Abstract:
The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of Applying Panel
Discussion on the students’ Acievment in reading comprehension. The study was
designed in experimental research. The population of this study was the
2016/2017 grade VIII students of SMP Muhammadiyah 48 Medan. The total
number of population of the study was 60 students which consist of 2 classes. The
sample of the research was 60 students. The sample classes were divided into two
groups, namely the experimental group that was taught by applying Panel
Discussion Technique, and the control group that was taught by applying
conventional method. The instrument for collecting data used objective test. The
data were taken by administering the pre-test and post-test to both of experimental
and control groups. The test was taken and selected from the National
Examination test items that were related to the kind of narrative text. So, the
validity and reliability of the test items were considered valid and reliable. The
data were statistically analyzed by using t-test formula at the level of significance
α (0.05) = 1.671 with the degree of freedom (df) = 60. It was found that the tobserved was higher than t-table (t-observed= 2.29> t-table = 1.671; α = 0.05). It means that Panel Discussion Technique significantly affect the students’ achievement in reading comprehension
