Comparison of Direct Instruction and Simultaneous ...

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Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2014, 49(1), 127–144 © Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities

Comparison of Direct Instruction and Simultaneous Prompting Procedure on Teaching Concepts to Individuals with Intellectual Disability Semiha Çelik

Sezgin Vuran

Ilgi Private Special Education Centre

Anadolu University

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to compare the efficiency, effectiveness, maintenance effects and social validity of two instructional methods, Direct Instruction and Simultaneous Prompting Procedure, on teaching concepts (long, old, few and thick) using a parallel treatments design. All sessions were conducted at a private special education center in a one to one teaching arrangement. Results showed that (a) both direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures were effective on three of four participants, while direct instruction was effective on one of participants, (b) simultaneous prompting procedure was found more efficient than direct instruction procedure in terms of the number of trials and incorrect responses, (c) participants maintained concepts at the first, third and the fifth weeks following the intervention, and (d) social validity data supported results of the study. Limitations and future implications for research and practice were also discussed. In the pre-school period, children learn qualitative and verbal concepts of color, shape, dimension, quantity, and direction and they reinforce this learning with their experiences. If children with intellectual disability learn the concepts and have the abilities which are considered as preconditions for the primary education in the pre-school education program, they can effectively benefit from the program taught in the first years of primary education along with their peers without disabilities. Without being included in a systematic instruction process, children with intellectual disability are unable to learn the concepts which typically developing children naturally learn on their own in the family and social environments (Nelson, Cummings, & Boltman, 1991). Studies which reveal that individuals with intellectual disability can learn many skills and concepts through direct instruction (DI) and simultaneous prompting procedure (SP) have been conducted (Birkan, 2002; Gu¨rsel, 1993;

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sezgin Vuran, Faculty of Education, Anadolu University, Dept. of Special Education, Eskisehir 26470, TURKEY. E-mail: svuran@anadolu. edu.tr

Kırcaali-I˙ftar, Birkan, & Uysal, 1998; Varol, 1992). In providing systematic teaching experiences to children with intellectual disability, it has been observed that in addition to the intensive use of teaching approaches based on applied behavior analysis, in concept teaching, direct instruction is used extensively (Eripek, 2003; Kırcaali-I˙ftar, Birkan, & Uysal, 1998). As well as its use in concept teaching, direct instruction is used in teaching units and concepts related with reading, writing, math and science (Becker, 1976; Gu¨rsel, 1993; Kırcaali-I˙ftar et al., 1998; Rosenshine, & Stevens, 1986). Direct instruction relies on the theory of a teacher eliminating the wrong responses through teaching plans, arranging the classroom for teaching, organizing materials to be used in teaching, and planning when and how feedback will be given to students. Direct instruction envisions presenting the correct feedback without upsetting the students. The cycle (teaching, assessment, reteaching if needed, assessment) involved in all the courses conducted with direct teaching includes the presentation of the new and/or problematic topics during or at the end of the course. Therefore, direct instruction does not allow students to unlearn the skill/knowledge aimed to be taught with the firming cycle. In the firming cycle, rather than “re-learning”

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process of the acquired wrong or missing information, the “unlearning” process disappears (Kameenui & Simmons, 1990). Considering studies conducted using firming cycle, it is seen that it is mostly used to teach the courses like reading, writing, mathematics and science to children with intellectual disability and those generally at risk in middle school and high school. The studies, in limited numbers, revealed that writing programs especially designed for direct instruction is effective for students who are in regular education, in the high risk group, with learning difficulties or behavioral disorders and those who are gifted (Carnine, Silbert, & Kameenui, 2004). Kelly, Gersten, and Carnine (1990) found that students instructed with direct instruction received 10% more successful results than students instructed with the same materials but with a basic teaching method, thus revealing that direct instruction was more effective. Moore and Carnine (1989) applied direct instruction to regular high school students in the areas requiring higher cognitive skills such as fractions, percentages, rates, multiple-dimensional-partial vocabulary problems. In this study, 86% of the students receiving direct instruction reached a higher level than their peers. Varol (1992), in her study on determining the efficiency of direct instruction in the acquisition of the concepts of “red, yellow, big, circle, triangle, long, one, two and thick”, compared the efficiency of the activities in traditional methods with direct instruction by using an alternating treatments design which is one of the single subject models. For all six participants, direct instruction was found to be effective. It was cited that the concepts acquired in this study were still maintained by the student three and a half months after the study. In the instruction of numbers to children with intellectual disability, Gu¨rsel (1993) compared interactive units as an adaptation of direct instruction with traditional instruction. and found that interactive units were more effective in learning numbers. In teaching colors and shapes to children with intellectual disabilities, Kırcaali-I˙ftar et al. (1998) compared the effectiveness of natural and structured language use during direct instruction with children with intellectual disability with the alternating treatments design. The results

