Epekto ng Modalidad ng Pagbasa sa Komprehensyon ng mga Mag-Aaral sa Tekstong Pangkasaysayan

This study employed a quasi-experimental design grounded on Flavell’s metacognitive theory, Vygotsky’s social constructivism, and Bartlett’s schema theory. It aimed to examine the effect of individual and group reading modalities (as the independent variables) on the level of comprehension (as the dependent variable) of 15 students enrolled in GE 2: Readings in Philippine History at NEUST–Atate Campus. In the individual reading phase, Piedad-Pugay’s (2012) article on the two faces of the Cavite Mutiny (1872) was used, while in the group reading phase, the students discussed the peace agreement between the United States and Spain (Office of the Historian, 1898). Quantitative data were collected through researcher-made comprehension tests administered after each modality and enhanced via peer review, cognitive interviewing, and pilot testing based on difficulty and discrimination indices; qualitative data, on the other hand, were drawn from guided written responses and focus group discussions. The numerical data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and paired-samples t-test (p<0.05) to compare the mean comprehension scores, while thematic analysis was employed for the qualitative responses to uncover linguistic, motivational, knowledge heterogeneity, and distraction-related challenges. Findings revealed that the group modality yielded greater improvement in mean comprehension scores compared to the individual modality. Hence, the study recommends strengthening facilitator-led reading groups, utilizing scaffolding techniques, and designing high-quality instructional materials to further enrich independent comprehension of historical texts.