Educational comics for improving elementary students’ reading comprehension: a classroom action study

Abstract

Despite growing evidence that comics and other multimodal texts can support literacy learning, Indonesian research has largely emphasized media development or end-point effectiveness, leaving less evidence on how teachers iteratively refine printed comics while monitoring both classroom participation and comprehension. This study examined how a teacher-led comic intervention improved the learning process and reading comprehension of 15 fourth-grade students at a public elementary school in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A collaborative classroom action research design based on two Kemmis-McTaggart cycles was used. Data were obtained from reading-comprehension tests, classroom observations, and structured interviews. Individual score records were recalculated before analysis. Mean comprehension scores increased from 54.33 at pre-cycle to 72.67 in Cycle I and 92.00 in Cycle II, while mastery at the ≥70 criterion rose from 26.67% to 66.67% and 86.67%. Observed classroom activity increased from 71.33% in Cycle I to 88.00% in Cycle II. The study contributes process-oriented evidence that low-tech printed comics can become more instructionally productive when visual-verbal texts are paired with progressively demanding questions, peer-supported reading, and reflective cycle-by-cycle adjustment.

Keywords: educational comics; reading comprehension; classroom action research; multimodal literacy; elementary education