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revealed that five of six participants learned the concepts through both strategies. Ekergil (2000) analyzed the effectiveness of direct instruction by using natural language to teach the concepts of long, short, big and small to children with intellectual disability. The findings of the study revealed that all the three participants learned the concepts and they maintained the concepts they learned three months after the teaching was completed. Errorless teaching methods, developed from the argument that claimed that the best way for students to learn skills and concepts is derived by positive responses and exercises rather than attention to the errors made during instruction, are also used in teaching concepts and terms (Tekin, & Kırcaali-I˙ftar, 2001). Wolery, Bailey, and Sugai, (1988) indicate that students may prefer the errorless teaching method if they are unable to learn with traditional methods. Errorless learning provides an individual with the opportunity to respond to the differentiating stimuli with the presence of the differentiating stimuli using the prompt in an efficient way (Alberto & Troutman, 2003). Simultaneous prompting procedure, an errorless teaching method presenting response prompts, has been started to be used in the early 1990’s (Schuster, Griffen, & Wolery, 1992). In the simultaneous prompting procedure, in order to provide learning with minimum error, in all trials, a controlling prompt is given immediately after the target stimulus. Whether stimulus transfer is achieved or not is tested in probe sessions held before instruction sessions (Maciag, Schuster, Collins, & Cooper, 2000). Morse and Schuster (2004) examined eighteen published studies which were conducted using simultaneous prompting. The results of the review revealed that participants from different disability groups, different age groups and levels, and with simultaneous prompting procedure, both discrete and chained skills were instructed and the procedure was effective with skills such as expressive language skills (Gibson, & Schuster, 1992), recognizing the symbols on playing cards (Wolery, Holcombe, Werts, & Cipoloni, 1993), object names (MacFarland-Smith, Schuster, & Stevens, 1993), recognizing signs in public areas (Singleton, Schuster, & Ault, 1995), recognizing communication symbols

Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities-March 2014


TABLE 1 Demographic Information for the Participants Name

Gender

Age

Disability

Aycan

F

5;2

Ersin Berk Oguz

M M M

7;4 7;6 6;6

*Moderate Mental Retardation *Hearing impaired *Moderate Mental Retardation *Down Syndrome *Moderate Mental Retardation *Orthopedic Problems

Duration of Education 6 months 2 years 4 months 4 years 4 months 5 years

* Terms were transferred from official documents.

and adding (Fickel, Schuster, & Collins, 1998), recognizing words (Griffen, Schuster, & Morse, 1998), saying animal names (Tekin & Kırcaali-I˙ftar, 2002), recognizing occupational uniforms (Dog˘an & Tekin-I˙ftar, 2002), recognizing colors (Korkmaz & Vuran, 2007; Birkan, 2002). Direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures differ in several ways. Although both of the methods aim at learning with minimum error, simultaneous prompt procedures focuses on teaching positive examples (Wolery et al., 1992), while direct instruction focuses on both positive and negative examples (Watkins & Slocum, 2003). There have been several studies focusing on effectiveness of direct instruction on teaching concepts learned during the pre-school period and found effective in these studies. There is no study in the literature comparing efficiency of direct instruction with other instructional methods. However, there have been studies comparing efficiencies of different instructional methods teaching various skills. For instance, Tekin and Kırcaali I˙ftar (2002) and Head, Collins, Shuster, and Ault (2011) compared efficiency of smiltaneous teaching and constant time delay procedures. Tekin and Kırcaali I˙ftar (2002) in their study compared efficiency of these two methods on teaching receptively identifying animals. Results of efficiency data showed that the differences between two procedures were minimal. Simultaneous prompting was more efficient than constant time delay in terms of the number of training errors and training time through criterion, Head et al., also found that simultaneous prompting procedure was slightly more efficient in terms of errors during instruc-

