The Effectiveness of a Schematic Organizer Presented with Direct Instruction Method in Teaching a Science Subject to Students with Intellectual Disabilities

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of the schematic organizer presented with direct instruction in teaching the subject of "states of matter", which is one of the science subjects, to students with intellectual disabilities, whether the students can continue their learning about the subject after the end of the education, and whether they can generalize to different environments and tools. Two girls and one boy attending primary school participated in the study. The study adopted a multiple probe model with an inter-behavioral probe phase, which is one of the single-subject research models. While the dependent variable of the study was the level of the students participating in the research, i.e., saying the solid, liquid, and gas in the subject of the states of matter correctly and placing them in the diagram, the independent variable was the schematic organizers presented with the direct instruction method. The data were analyzed through visual analysis. The findings obtained in the study showed that the schematic organizers presented with the direct instruction method were effective in teaching the subject of "states of matter" to students with intellectual disabilities. In addition, the participants could generalize the subjects they learned to different environments and tools and continue their performance on the subjects they learned one and three weeks after the teaching was completed.