The Practice of Teaching Reading Comprehension in Secondary Schools: A Case of Debre Markos Administrative Town. May, 2019

Abstract

This study aimed to assess practices of teachers in teaching reading comprehension in secondary schools of Debre Markos administrative town. For this, descriptive survey design and both quantitative and qualitative data analyses approaches were employed. The samples were 254 students and 33 teachers selected using systematic random sampling. Questionnaire, interview, classroom observation and documents were data collection tools. Both descriptive (mean, SD, frequency and percentage) and inferential statistics (one sample-test) were used to analyze the quantitative data and thematic narration for qualitative. The one sample t-test value for pre-reading phase obtained from teachers (M=3.01), which is almost equal to expected mean t-value (t=0.36, df=32, p>0.05) and from students (M=2.21) is significantly lower than expected mean value (t=103.27, df=253, p<0.05). This indicates that the implementation of pre-reading activities was not as expected. The while reading phase mean scores obtained from teachers (M=2.73), (t=-7.93, df=32, p<0.05) and students (M= 2.27) are lower than the expected mean value (t=103.27, df=253, p<0.05) indicates that the implementation of while-reading activities was not as expected. Similarly, for post reading phase, the mean score obtained from teachers (M=2.82), (t=-3.76, df=32, p<0.05)and from students (M= 2.16) both found lower than the expected value (t=78.34, df=253, p<0.05) implies that the implementation of post-reading activities was not as expected. The one-sample test score for the application of teaching strategies obtained from teachers (M=3.67) is significantly greater than the expected mean t-value (t=13.83, df=32, p<0.05). But the mean value (M=2.50) obtained from students is significantly lower than expected mean t-value (t=91.54, df=253, p<0.05). This indicates that teachers and students react differently. Moreover, student, teachers, subject content and context related factors were found affecting teachers teaching practice significantly with some differences in between teachers and students. The qualitative data also showed that the three phases of reading comprehension were not practiced to the expected level. In addition teachers, students, the context were causal factors that hamper the practice dominantly. Thus, it is possible to recommend that trainings should be organized starting from school level to the MoE in order to improve teachers teaching capacity and to overcome the problems identified.