tional and maintenance phases. In addition, when interviewed about their preferences, both the instructor and participants preferred the simultaneous prompting procedure. In both studies response prompts were compared and there is no study so far compared efficiency of direct instruction and smiltaneous teaching method, one of response prompts procedure. Efficiency studies help compare different methods and provide insight to practice regarding which method will save time and energy. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the comparison of direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures regarding effectiveness, efficiency, maintenance effects and social validity on teaching concepts. Method Participants Four participants with moderate intellectual disability participated in this study. All participants attended a private education center. Demographic information is in Table 1. In order to participate in the study, the participants’ parents were informed about the aim of the study, working hours, the researcher who would conduct the study, use of the visual and audio data, and the results to be gained. A written consent form was obtained from parents. In the study, pseudonyms were used for the participants. In addition to the prerequisite that the participants had been diagnosed as being intellectually disabled, they needed to be able to respond correctly to verbal direction, such as “look, give, point”, and to pay attention to visual, audio and tac-


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tile stimulus at least for five minutes, choose reinforcement. Furthermore the participants should not have behavioral problems such as temper tantrums and aggressiveness, which could affect the research. They also must not have received systematic instruction with direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures. Participants consisted of children who were diagnosed medically and were receiving sessions at a private education center individually or in groups was confirmed by the medical committee. Whether participants met the prerequisites was determined according to results of interviews with their teachers and parents and observations made by the first author. The abilities of participants; following verbal instructions, paying attention for five minutes and choosing reinforcement, were evaluated via five ten minute observations. Teachers and parents of the participants stated that the participants did not have problem behaviors and the teachers confirmed that during their education they were not involved in concept teaching with direct instruction or simultaneous prompting procedure. At the interviews the teachers and parents of the participants were asked about their preferences in terms of the concepts which were to be taught. The parents and teachers preferred the pair concepts of few-a lot, longshort, old-new, and thick-thin, which were included in the school curriculum, to be primarily taught. Target concepts taught in this study are those included in the curriculum of preschool education programs. These concepts are considered as a prerequisite for academic skills.

Research Design In this study, in which the effectiveness and efficiency of direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures for basic concepts to participants were compared, parallel treatments design, one of single-subject research, was used. Parallel treatments design enables the comparison of the effectiveness and efficiency of two or more dependent variables that are independent and have equal response difficulty (Wolery et al., 1988).

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TABLE 2 Distribution of the Dependent Variables Simultaneous Direct Instruction Prompting Participants Dependent Variables Dependent Variables Aycan Ersin Berk Oguz

Few-Old Few-Old Long-Thick Long-Thick

Long-Thick Long-Thick Few-Old Few-Old

Dependent Variables The dependent variables in this study are concepts of “few, long, old, and thick”. In the study, as it was thought that the concept pairs preferred by the teachers and parents would lower the internal validity, one of the concept pairs was chosen as the dependent variable. It was assumed that the chosen concepts were at equal response difficulty. The distribution of the dependent variables to be taught, and the teaching of concepts to which subject with which strategy was decided randomly. The distribution of the dependent variables is presented in Table 2. Independent Variables The independent variables of the study were direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures. The teacher set the environment in direct instruction, the independent variable in this study. The positive and negative samples of the concepts were taught to students and immediately after both the positive and negative samples were tested. (For example, after teaching “This is long. This is not long.”, “Which one is long?” and “Which one is not long?” was asked.) Simultaneous prompting procedure, which is the other independent variable of the study, requires presenting the controlling prompt immediately after the target stimulus (“Which one is long?”, “This is long.”). The cycle of the independent variables was organized in a way that could not be guessed by the participants. Using the independent variables three times consecutively was not allowed. Two independent variables were applied within the same day with a one hour interval.


T2


Setting In this study, probe and intervention sessions were conducted in one to one training. In the room, there was a table at which the teacher and the subject could sit face to face, two chairs and a fixed video camera.

sisted of the participants’ pointing to the unwanted material in two seconds, pointing to two materials at the same time, stowing the materials, hiding them, or changing their places and giving no response. Experimental Procedure

