READING VERSUS DOING - THE RELATIVE EFFECTS OF TEXTBOOK-BASED AND INQUIRY-ORIENTED APPROACHES TO SCIENCE LEARNING IN SPECIAL-EDUCATION CLASSROOMS

Students with learning disabilities in four special education classroo ms studied two science units (magnetism and electricity, and rocks and minerals) via either an activity-based, inquiry-oriented approach or a textbook approach. The investigation was conducted over a 2-week per iod and employed a counterbalanced, within-subjects design, in which a ll students received both treatments. Students performed significantly higher on immediate and delayed unit tests when they had learned by t he inquiry-oriented approach, although vocabulary acquisition was limi ted in both conditions. Additionally, students reported overwhelming p reference for activity-based learning over textbook approaches. Implic ations for special education are discussed.