Impact of Instructional Multimedia on Learning, Motivation and Participation of Students With Mentally Retardation in Mathematics

Introduction: The present study aimed at investigating the effect of instructional multimedia on learning, motivation, and participation of elementary school fourth grade students with intellectual disability in mathematics
Method: This research was carried out through a quasi-experimental method and a pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical population of this research was comprised of fourth grade male students with intellectual disability (SIDs) who were studying in the Iranian school year of 2015-2016 in Tehran exceptional elementary schools. Two exceptional schools in Tehran were selected via purposive sampling. In order to collect the data, this study used Academic Motivation Inventory (AMI) developed by Abd Khodaei (2008), Participatory Learning Questionnaire designed by Moqhimi & Ramezan (2013) and modified by the researcher and also a mathematical test developed by the researcher used for pretest-posttest. The main responsibility of teaching the control group was with the teacher of the class. In order to teach the experimental group, an instructional multimedia developed by the researcher were used in addition to the teachings of the teacher.
Results: The findings of the data analysis of the research hypotheses showed that there is a significant difference between the mean scores of learning, the motivation for academic achievement and the participation of the two groups in the post-test phase after eliminating the effect of the pre-test (P<0.001). The mean of moderated learning scores, the motivation for academic achievement and participation in the experimental group was higher than the average post-test scores, the motivation for academic achievement and participation in the control group, therefore all three hypotheses were confirmed. In general, the results of this study showed that the use of instructional multimedia on the learning, motivation and participation of mental retardation students in math is influential.