Materials For the participants, material sets to teach concepts with direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures were prepared. In order to prepare these materials, each target concept was analyzed in three steps. For each step of the concept, a ten-material set with one positive and one negative sample were prepared. The Concept teaching set included a total of 30 material sets. The steps and a sample of the material sets for “long” are presented below. 1. Considering materials in the same kind and style, showing the long object. Two cm wide twenty cm long red ribbon/ Two cm wide ten cm long red ribbon 2. Considering materials in the same kind but different styles, showing the long object. Two cm wide twenty cm long stripped plastic bar/Two cm wide ten cm long green plastic bar 3. Considering two different kinds and styles of materials, showing the long object. Thirty cm long wooden ruler/ ten cm long colorful candle After each intervention session, object reinforcers were used in order to reinforce the participation of the participants. The object reinforcers were chosen by defining the tools and toys which the subject was interested in for longer periods and liked. Definitions of the Correct and Incorrect Responses The probable correct and incorrect responses of the participants were defined. Correct responses consisted of the participants’ pointing to the correct material with her/his finger in two seconds, picking it from the table and giving it to the teacher or pushing it towards the teacher as an answer to the teacher’s skill instructions asked to them such as “Which one is long? Point to it”. Incorrect responses con-

Probe Sessions. Full probe sessions were planned with the aim of collecting the data from the 1st (baseline), 2nd and 3rd and daily probe sessions before the intervention sessions. Full probe sessions. Full probe sessions were those in which all dependent variable levels were assessed together. In this study, data on the levels of the participants related to the concepts of “few, long, old and thick” was collected simultaneously. In a day only one full probe session was done. There were fifteen-minute breaks after completing a probe for a concept. During these breaks, the participants were allowed to go to the playroom. For this study, in total three full probe phases were planned for each participant. At full probe sessions, for each step of the concept, three out of ten pre-arranged material sets were determined randomly. As a concept is divided into three steps, the probe was held with a total of nine tool sets. At all probe sessions, each target stimulus (e.g. which is long?) was asked once. Therefore, a total of 36 trials, nine trials for each concept at a full probe session, were included. At full probe sessions, the teacher and the participant talked interactively. The teacher gave a verbal instruction to the participant such as “. . . I am going to ask you a question now. Point out for me the answer to the questions.” At full probe sessions, the instructor asked the participants the decided target stimulus and waited for two seconds for the participants to answer the question. At full probe sessions, the correct responses were not reinforced nor were incorrect ones corrected. Between the probe trials, the instructor waited for two seconds at probe session. Daily probe sessions. Except for the first intervention session, before the other intervention sessions, data on the dependent variable was collected at the daily probe sessions. The data collected at the daily probe sessions constitutes the intervention phase data. At the


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Figure 1. Flow chart of the first part of concept teaching with direct instruction.

daily probe sessions, only the concept of which teaching was continuing was probed. Material sets used at the daily probe sessions and the organization of the session were the same with full probe sessions. Intervention At the first intervention phase, primarily “few and long” were started to be taught at the first step. In order to make a decision to make the transition from one step to another, the intervention sessions were in two parts. In the first part, an intervention was held, with five material sets determined for the step; after a fiveminute-break in the second part, the step was tested with the other five material sets. In the test trials, three consecutive sessions aimed at

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a 4/5 criterion. When the criterion was met, the intervention of the second step began. In all three steps, the intervention continued until the criterion was met. In the second intervention phase, “old and thick” concepts were taught. In the first part of the intervention sessions, the flow related to the teaching of the concepts with direct instruction is presented in Figure 1, and the first and second part of intervention sessions with simultaneous prompting procedures is presented in Figure 2. In the intervention sessions, when the subject gave an incorrect answer to the material set for the first trial, the same set was used one more time. If the subject gave correct responses to all sets, a total five trials were carried out. After the first part of the intervention


F1

F2


Figure 2. Flow chart of the first part of concept teaching with simultaneous prompting procedure.

with five material sets was completed, it was tested with the other five material sets. At the test trials, intervention considering the material sets to which participants responded incorrectly was taught. In the interventions and test trials, all the correct responses were reinforced verbally. By ignoring the incorrect responses, one more trial was made regarding each material set to which the subject responded incorrectly. At the second trial, all the correct responses were reinforced verbally; the incorrect responses

were ignored and the trials were continued with the other material set. The test trials were carried out in order to determine the step transitions in the intervention, with a minimum 4/5 criterion in the three consecutive sessions. And if the 8/9 criterion was met at the daily probe sessions for three consecutive sessions. The intervention sessions about the concepts being worked on were stopped. At the daily probe sessions, the 8/9 criterion was met in three consecutive sessions; however, in test trials within the in-


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tervention if the 4/5 criterion was not met at three consecutive sessions in all steps, intervention was continued. Follow up Sessions Follow up sessions were held at the first, third and fifth weeks after the last probe session. At the follow up session, the data was collected as in the full probe sessions.

pant responses, (d) waiting two seconds between trials. At the full probe and daily probe sessions the treatment integrity mean was 96.2% (range 94.2: 97.6); at the intervention sessions conducted with direct instruction the treatment integrity was 96.25% (range 92.8; 99.3); in the concept teaching conducted with simultaneous prompting procedures the treatment integrity mean was 97.7% (range 96.2: 99.3); in follow up sessions the treatment integrity mean was 100%.

