Effectiveness of concrete, semi- concrete, abstract teaching methods in teaching clock to students with learning disabilities

The purpose of the study is to examine the effectiveness of using the concrete representational abstract teaching method with a cumulative repetition strategy for students with learning disabilities. The study also investigated the generalization effect of teaching children how to read analogue clocks using the concrete, semi-concrete, abstract teaching and cumulative repetition strategy to different environments, different people, and different times of day. Also its effect on follow-up measurements taken on the 7th, 14th, and 21st days after the teaching; and the social validity of the participants and their families regarding teaching children how to read analogue clocks using this method. The dependent variable of the study is the participant students' ability to read analog clocks accurately. In this context, their ability to accurately read full hour, half hour, quarter past, quarter past, and minutes is assessed. A probe-trial multiple probe design with inter-participants was used in the study, a single-subject research design. The study is conducted with two 11-year-old fifth-grade students, a girl and a boy, both diagnosed with learning disabilities and residing in Istanbul. The findings indicated that using the concrete, semi-concrete, abstract teaching method with a cumulative repetition strategy was effective in acquiring time reading skills in students with learning disabilities. Additionally, the method was found to be effective in generalizing students' time-reading skills to different environments, different people, and different time periods. Follow-up data were obtained on the 7th, 14th, and 21st days after the instruction. These data demonstrated that the students were able to maintain the time-reading skills they had acquired. Social validity data collected from students and families indicated that students and families expressed positive opinions about the use of the concrete respresentational abstract teaching method's cumulative repetition strategy in reading time on analogue clocks.