Beyond Textbooks: Engaging Students with Comic Strips Designed in Pixton for Elementary School Students

This study investigated the effectiveness of using Pixton-designed comic strips to enhance reading comprehension skill with elementary school students. To achieve the aim of the study, a quantitative research design was utilized .The participants of the study were 30 male and female elementary school students. They were divided into two experimental groups and a control group. The control group received traditional instruction, while the experimental groups were exposed to comic strips designed in Pixton ; one was students- designed comic strips the other was teacher -designed. Pre- and post-tests were conducted to assess baseline reading comprehension and measure any improvements in comprehension skills after engaging with the comic strips. The findings showed that in the pretest no significant differences were found between the groups, indicating that their language level before conducting the treatment was similar. However, in post-test 1, groups 1 (CSS) and 2 (CST) showed significant improvements in reading skills compared to Group 3 (CG).Both Groups 1 and 2 benefited from using comic strips in their learning. With post-test 2, results reveal that only group 1 (CSS) maintained significant improvement in reading comprehension a month after instruction and the gains in Groups 2 (CST) and 3 (CG) did not persist. Comic strips made by students likely led to better long time learning as students actively participated in processing information and felt a sense of ownership over the material, which motivated them to revisit the story and solidify their understanding.