Treatment Integrity In this study, with the purpose of determining whether direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures in the teaching of “few, long, thick and old” to children with intellectual disabilities were conducted as planned or not, for the 30% of the probe, from the intervention and follow up sessions data on treatment integrity was collected. In order to determine treatment integrity, video recordings were watched by another observer who has been teaching children with intellectual disability for eight years and has background information about direct instruction and errorless teaching. The observer was informed about the objectives of the study and attended a training workshop was held as the observer had not previously collected data for treatment integrity. For the observer training, until the data on integrity between observers conveyed 80 –95% of agreement three times repeatedly, the data was observed and recorded independently by the researcher and observer. With the aim of determining the treatment integrity of the intervention sessions, which were conducted with direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures, both intervention strategies steps followed in the teaching were considered. In the simultaneous prompting procedure sessions and direct instruction sessions, treatment integrity data was collected for the following behaviors: (a) control of the materials used in the intervention, (b) paying attention, (c) presenting positive and negative examples/presenting a stimulus to cue student to respond, (d) checking for understanding for positive or negative examples/presenting controlling prompt immediately, (e) waiting two seconds for student response, (f) responding correctly to partici-

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Observer Agreement Data on observer agreement was collected for 30% of the observer sessions including the phases of probe, intervention and follow up arranged for each concept. Watched the video recordings, and noted the data on the forms prepared for each session. Observer agreement was calculated with the following formula: [(agreement)/(agreement ⫹ disagreement)] ⫻ 100. At the intervention sessions conducted for the teaching of the four dependent variables to four participants the observer agreement mean was 95.8% (range 91%: 100%); in the probe sessions the observer agreement mean was 94.8% (range 91%: 98%); in the follow up session it was 100%. Social Validity The effectiveness and efficiency of using simultaneous prompting procedure and direct instruction in basic concept teaching to children with intellectual disabilities, the social validity was analyzed by asking the opinions of the participants’ mothers. In order to determine whether the learned concepts were maintained, eleven months after the study was completed one full probe session was arranged with each of the subjects who had participated in this study. After all the phases of the study were completed, the mothers watched the recordings of an intervention session designed to use both of the strategies and were also shown the photographed list of materials used in the intervention. A secretary from the school gave a questionnaire with eight directed and eight open-ended questions in a closed envelope to the mothers. The mothers filled in this ques-



tionnaire and handed it back to the school secretary. Results Findings related to the data on effectiveness, efficiency and social validity in teaching “few, long, thick and old” to children with intellectual disabilities using direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures are presented in the following section.

Results Regarding Effectiveness

F3-6

Data from the participants, Aycan, Ersin, Berk and Oguz (receiving the teaching of basic concepts using direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures) are shown in Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6. When the graphs are examined, with the concepts of “few, long, thick and old”, Aycan, Ersin and Berk’s baseline data shows that they were unable to perform to sufficient level to meet the criterion. After having learned “few and long” in the first treatment phase, the same participants were able to meet the criterion regarding the concepts of “few and long” in the second full probe phase. The data displayed similarities with the baseline concerning “old and thick”. In the second intervention phase, after “old and thick” were taught, the data collected at the third full probe phase revealed that the participants were able to meet the criterion. For these three participants’ their learning of “few, long, old and thick”, direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures were effective. For Oguz, the baseline data collected for “few, long, old and thick” revealed that he was unable to perform at the target level to meet the criterion for these concepts. In the first intervention phase between “few and long”, the criterion was met and learning was fulfilled for “long” presented with direct instruction. Oguz was unable to meet the criterion for “few” which was presented with the simultaneous prompting procedure. As Oguz learned “long”, presented with direct instruction, at criterion meeting level, both of the treatments were ended. In the second intervention phase designed for the treatments of “old and thick”, even though Oguz learned

“long” taught with direct instruction, he failed to learn “old” taught with simultaneous prompting procedures at the criterion meeting level. Thus, direct instruction was effective for Oguz to learn “long and thick”. However, simultaneous prompting procedures were not effective for “few and old” to be learned. In the study, each concept was taught in three steps. For the concepts taught during the treatment period, in order to transfer from one step of a concept to another, the participant was expected to give correct responses in the ratio of 4/5 in three consecutive sessions during the test trials in the intervention session. An example of the transitions between these steps for the first participant is given in Table 3.

