A Comparative Study of Two Approaches in Teaching Reading

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two instructional approaches in the teaching of reading in the sixth grade. These approaches are (1) the diagnostic-basal reader approach, and (2) the basal reader approach. This study was conducted with ninety-seven sixth grade pupils from Winans School, one of the thirteen elementary schools in Hutchinson, Kansas. These pupils were divided into two groups, the experimental group and the control group with forty-eight and forty-nine pupils respectively. Each group received a total of sixty minutes of reading instruction and had fifteen minutes of free reading of library books each day. By using a t to test for the significance of difference between the means of pre-test scores on the Henmon-Nelson Intelligence Test (Elementary) and the Metropolitan Reading Test, it was found that the experimental and control groups were comparable at the .05 level. The experimental group and the control group were divided into three subgroups, (1) these pupils with intelligence quotients above 120, (2) those pupils with intelligence quotients between 101-120, and (3) those pupils with intelligence quotients below 100. On the reading post-test there was a significance of difference at the .01 level favoring the experimental group on word knowledge, reading comprehension, and on total reading scores. No significance of difference was evident on the post-test scores at the .05 level for the experimental and control subgroups with intelligence quotients above 120. There was a significance of difference at the .01 level on word knowledge and on total reading scores for the experimental and control subgroups having intelligence quotients between 101-120. On reading comprehension there was a significance of difference at the .025 level. The experimental subgroup with intelligence quotients below 100 was favored at the .01 level of significance on word knowledge, reading comprehension, and on total reading scores. All of the experimental subgroups and two of the control subgroups achieved above 5.7, the standardized test norm, on word knowledge, reading comprehension, and on total reading scores. The low intelligence control subgroup scored below 6.7 in all three areas of reading. The increase in the mean total reading test scores show that all three of the experimental subgroups made higher gains than any of the control subgroups.