Improving Reading Comprehension Using a Contextualized Metacognitive Strategies of 10th Grade Learners

Metacognitive reading strategy has been recognized in the literature as an effective instructional approach to address reading gaps. However, the use of such approach is not much explored in many classrooms in the Philippines. This study attempts to blend the metacognitive with contextualization procedure to enhance effectiveness. It is considered as a timely solution to address the reading comprehension issues among Filipino learners considering the dismal performance in international assessments. The present study aims to determine the effectiveness of contextualized metacognitive reading strategies (CMRS) on the reading comprehension of Grade 10 students. A total of 59 San Francisco High School students in City District 1-Quezon City participated in this quasi-experimental study. A pretest-posttest was used to measure the students’ reading comprehension performance focusing on competencies such as identifying the meaning of unfamiliar word synonyms and antonyms, identifying the meaning of unfamiliar words using context clues, comparing and contrasting using a graphic organizer, making generalizations, providing supporting details for a topic sentence/claim, noting important details, identifying the characters through characterization, identifying sensory images, getting the main idea or theme of a text, using figures of speech, identifying author’s purpose and answering constructed-response questions or formulating a statement of opinion or assertion. Data showed that the student’s reading performance during the pretest is below the average (Mean= 30.97, SD= 6.277), and the posttest result is above average rating (Mean= 47.10, SD= 12.382). The mean score in the post-test is notably higher than in the pretest as evidenced by a mean difference of 16.13. This mean gain definitely indicates for a huge improvement in the reading comprehension performance of the students when exposed to the CMRS. Moreover, the Wilcoxon signed rank test yielded a p-value of <0.001 which signifies for a statistical significance on the mean scores between the pretest and posttest. Certainly, the study does not only provide empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of CMRS in addressing reading gaps, but also opens an appropriate solution to address the reading comprehension problems that evidently exists in many classrooms in the country.