T3

Results Regarding Efficiency In this study, the efficiency of simultaneous prompting procedures and direct teaching was compared in order to determine which procedure was more efficient; data was collected on (a) the number of trials until the criterion was met, (b) the number of the incorrect responses until the criterion was met, (c) total teaching duration until the criterion was met. The data for four participants is shown in Table 4. As both direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures were effective for the participants; Aycan, Ersin and Berk, an efficiency comparison can be made with these participants. However, it was revealed that for Oguz only direct instruction was effective; simultaneous prompting procedure was not effective. Since this study is a comparative research, it is not meaningful to compare a strategy which was not found effective in terms of efficiency. For this reason, for Oguz, only the data gathered from the sessions which used direct teaching was included in the efficiency data. In the interventions using simultaneous prompting procedures compared to the interventions using direct instruction for three participants the number of trials was an average of 30% less (range 10%– 40%), the session durations were an average of 50% less, the number of the incorrect responses was an average of 60% (range 50%– 80%) less. In conclusion, it is possible to state that teaching


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Figure 3. Aycan’s learning concepts at probe, intervention and follow up sessions.

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Figure 4. Ersin’s learning concepts at probe, intervention and follow up sessions.


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Figure 5. Berk’s learning concepts at probe, intervention and follow up sessions.

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Figure 6. Oguz’s learning concepts at probe, intervention and follow up sessions.


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TABLE 3 Step Transitions Related to Aycan’s Learning concepts Step Intervention 1

Intervention 2

DI FEW Sessions Number of correct responses in test trial part of the intervention (4/5) Number of correct responses in daily probes (8/9) SP LONG Sessions Number of correct responses in test trial part of the intervention (4/5) Number of correct responses in daily probes (8/9) DI OLD Sessions Number of correct responses in test trial part of the intervention (4/5) Number of correct responses in daily probes (8/9) SP THICK Sessions Number of correct responses in test trial part of the intervention (4/5) Number of correct response in daily probes (8/9)

I 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

0

2

2

3

4

3

4

4

5

4

4

5

4

4

5

1 1

3 2

3 3

2 4

5 5

4 6

5 7

3 8

4 9

7 10

4 11

7 12

9 13

9 14

9 15

1

3

5

3

5

4

5

4

5

4

3

5

4

5

5

5 1

3 2

7 3

5 4

9 5

7 6

9 7

8 8

5 9

8 10

9 11

6

8

9

8

1

2

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

3 1

6 2

9 3

9 4

8 5

8 6

7 7

8 8

9 9

8 10

9 11

4

2

5

4

5

4

5

5

5

5

5

8

4

9

9

9

9

9

9

8

9

9

Results Regarding Maintenance Effects When the concepts were re-assessed with a full probe session after eleven months, Aycan and Ersin gave 100% correct responses to the four taught concepts. For Berk it was determined that “few and long” were maintained at a 100% level; however, “old and thick” were maintained at a 90% level. For Oguz it was found that “long” was maintained at 90% and “thick” at 100%.

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concepts with simultaneous prompting procedures is more efficient compared to direct instruction.

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Results Regarding Social Validity All the participants’ mothers answered the social validity questionnaire. They stated that it was important for their children to use these concepts correctly at school and in their daily lives. Their children used the concepts they learned correctly while they were playing games at home. They even created a game similar to this study in order to teach these concepts to the children around them. During the study the number of the words used by the children increased and they learned how to use question forms (Which is the . . . . . . ?). The children also worked at their desks properly and understood the instructions better.



TABLE 4 Data on the Efficiency of Teaching Concepts With Direct Instruction and Simultaneous Prompting Procedures DI

SP IR

AYCAN Total ERSI˙N Total BERK Total OGUZ

TC

SNo

TNo

P exp.

N exp.

Duration (min.)

