Affective consequences of two types of mathematics instruction, guiding instruction and directing instruction, were studied for two types of students with special needs: mildly mentally retarded students and students with specific learning disabilities. Seventy students were instructed in small groups in either a guiding or a directing instruction condition. Taking the domain of this research into account--addition and subtraction up to 100--two variants of directing instruction were distinguished: directing-jump instruction and directing-split instruction. Results revealed that the directing-jump instruction and guiding instruction resulted in more constructivist beliefs about learning mathematics than the directing-split instruction. Compared to students with specific learning disabilities, mildly mentally retarded students developed higher levels of ego orientation as well as task orientation.