Analytical Approach to Critical Reading and The Development of Comprehension

William Alexander
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember(ITS), Surabaya, Indonesia

Introduction
Media literacy, specifically in reading capability has been a major disrupt to encounter a
novel information. The ability to read is very important for finding a job or going to
college. Reading ability plays an important role in improving an individual’s life, ability in
school, and is important to support the development of a country(Ritaningrum, 2019).
Reading with an emotional support overrated the prominent form of reading that only
obtained by critical reading and comprehension. These led to misinformation, lack of
preferred topic and reduce the profound aspect of each sentences. Study done by PISA
(2018) showed that Indonesia’s reading literacy reached 375 out of 487 (76 percent)
average of OECD with overall range on low performance and high equity(Kementerian
Pendidikan Dan Kebudayaan » Republik Indonesia, n.d.). There are several obstacles
contributed to reading literacy and common factors faced by educational system in
Indonesia. Economic problems become the first to emerged. Economic is one of the
tipping points in education. In 2010, Indonesia devoted around 3 percent of GDP on
education(Average Learning Outcomes vs GDP per Capita, 2015, n.d.). Education and
economic worked interchangeably which education is perceived as an investment.
Ideally, the investment traded the economical aspect for qualified human resources.
Educational improvement is the next explored as a respond to PISA. One of them is to
enhance the cultural learning and persistent learning, these can be showed by the data
in which the student who learned about technical skills of reading scores 30 point higher
and student who reads as a recreational activity increases to 50 point higher.

Comprehension and Critical Reading

One of the keys in 21st century skills is the ability to read critically and consider the
comprehension. Critical readings are a sceptical notion to judge and to compare and
integrate reading in reading activity. Critical reading requires perseverance and high
order thinking which obtained in educational level. However, comprehension is an
unavoidable activity to encounter. Comprehension relies on understanding of the
material. Understanding is a complex idea to embed because understanding can be an
illusion. Research shown that rereading is less effective than retrieval practice which led
to ironical data obtained that around 83.6 percent list rereading as their strategies of
comprehension which led to qualitative research done by Herman Ebbinghaus. He
hypothesis on forgetting curves in which a memory decay exponentially through time. In
addition, duration of reading is a heavily debateable because of comprehensive
sacrifice which ranges about 500-600 Words Per Minute. Some of the study opposes
the idea of limited time inversely proportional to comprehensive. However, speed
reading dependently related to several factors, reading material, obstacle of reading,
paradigm, linguistics, and others. Critical reading is typically used in medical reports,
business statistics, but it independently related to any of the reading material. These are
prominent to explore the next step. Comprehensive must be considered regardless of
topics and genre of the text.

Obstacle
Several obstacles of reading which become a relentless task to experience are lack of
education, less concentration, regression, and indolent of reading. First obstacle related
closely to education and how education limit our understanding to read. Quantitative
research has been conducted to determine the obstacle. Lack of education strongly
corelated with socioeconomic problems in certain countries which affect the literacy
skills specifically in reading comprehension(Dolean et al., 2019). Since education and
economic are socially related, it is necessary to reconsider the amount supply resources
to education. Another obstacle involves personal variable which is a reduced focus.
Reading intentionally is required to attain focus which can be done by understanding the
argument of why(Oakley, 2014). Psychologically, distraction or multitasking at
prominent task will lose the sense of concentration and neurologically loose the neural
network that build upon focus. Another technical aspect to reading is regression which
reduce the progress of reading material and an ineffective way of developing
comprehension. Indolent of reading caused by several factors, include procrastination
also a part in which contributed the obstacles in reading. Ego depletion concept
explained the concept of action without retention(Kahneman, 2011). In addition,
obstacle of reading is become the major drawback for literacy problem.

Method
Methodological approach aims to improve the sense of critical reading by sensing the
comprehension and develop inner critic towards certain reading topics. One of the steps
that can be done is to become a sceptic reader. Willingness to import an information to
your brain and process it with an inquiry will develop your inner critics and increase the
attention and focus. Children are the fastest learner because of their sceptical behaviour
to gain understanding that in line with the fundamental topic(Ritaningrum, 2009). This
method is better conducted in pre-read section which will be answered on reading
section. Question are required to answer the problem related to the reading. Another
method relies on note taking. There is some ground-breaking research regarding an
effective note taking. Note taking improve your comprehension if conducted in the right
manner. However, taking notes is less effective than active recalling where you actively
recall a reading material. Therefore, information are retain in your hippocampus as a
long term memory(Oakley, 2014). Procrastination is a complex drawback that should be
tackled to gain a better education. Overcome procrastination are varied according to the
mindset and several factors. The idea is that procrastination reduce a habitual response
and promote distraction and rewarding task. Focus on the progress instead of product is
one of the ways to cope delaying work. In conclusion, there are several methods
analytically to improve the reading ability that focuses on comprehension and critical
reading.

In conclusion, reading is important as an improved media literacy because reading

convey details and profoundly communicate with linguistics. Reading must be acquired
with critical mind and should be personally understandable to gain better information
and avoid misinformation and disinformation. Embracing the methodological approach
to reading is acquired because reading ability are lacked to be expressed and
announced.

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