Few Old

15 11 26 16 11 27 19 11 30 16 16 32

249 136 385 242 162 404 248 162 410 268 104 372

100 28 128 102 18 120 66 32 98 108 105 213

233 41 274 134 65 199 129 44 173 88 73 161

92:00:00 54:46:00 146:46:00 101:46:00 64:00:00 165:46:00 93:15:00 56:45:00 150:00:00 108:33:00 93:32:00 202:02:00

Few Old Long Thick Long Thick

Total

* For this concept teaching was DI: Direct instruction SP: Simultaneous prompting P exp: Positive example

TC

SNo

TNo

IR

Duration (min.)

Long Thick

15 11 26 16 11 27 19 11 30 16 16 32

160 117 277 193 124 317 268 114 382 222 228 450

21 8 29 57 16 73 44 14 58 102 98 200

62:00:00 29:14:00 91:14:00 43:29:00 25:39:00 69:08:00 58:14:00 29:14:00 87:28:00 52:03:00 44:46:00 96:49:00

Long Thick Few Old Few* Old*

terminated when the criterion was not met. SNo: Session number TC: Target concept TNo: Trial number IR: Incorrect response number N exp: Negative example

Three mothers said that their children (Aycan, Berk, Ersin) were able to indicate “old, thick, few and long” among the different objects around them without making a mistake. The mothers of Ersin and Aycan said that after observing the sessions they concluded that simultaneous prompting procedure was better; they thought that in the sessions with direct instruction too many words and overlapping questions were asked, and that this made their children’s learning difficult since their attention span was short. The mothers of Berk and Oguz stated that the direct instruction sessions were better for their children; with this method their children learned to compare and did not forget. All the mothers expressed that they would be glad to participate in another similar study. Discussion In this study, in which the effectiveness, efficiency, maintenance effects and social validity of direct instruction and simultaneous prompting procedures in concept teaching were examined, the results revealed that in learning “few, long, old and thick”, direct instruction was effec-

tive for four participants, and simultaneous prompting procedures were effective for three participants: Moreover, the learned concepts were maintained by all the children. The effectiveness results are consistent with previous studies on the effectiveness of direct instruction in teaching academic skills (Batu, 2006; Carnine et al., 2004; Ekergil, 2000; Kelly et al., 1990; Gu¨rsel, 1993; Kırcaali-I˙ftar et al., 1998; Meyer, 1984; Moore & Carnine, 1989; Varol, 1992). With the simultaneous prompting procedure, the results of this study are also consistent with the studies on teaching colors (Birkan, 2002; Korkmaz & Vuran, 2007), animal names (Tekin & Kırcaali-I˙ftar, 2002), job names (Dog˘an & Tekin-I˙ftar, 2002), word reading skills (Gibson & Schuster 1992), word recognition skills (Griffen et al., 1998), communication symbols, adding, the names of cities, states and countries (Fickel et al., 1998), names of objects (MacFarland-Smith et al., 1993), reading signs (Singleton et al., 1995), symbols on playing cards (Wolery et al., 1993). For the fourth participant (Oguz) to learn the concepts, direct instruction, in which both positive and negative samples of the concept


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were emphasized, became more effective. The subject’s mother also found direct instruction more positive for her child as it gave an opportunity to compare. For Oguz it is thought that learning by comparing is an important strategy. After the study was finished, in fifteen sessions with Oguz “old and few” were taught by using direct instruction. Oguz gave correct responses meeting 8/9 criterion for three following days. In order to comment on this data, Oguz’s teaching history was re-examined. Oguz had received education from different teachers over five years. Although their current teachers say that they do not teach concepts with direct instruction, and there is no specific records in his file, one of his previous teachers might have used this strategy systematically. In Special Education Departments, direct instruction is taught to teacher candidates in a detailed way and Oguz’s aptitude in this strategy might result from this. This finding points out the necessity of choosing the strategies which accelerate the student’s learning and maintain the information by considering individual differences. Results confirmed that during the second intervention phase, in which “old and thick” were taught, the number of the sessions, duration of the sessions and number of the trials were fewer when compared to the first intervention phase, in which “few and long” were taught. After the participants had learned through systematic studying, they were able to learn in a shorter period with fewer errors. For all the concepts to be learned, in the first intervention phase there were more sessions, in the second intervention phase fewer sessions were held. This confirms that the first intervention phase is important; in the first phase after teaching, concentrating on the relevance quality of the concept to the student, it is necessary to vary samples. Participants were required to meet the 4/5 criterion in order to pass from one step of the concept to another; moreover, in addition with meeting the criterion for all the steps, they were required to meet the 8/9 criterion for three following sessions in daily probe sessions. However, when results of the study were examined, for some participants, the criterion was met earlier in the daily probe sessions, but there were some occasions when learning was not yet achieved at all steps. In the steps, as

