Improving Reading Comprehension Skills Through Problem Based Learning Assisted by Comic Media in Elementary Schools

Abstract

Reading comprehension is a foundational literacy skill, yet many elementary students struggle to identify main ideas, locate key information, and draw conclusions from text, a pattern observed among third-grade students at SDN 2 Patapan prior to this study. This classroom action research examined whether a Problem Based Learning model assisted by comic media could improve these students' reading comprehension. Following the Kemmis and McTaggart action research design, the study was conducted across two cycles with 25 third-grade students (13 boys, 12 girls) selected through total sampling. Data were collected using a reading comprehension test, teacher and student activity observation sheets, and documentation, then analyzed through quantitative descriptive statistics measuring classical learning completeness alongside qualitative description of classroom observations. At baseline, only 24% of students met the Minimum Completeness Criteria. This proportion rose to 40% after Cycle I, still below target, before reaching 80% after Cycle II and meeting the predetermined criterion. Reflection notes indicated that early implementation was constrained by low student confidence in presenting work and incomplete understanding of the reading material, obstacles that diminished following additional guidance and expanded comic media use in the second cycle. These findings indicate that the model is an effective, replicable strategy for strengthening young learners' reading comprehension, though the single-classroom design warrants cautious generalization and further replication.