Arab Educational Information Network

Reading comprehension skills are considered the most important components of reading, which aim at developing the students' mental abilities and boosting their thinking to the higher order thinking levels in order to understand the read text and to achieve the best intended learning outcomes. The study aimed to identify the impact of using active learning strategies in the light of the School-Based Teacher Development (SBTD) Program on developing reading comprehension skills among the second graders. The study tool and materials comprised the preparation of a teacher guide based on active learning strategies in the light of the (SBTD) Program, a list of reading comprehension skills, and the test of reading comprehension skills. The study sample consisted of (73) male and female second graders from the Beach Co-School (C), distributed into experimental group consisting of (36) male and female students and a control one consisting of (37) male and female students. The study adopted the experimental approach. The study concluded with the following results: 1) Establishing the list of reading comprehension skills intended to be developed by the second graders, which were (4) basic skills and (22) sub-skills. 2) There was a very large impact of using active learning strategies in the light of the SBTD Program on developing the overall performance of reading comprehension skills. 3) There was a very large impact of using active learning strategies in the light of the SBTD program on developing each one of the reading comprehension domains. 4) There were no differences between the male and female students of the experimental group in the reading comprehension posttest. In the light of the research results, the researcher recommends the following: 1) Using active learning strategies in teaching Arabic, especially in developing the reading comprehension skills so as to make the educational process more interesting. 2) Training teachers on using teaching strategies based on students’ active involvement and avoiding traditional teaching methods, and enhancing this through supervisory visits. (Author's abstract)