Effectiveness of understand and answer strategy instruction on reading comprehension of students with learning disabilities

The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of the Understand and Answer Strategy on reading comprehension skills of students with learning disabilities. The research was carried out on students with a diagnosis of learning disability studying in secondary schools in Pendik, Istanbul, affiliated to the Ministry of National Education. The selected students are between the ages of 12 and 13, with two girls and one boy. The research was carried out with a single-subject design, "Multiple probe design between subjects". The dependent variable of the study is the number of correct answers given to the reading comprehension questions in a written reading comprehension text. The independent variable of the research is the Understand and Answer Strategy. The experimental process consisted of the stages of determining the starting level, teaching the Understand and Answer Strategy, end-of-teaching evaluation, monitoring and generalization. At the end of the study, the opinions of the students and their families were also considered. Understand and Answer Strategy teaching; It consists of activating prior knowledge, discussing the strategy, being a model, guided practices and independent practices. In all assessment conditions, the student was asked to read the reading comprehension text and then answer the eight reading comprehension questions given to him. The correct answers given by the students to the questions determined the scoring of the data. The research findings showed that the Understand and Answer Strategy was effective in answering the reading comprehension questions of students with learning disabilities. In addition, participants answered the reading comprehension questions correctly 1, 3 and 5 weeks after the application ended, and that the students who learned the strategy in different participants and different environments were able to generalize. The social validity findings of the study showed that students and their families developed a positive view of the Understand and Answer Strategy.