HOW EFFECTIVE IS INQUIRY LEARNING FOR STUDENTS WITH MILD DISABILITIES?

Abstract

This investigation was intended to determine whether students with learning disabilities (LD) and mild mental retardation (MR) differed from normally achieving students with respect to inductive thinking on an inquiry learning task involving pendulum motion. Twenty normally achieving students, 18 students with LD, and 16 students with MR were provided individually with guided coaching, in a prespecified sequence of steps, intended to promote induction of the association between pendulum length and pendulum motion. After the initial guided activity, 75% of the normally achieving students and 50% of the students with LD, but none of the students with MR, provided the correct induction. Over one fourth of the students with LD, and nearly all of the students with MR, required all of the prescribed coaching levels, including direct explanation of the rule. Students with LD and MR were less likely to correctly answer transfer/application questions. Implications for teaching are provided.