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teaching was continued until the criterion was met, the participants had more opportunities to try again. Although the criterion was met in the daily probe sessions, continuing teaching in order to meet the criterion at the steps led the permanency of learning. For three out of four participants, teaching with simultaneous prompting procedures was found to be more efficient. Presenting a controlling prompt without giving the opportunity for an incorrect response causes finding simultaneous prompting procedures efficient in terms of the number of incorrect responses. Finding simultaneous prompting procedures more efficient considering the session durations and the number of trials might be caused by including an oral presentation to the negative sample and evaluations on the negative sample. Efficiency results of the current study were parallel with the results of other studies although these studies were not compared simultaneous prompting with direct instruction. Instead, in these studies (Head, Collins, Shuster, & Ault, 2011; Tekin & Kırcaali I˙ftar, 2002), efficiency of simultaneous teaching and constant time delay procedures were compared. Results showed that simultaneous prompting was more efficient than constant time delay in terms of the number of training errors and training time through criterion even though the differences between two procedures were minimal (Tekin & Kırcaali I˙ftar, 2002). In the other study (Head et al., 2011), practitioners preferred simultaneous prompting procedure regarding social validity and simultaneous prompting procedure was slightly more efficient in terms of errors during instructional and maintenance phases. Both the mothers’ subjective points of view and participants’ maintaining the concepts they learned at the level of approximately 97 % eleven months after the probe sessions strengthens its social validity. Limitations and Future Directions This study had several limitations. First, generalization of concepts was not studied. Second, the target behavior of this study was the participants’ showing the target concepts and in the study any verbal behavior was not targeted.



The limitations provide areas for future research to explore, and ensure the debate about the effects and efficiency of simultaneous prompting and direct instruction will continue. The effects and efficiency of simultaneous prompting and direct instruction on children with different types of disability can be compared. A similar study should be designed in pre-school program with small group of children with intellectual disability. The effects of generalization should be also examined with simultaneous prompting and direct instruction. Regarding implications for practice, teachers or educators while teaching concepts should use simultaneous prompting as results of this study showed that simultaneous prompting is more efficient. By using simultaneous prompting to teach concepts, teachers will teach in less session durations and have less the number of trials. References Alberto, A. A., & Troutman, A. C. (2003). Applied behavior analysis for teachers. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Batu, S. (2006). Teaching vegetable names to children with Down Syndrome: A small group study. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research. 6, 53– 65. Becker, W. (1976). Evaluation of instruction. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill/SRA. Birkan, B. (2002). Gelis¸imsel yetersizlig˘i olan çocuklara renk o¨g˘retiminde es¸zamanlı ipucuyla ¨ niversitesi, Sosyal Bilo¨g˘retimin etkililig˘i. Anadolu U imler Dergisi, 2, 169 –186. Carnine, D. (1990). New Research on the brain: Implications for instruction. Phi Delta Kappan 71, 372–377. Carnine, D. W., Silbert, J., & Kameenui, E. J. (2004). Direct instruction reading. (4th Edition), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Dog˘an, O. S. & Tekin-I˙ftar, G. (2002). The effects of simultaneous prompting on teaching receptively identifying occupations from picture cards. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 23, 237–252. Ekergil, I˙. (2000). Zihin engelli çocuklara zıtlık kavramlarını o¨g˘retmede dog˘al dille uygulanan dog˘rudan o¨g˘retim yo¨nteminin etkililig˘i. Yayımlanmamıs¸ yu¨ksek lisans tezi, Eskis¸ehir: An¨ niversitesi Eg˘itim Bilimleri Enstitu¨su¨. adolu U ¨ g˘renme. Erden, M., & Akman, Y. (2003). Gelis¸im ve O (11th Edition). Ankara: Arkadas¸ Yayınları. ¨ zel gereksinimli çocuklar ve Eripek, S. (2003). O eg˘itimi. A. Ataman (Ed.), Özel Gereksinimli ¨ zel Eg˘itime Giris¸ (ss.153–173). Ankara: Çocuklar ve O Gu¨ndu¨z Eg˘itim ve Yayıncılık.

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Received: 14 June 2012 Initial Acceptance: 25 August 2012 Final Acceptance: 15 January 2013
