The effect of an inference skills development program uponreading comprehension success in primary school students

In this study, the goal has been to examine the effect of using an Inference Skills Development Program within the scope of the Turkish Language course upon the reading comprehension success of 2nd , 3rd , and 4th grade elementary school students. The study was conducted during the spring semester of the 2022-2023 academic year at an elementary school located in the central district of Edirne province in Türkiye. The study employed a nested mixed methods approach, which is listed among the mixed methods research designs. A purposive sampling approach, namely "criterion sampling" has been used for determining the study group. In this context, the criteria considered were the presence of at least one 2nd grade, one 3rd grade, and one 4th grade class in the selected school, and classrooms consisting of at least 30 students each. A total of 90 students participated in the study with 30 participants the 2nd grade, 30 from the 3rd grade, and 30 from the 4th grade. In the quantitative phase of the study, the Inference Skills Test, which was developed by the researcher, has been used as a data collection instrument. A pre-test-post-test single-group quasi-experimental design was employed during this phase, and the data were analyzed using a statistical analysis software (SPSS 25). In the qualitative phase, a case study approach was used. The researcher's journals, student generated documents throughout educational activities, student opinion surveys, and interviews with teachers were used as data sources throughout this phase. Descriptive analysis was carried out for analyzing student generated documents, whereas, content analysis was carried out on data obtained from student opinion surveys, teacher interviews, and the researcher's journals. As a result of the study, it was determined that an educational process enriched with techniques supporting inference skills, which altogether was based on the Inference Skills Development Program, significantly affected the reading comprehension success of students at all three grade levels. In the study, it was concluded that students used expressions related to inference skills and their active participation in the lesson increased throughout the process. In addition, based on the opinions of students and teachers, it was concluded that the Inference Skills Development Program is a program consisting of activities in which students participate willingly, that Turkish lessons carried out with activities within the scope of this program enable students to be more active than other lessons, and that the implemented program increases students' reading comprehension levels.