Digital Image Media To Improve Fourth-Grade Students’ Understanding Of Christian Religious Education

Abstract

This classroom action research examined the use of digital image media to improve fourth-grade students’ understanding of Christian Religious Education (CRE) at SD Negeri Tubunaus, Indonesia. The study involved 24 students (13 boys and 11 girls) and was conducted through a pre-cycle stage followed by two action cycles. Each cycle comprised planning, action, observation, and reflection. Data were collected through classroom observation, interviews, and learning-comprehension tests, then analyzed descriptively by comparing the number and percentage of students meeting the school’s Minimum Mastery Criterion. In the pre-cycle, 17 students (70.83%) achieved mastery. This increased to 20 students (83.33%) in Cycle I and 23 students (95.83%) in Cycle II. The increase from the pre-cycle to Cycle II was 25 percentage points. Observations also indicated greater participation in observing images, answering questions, discussing lesson content, expressing opinions, and explaining material in students’ own words. The class-level success criterion of 85% was reached in Cycle II. These findings suggest that relevant digital images, when integrated with guided questioning and discussion, can support students’ understanding of CRE content. However, because this was a small-scale classroom action research project without a comparison group, the findings should be interpreted as context-specific improvement rather than definitive evidence of a causal effect.