The Effects of Using an Academic Controversy Technique on the Critical Literary Reading Ability of Mathayomsuksa 2 Students

Abstract

This research article aimed to compare the average score of grade 8 students’ critical literary reading ability before and after learning by following an Academic Controversy technique. Population in the research comprised 260 students who were studied in Mathayomsuksa 2 or grade 8 at a school in Bangkok, Thailand. Research sample consisted of 38 students from the class 2/1 who were studied in second semester 2024. They were selected through a purposive sampling method. The instruments for the experiment were 12 lesson plans designed following the Academic Controversy technique. Each lesson plan designed for a teaching session, comprised 50 minutes. Research instrument for collecting data was a critical literary reading ability test. The test was a multiple-choice test which consisted of 30 items. The research was undertaken for 6 weeks, 2 sessions per week, totally 12 sessions. Quantitative data were examined to check mean and standard deviation. Additionally, the results were analyzed to check statistical significance by using dependent t-test. The findings showed that the average score of critical literary reading ability of grade 8 students was higher than prior to the experiment at the 0.05 level of significance.