THE EFFECT OF COLLABORATIVE STRATEGIC READING ON THE EIGHTH-GRADE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) on the reading comprehension of eighth-grade students at SMP Muhammadiyah 7 Palembang. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was used with 50 students from two intact classes, comprising 25 students in the experimental group and 25 in the control group. The experimental group received CSR-based instruction for eight meetings, while the control group received conventional instruction. Data were collected using a 25-item multiple-choice reading comprehension test with a reported Cronbach’s alpha of 0.935. The experimental group’s mean score increased from 40.00 to 79.84, whereas the control group increased from 53.76 to 73.04. An independent-samples t-test showed a statistically significant difference between the posttest scores, t(48) = -3.825, p < .001. The findings indicate that CSR was associated with higher reading comprehension performance in the studied context.