The effects of multimedia instruction of Quran on the learning and retention of students with mental special needs

The present research was conducted to investigate the instructional effects of Quran educational multimedia on the learning and retention of six grade male students with mental special needs in Arak. The research design of the study was a quasi-experimental, and the participants of the study were 18 students with mental special needs studying at the Noor special education center randomly assigned to two groups of nine. The experimental group was treated with multimedia instruction for two months (18 sessions each 45 minutes) while the control group received no treatment strategy. To assess the results, first a pretest was administered to both groups. After the pretest the experimental group received the treatment and after that a posttest was administered to both groups. The data were then analyzed with repeated measure ANOVA and multivariate variance analysis.Overall, the results of the analyses imply that although in both groups under study the level of learning and intake improved compared with the beginning, the second group which was exposed to multimedia instruction of Quran outperformed the other group with traditional instruction in the indices under investigation in this study.  Also, according to multivariate variance analysis, it was found that multimedia use in teaching Quran to students with mental special needs significantly improves the indices of reading the words part by part, reading, compared with the traditional methods.