Impact of “Socratic Cues” on Young Learners’ Reasoning Abilities of Graphic Novels Through Writing Comprehension

Abstract

Critical reasoning ability was regarded as an essential skill for the 21st century, and it was crucial for pupils to develop this skill beginning from a young age. This research was based on the problem where pupils could not provide critical ideas in writing and could not generate various ideas during their pre-writing stage. This study proposed to improve young learners’ reasoning ability using the Socratic questioning strategy when reading graphic novels in the English Literature classroom. Throughout this research, “Socratic cues” was introduced as a means of assisting pupils in doing their writing tasks and trigger pupils’ reasoning ability regarding a certain topic. This case study adopted a mixed-methods approach in which three instruments were used to obtain triangulated data that included a pre- and post-test, a semi- structured interview, and an observation checklist. The research participants were selected through nonprobability convenience sampling consisting of fifteen pupils from a rural primary school in Negeri Sembilan. The results indicated that using “Socratic cues” had a positive impact on improving all fifteen participants’ reasoning ability through graphic novels. Through the use of Socratic cues, it was evident that pupils felt empowered and engaged in the classroom.