This study attempted to demonstrate the effect of Response to Intervention(RTI) as a teaching
methodology for underachievers in science. The participants were fifth-grade students, and the
intervention program involved the science textbook section 'The speed of an object'. In the first
stage of the intervention, the subject matter was taught generally over a period of three weeks.
The researcher conducted subgroup teaching using the direct method of teaching in the second
stage of the intervention for eight weeks. This study consisted of three stages: the first stage
of the intervention involved selecting underachievers in science and determining their
baseline(the bottom 15%), the second provided sixteen thirty-minute sessions, twice a week over
eight weeks. In the first stage of the RTI program, the researcher selected eleven underachievers
in a fifth-grade science class for an experimental group. In the second stage, interventions were
provided to them based on the Direct Instruction(DI) method. During the interventions, three
achievement tests and ten curriculum-based assessments were conducted. The major research
findings were as follows: first, the interventions based on the DI approach had positive effects
on the underachievers. The science underachievers showed a higher achievement level than the
general students when a sincere attitude was indicated. Second, the RTI program had positive
effects on some of the science underachievers; although three of the eleven participants in the
second stage showed no significant change. Third, this study suggests that underachieving in
mathematics and science is closely related; science underachievers in the second stage were all
underachievers in mathematics, too.
RTI has not been applied to mathematics classes; but, based on the results of this study. RTI
in science classes should be actively carried out in the future; it could contribute to the relief
and determination of science underachievers.