulties, identify classroom factors associated with those difficulties, and analyze the pedagogical relevance of Contextual Teaching and Learning as a response. The study used a descriptive qualitative design based on preliminary observation, an informal teacher interview, responses from five Grade V students, and instructional-document analysis. The data were reduced, categorized, compared across sources, and interpreted thematically. The findings indicate difficulties in identifying main ideas and important information, retelling texts in students' own words, distinguishing meaning beyond literal reading, and connecting text content with prior experience. Classroom learning was still dominated by teacher explanation and shared reading, which limited active participation. Contextual Teaching and Learning is relevant because its constructivism, inquiry, questioning, learning-community, modeling, reflection, and authentic-assessment components directly correspond to the identified needs. The study's novelty lies in qualitatively mapping specific reading-comprehension problems to the functions of the seven contextual-learning components rather than claiming causal improvement without completed intervention data.