Educational comics for improving elementary students’ reading comprehension: a classroom action study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21831/jpip.v19i2.101642Keywords:
Educational comics, Reading comprehension, Classroom action research, Multimodal literacy, Elementary educationAbstract
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
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