Effectiveness of Individual Versus Small-Group Instruction for Students with Reading Disabilities

Abstract

This study compared the effectiveness of individual and small-group instruction for improving reading achievement among elementary students with learning disabilities and examined whether outcomes differed by grade level. A causal-comparative design was used with 327 male students in Grades 2, 3, and 4 enrolled in learning disabilities programs in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the second semester of the 2018–2019 academic year. Data were drawn from Ministry of Education diagnostic reading assessments, instructional records, and student portfolios. The individual- and small-group conditions were comparable in age, pretest reading performance, and instructional duration. Independent-samples t tests and one-way analyses of variance were used to compare posttest and follow-up reading outcomes, with eta squared used to evaluate effect sizes. No statistically significant differences between individual and small-group instruction were found in most comparisons. The only significant between-condition difference occurred at the Grade 3 follow-up assessment and favored individual instruction; however, the effect was small (η² = .05). Some grade-level differences were also observed, generally favoring Grade 4 students. Overall, the findings suggest that well-structured small-group instruction may provide an effective alternative to individual instruction for many students with reading disabilities when groups are formed according to comparable instructional needs and individual progress is monitored.