The Effectiveness of an Educational Program Based on Nelson and Narens’ Theory in Developing Reading Comprehension Skills among Fifth-Grade Female Secondary Students

Abstract

The present study aims to identify **the effectiveness of an educational program based on Nelson and Narens’ theory in developing reading comprehension skills among fifth-grade female secondary students**. The researchers adopted the procedures of the experimental method and employed a non-randomized control group design with a post-test only. The research population consisted of daytime intermediate, secondary, and basic schools for girls affiliated with the General Directorate of Education of Baghdad / Al-Karkh Third. The researchers randomly selected Ruqayyah bint Al-Hussein Secondary School for Girls as the research sample. The sample comprised (73) fifth-grade female secondary students selected randomly; Section (C) represented the experimental group with (38) students, while Section (B) represented the control group with (35) students. One of the researchers taught the experimental group using the educational program based on Nelson and Narens’ theory, whereas the control group was taught using the traditional method. The two groups were equated in the variables of linguistic ability, intelligence, and pre-reading comprehension. The researchers taught (8) reading topics from the prescribed Arabic language textbook for fifth-grade secondary students over a full academic semester (2025–2026). The experiment began on Sunday, 5/10/2025, and ended on Sunday, 21/12/2025, covering a complete academic semester, namely the first semester of the academic year (2024–2025). The experimental group was taught according to the proposed educational program, while the control group was taught according to the traditional method. The researchers prepared a reading comprehension skills test consisting of one reading passage followed by (20) multiple-choice items, (5) items for correcting misconceptions, and (5) essay questions with restricted responses, in order to measure the level of reading comprehension of the students in both research groups. By using the t-test for two independent samples, the following result was reached:  The performance of the students in the experimental group who studied reading according to the proposed educational program was superior to that of the students in the control group who studied according to the traditional method in the post-reading comprehension test.