THE EFFECT OF TEACHING STRATEGIES AND PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION

The objectives of this experimental research were to find out whether: 1) students achievement in reading comprehension taught by using directed reading thinking activity (DRTA) strategy was higher than taught by using reciprocal teaching strategy. 2) Students achievement in reading comprehension with high prior knowledge was higher than that students with low prior knowledge, and 3) there was interaction between teaching strategies and prior knowledge on students achievement in reading comprehension. The population of this research was the students in grade VIII of SMP Dwi Tunggal T. Morawa in 2012/2013 school year. The total number of population of this research was 118 students. There were 3 classes. Two classes were chosen consist of 37 students of each class so 74 students were selected as sample of this research by applying multistage cluster random sampling. The research design was experimental research by using factorial design 2x2. The VIIIa class was taught by using Directed Reading Thinking Activity and VIIIc was taught by using Reciprocal Teaching Strategy. Prior knowledge test was conducted for classifying the students upon the high and low prior knowledge. Students achievement in reading comprehension was measured by using reading comprehension test. The data were analyzed by applying two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at the level of significant ∝=0.05. The results of the data analysis proved that: 1) students achievement in reading comprehension taught by Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) strategy is higher than students achievement in reading comprehension taught by Reciprocal Teaching strategy, with Fobs(4.054) > Ftable(3.97), 2) Students achievement in reading comprehension with high prior knowledge was higher than those students with low prior knowledge, with Fobs (9.172) > Ftable (3.97), and 3) there was interaction between teaching strategies and prior knowledge on students achievement in reading comprehension, with Fobserved (62.857)> Ftable (3.97). Moreover, Scheffe –test result also showed that high prior knowledge students got higher achievement if they were taught by using directed reading thinking activity strategy while low prior knowledge students got higher achievement if they were taught by using reciprocal teaching strategy.