A Study on the Effect of Instruction on Obtaining Conservation in Educable Mentally Retarded Children: Zone of Proximal Development

The purpose of this research was to study the effect of instruction on obtaining conservation in educable mentally retarded children. This theme is related to the theory of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which was put forward by the famous Russian psychologist, Vygotsky.While providing a discussion on this theory; this study deals with the hypothesis about the effects of instruction on obtaining liquid and weight conservation in educable mentally retarded students. The subjects consisted of 30 educable mentally retarded students. These subjects were put randomly in one of the experimental or control groups. All subjects took part in a pretest. After 10 days, during which the experimental group had undergone intervention programs, a posttest was administered to the subjects of both groups. In line with the previous studies, the results of the present study showed that instruction has a positive effect on obtaining liquid and weight conservation in educable mentally retarded children.