Teaching Viscosity to Students with Special Needs in Vocational High Schools from Daily Products: From Literature Review on Concept, Misconception, to Teaching and Learning Process

Abstract

Students with special needs are students who have barriers in their developmental and academic aspects. They need a learning media that meets their needs. This study aimed to demonstrate the strategies in teaching using the experimental demonstration to students with special needs and to identify misconceptions during the teaching and learning process. To support our teaching strategies, an experimental demonstration (recorded by video as the learning media) was used. This study used an experimental method (single subject research) with A-B (Pre-test and Post-test) research design for students with special needs (i.e., intellectual disabilities and hearing impairment), and the results of teaching students with special needs were compared to that of teaching general vocational high school students. The experimental activity was done to get the viscosity level of eight substances (i.e., syrup, cooking oil, hand soap, liquid detergent, floor cleaner liquid, condensed milk, and mineral water). Condensed milk has the highest viscosity, and mineral water is the lowest. The result of this study showed that a combination of experimental demonstration and video is effective for improving the understanding of students with special needs, confirmed by the increasing pre and post-test results and supported by interviews. In addition, the identification data of the misconception test showed a decrease in misconceptions after carrying out the learning process using video. The use of interesting media with simple explanations made it easier for students with special needs to understand the material being taught.