The Effects of Local Culture-Based SQ3R Method on Ecological Wisdom-Themed Reading Literacy Ability

Reading skills among junior high school students in Indonesia are categorized as low to medium according to PISA 2018 data. The Ministry of Education and Culture's 2022 survey shows that Indonesian students do not understand the content of the texts they read. This makes research on strategies to improve reading literacy important. This study aims to determine the difference in reading comprehension skills on the theme of ecological wisdom between students taught with the SQ3R method and the conventional (direct) method. This research is quantitative research with a quasi-experimental pretest-postest non-equivalent control group design. The population of this study were seventh grade students of SMP Karanganyar Regency Rural Area. The samples of this study were students of grade 7-D SMP Negeri 1 Karangpandan and 7-B SMP Negeri 2 Karangpandan as the experimental group and students of grade 7-F SMP Negeri 1 Karangpandan and 7-C SMP Negeri 2 Karangpadan as the control group. The sampling technique used two-stage cluster random sampling, which is group sampling in stages. The data collection technique was carried out with an instrument of reading comprehension ability on the theme of ecological wisdom developed by the researcher. Data analysis techniques include descriptive data analysis, analysis requirement test, and inferential analysis. The results showed that the ability to read comprehension on the theme of ecological wisdom between students taught by the SQ3R method was better than students taught by the direct method. The effect size test results show the amount of the method's influence is 33.6% or has a large effect. Comparison of the average scores of the initial test and the final test showed that the increase in the scores of students taught with the SQ3R method was 9.33%, while the increase of students taught with the direct method was 4.15%. The results of this study are expected to contribute to Indonesian language teaching strategies especially in the area of improving reading literacy and reading comprehension skills among students of other Rural Area Junior High Schools.