Video instruction with explanation to another person for intellectually disabled students
Abstract
Intellectually disabled (ID) students in secondary education are often taught in an individual setting where video instruction is used. Especially, when the instruction is about complex assignments, many students may forget parts of it. In this study, we tried to find out if prompting ID students to explain video instruction would help them to improve their performance. Research with regular students indicated that explaining instructional materials can be effective (Roy & Chi, 2005).
In a first experiment with 41 ID students in Dutch secondary education, we varied the complexity of assignments and compared students who first watched and then explained video instruction of assignments (n=21) with students who watched twice but were not required to explain (n=20). It turned out that only for complex assignments, explaining to another person was more effective for students' task performance than just watch video instruction.
In the second experiment with 58 ID students, we repeated the study with complex assignments. The students in the experimental group (n=29) improved more after explaining video instructions than the students who only watched videos (n=29). The experimental group also had a more complete mental representation of an assignment and could better assess how well they had performed it.
Lay Description
What is already known about this topic
- For average students, explaining instruction of a complex task to another person is an effective method to improve task accomplishment.
- Studies on the effect of ‘explanation to another person’ were conducted with academic tasks in secondary and higher education.
What this paper adds:
- In education of intellectually disabled students, the students often passively watch the instruction of practical assignments by their teacher. This paper shows that if these students explain the instruction to another person, their accomplishment in napkin folding tasks greatly improves
- When intellectually disabled students explain instruction of a folding task to another person, their mental representation of the assignment improves as well as their self‐assessment.
Implications for practice and/or policy:
- Letting intellectual disabled students explain instruction of a complex task to another person may enhance the effect of instruction.
- Further research is needed to establish if the effect of ‘explanation to another person’ also be applied to computer supported learning environments.
