Teaching of Solid, Liquid and Gas Substances to Students with Intellectual Disabilities through Direct Instruction Method

The aim of this study is determine the effectiveness and usefulness of direct instruction method in teaching certain “solid, liquid and gas” substances to students in a special education classroom in secondary school. The study was carried out through the case study that is one of the qualitative research methods. The teaching method used in order to test the efficiency of the study is the direct teaching method. Four students with intellectual disabilities participated in the study. One of the students was female (14 years old) while other students were male (15, 10, 10 years old). Three students had moderate disability and one had mild disability. In this study, the data were collected through semi-structured interviews and non-structured observations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the implementation teacher. Data obtained through interviews and observations in the study was analysed using qualitative data analysis approach and content analysis was performed on the data. Semi-structured interviews with the teacher were transcribed and analyzed. At the end of the study, it was found that three students learned all of the solid, liquid and gas substances that were taught to them and achieved permanent learning while one of the students learned solid, liquid and gas substances but did not achieve permanent learning for gas substances. Thus, it was concluded that direct instruction is an effective and useful method for teaching solid, liquid and gas substances to students with intellectual disabilities.