New Research Shows Project-Based Mentoring Boosts Science Confidence in Special Education
Maryani, I., Wahidah, W., & Shaafi, N. F. (2026). Project-based individual mentoring for scientific literacy in children with intellectual disabilities: A single-subject research (SSR) study. International Journal of Education and Learning, 8(1), 41–51. https://doi.org/10.31763/ijele.v8i1.1822
Introduction
Children with intellectual disabilities often struggle to grasp abstract concepts, a barrier that shows up particularly in science education. Maryani and colleagues (2026) conducted their study within Indonesia’s legal commitment to inclusive education: laws from 2003 and 2009 guarantee children with disabilities an education suited to their needs within general classrooms. Yet the researchers note a persistent gap between policy and practice. Ministry data from December 2022 show only 12.26% of children with disabilities in Indonesia receive formal education, a shortfall attributed partly to insufficiently trained teachers who lack the skills or confidence to adapt instruction for students with special needs.
Scientific literacy is especially vulnerable to this gap, since it demands exactly the kind of abstract reasoning intellectual disability makes difficult. Prior work had pointed to individualized support as one promising avenue, allowing an instructor to tailor strategies to a specific child’s capabilities. Building on this, the researchers combined two approaches rarely tested together for this population: individual mentoring and project-based learning, applied to the concept of photosynthesis. Their questions were direct: how can these approaches be integrated to build scientific literacy in a child with intellectual disability, and how effective is that combination in practice?
Methods
The study used a single-subject research design with one fourth-grade student with mild intellectual disability (IQ 50–70) at an inclusive public school in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Using an A-B-A structure, researchers measured the child’s scientific literacy across three phases: an initial baseline (5 sessions), an intervention phase (10 sessions) centered on planting and observing green beans to teach photosynthesis, and a second baseline (5 sessions) to confirm the change held. A researcher worked one-on-one with the child throughout, guiding observation, recording, and reflection.
Results
The child’s scientific literacy scores rose sharply once the intervention began and stayed elevated afterward, the pattern researchers look for as evidence of a real effect. During the first baseline, scores were completely flat across five sessions at exactly 35 points. Once the intervention began, scores climbed to a range of 70 to 95 across ten sessions, with some session-to-session variability as the child worked through the project’s stages. When the intervention ended and the second baseline began, scores did not collapse back to the original level, instead stabilizing at 60 to 65 points, up 30 points from the start, with high consistency across those five sessions. Scores jumped 25 points between the first baseline and intervention, with zero percent overlap between phases, evidence the researchers interpret as showing the intervention itself drove the improvement. Scores dropped somewhat between intervention and the second baseline, but remained well above the starting point.
Discussion
The researchers frame their results through Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, the idea that learners reach higher understanding with guided support from a more capable adult than they could reach alone. The bean project gave the child a task he could not have completed independently but could complete with structured, one-on-one scaffolding. The researchers link their project stages, defining a question, planning, scheduling, monitoring, assessing, and reflecting, to specific scientific literacy components: basic understanding, real-world application, skill-building, problem-solving, confidence, and enthusiasm. The authors note their findings align with other Indonesian special education research: one study found individualized support improved reading literacy in students with intellectual disabilities, another found project-based science instruction with individual support improved critical thinking in similar populations, suggesting this approach may generalize across literacy domains.
Implications for Mentoring Programs
This single-case study, while requiring replication before broad conclusions, suggests programs serving children with intellectual disabilities should consider hands-on, project-based structures over abstract or purely verbal instruction, with mentors as consistent, one-on-one facilitators who guide rather than instruct. Building in opportunities for children to present their work and reflect on progress may support not just comprehension but confidence and sustained motivation.
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