Comparison of direct instruction presented with tablet application and without tablet application in acquisition of science subjects for students with intellectual disabilities

The purpose of this research study is to determine whether direct instruction presented with tablet and without tablet differentiate in terms of effectiveness and efficiency in teaching science subjects to students with intellectual disabilities. Four 11- and 12-year-old male students who were diagnosed with intellectual disability were included in the study. In the study, the adapted alternating treatments design which is one of the single subject research designs was used. The findings of the study showed that direct instruction with tablet application and without tablet were effective in teaching respiratory and digestive system to students with intellectual disabilities. In addition, the participants were able to generalize the subjects they acquired to different tools and individuals and continued their performance on the subjects they acquired after 10, 20 and 35 days after the completion of the instruction. When the findings dealing with the efficiency of the instruction were examined, no significant difference was observed between the three participants in terms of the number of sessions until the criteria were fulfilled and the number of trials performed until the criteria were met. Related to one of the participants, it was observed that the direct instruction application presented with tablet is more efficient. In terms of the number of errors, it was revealed that the direct instruction presented with tablet was more efficient for two of the participants than the direct instruction presented without tablet. In the other two participants, it was uncovered that direct instruction without tablet was more efficient than direct instruction with tablet. In terms of teaching time, it was found that the direct instruction presented with tablet was realized by means of less teaching time for three participants. The social validity findings of the study showed that students and teachers expressed positive opinions about the research study. Key words: Intellectual disability, direct instruction, tablet computer application, science concepts