Civic Education Performance of Students with Mild Intellectual Disability: A Quasi-Experimental Research

Abstract

Students with intellectual disability can benefit from Civic Education, which will help them develop their civic responsibilities such as commitment to the norms and values of their immediate community and participation in influencing political results and improving governance. This study investigated the effectiveness of play-way and discussion methods on the civic education performance of pupils with intellectual disability. The moderating effect of gender was also examined. The study used a 3 x 2 factorial design of quasi-experimental research. Thirty (30) pupils with intellectual disability were randomly assigned to two experimental and one control group out of three intact classes. The findings indicated that pupils in the groups experimental group civic education performance improved significantly based on the treatment provided (F (1,29) = 0.773; p<0.05, partial η2 = 0.29). The mean score of participants in the discussion method group was the highest at 3.288 while the lowest score was those obtained by participants in the control group at 2.693. The mean score for participants exposed to play-way treatment was 3.230. The result shows that the discussion method is a better teaching strategy of the two treatments. Based on the findings it is recommended that teachers of pupils with intellectual disability should adopt discussion-based approach to teaching civic education.