An analysis of Social StoriesTM research using an evidence‐based practice model

The number of Social Stories^TM studies and reviews has increased in recent years, yet concerns regarding quality and effect sizes continue to be expressed. With the emphasis on evidence‐based practices (EBPs) for the education and treatment of people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), this issue becomes of paramount importance as professionals and parents attempt to select interventions for the people with ASD in their care. The current study makes a unique contribution in its use of an extensive EBP evaluation model to examine 33 single‐subject studies across 13 peer‐reviewed journals, a 12‐year period, and a wide range of grouping variables. Using the Mayton, Wheeler, Menendez and Zhang (2010) EBP evaluation protocol, studies were investigated in terms of eight quality indicators comprised 23 operationally defined standards. Studies included in this analysis met the following criteria: (1) they were intervention studies using single‐subject research designs; (2) they included only participants with disorders on the autism spectrum; and (3) the primary intervention was the use of a Social Story. Findings included on‐ or above‐standard acceptability in EBP indicators related to important aspects of dependent variables within studies and below‐standard acceptability in indicators related to both internal and external validity of studies.     

Thinking outside the box: imagination and empathy beyond story writing

It is sometimes assumed that the strongest opportunities for developing imagination and empathy through children's writing lie in narrative starting points, whereas other less obviously literary writing forms are more readily associated with functional literacy. Consequently, writing regarded as non‐literary is rarely analysed with these qualities in mind. This paper presents an exploratory, textual analysis of children's letter‐writing texts, which aims to identify and describe the uses of imagination and empathy. It is suggested that imaginative strategies were integral to this textual construction and that the significance of imagination and empathy in writing development is worthy of further exploration.     

Education for children with a chronic health condition: an evidence‐informed approach to policy and practice decision making

Children managing chronic health conditions face many obstacles which can impede their learning during periods of hospitalisation. In one particular hospital, a team of educators deemed it necessary to take a personalised learning approach in order to maintain students’ educational progress, namely making use of individual learning plans (ILPs). This team adopted an evidence‐informed practice (EIP) approach to the issue in order to persuade administrators of the need for change. The successful implementation of the EIP approach led to the inclusion of the ILP form in patients’ medical records, which is thought to be a first for Australia. Although EIP is regarded highly by practitioners and policy makers, there can be difficulties when implementing this approach. This study aims to identify the enabling features that permit EIP to be successfully implemented and to examine the ways in which EIP can lead to improved practice.     

Writing and pseudo‐writing from Internet‐based sources: implications for learning and assessment

In recent years, plagiarism has been on the increase across the Western world. This article identifies Internet access as a contributory cause of this trend and addresses the implications of readily available Internet sources for the teaching and assessment of writing in schools. The basis for the article is a previous study showing a wide incidence of plagiarism in the Internet‐based writing of students in three classes at upper secondary school level in Norway. I relate the students' choices to writing as a cognitive process and as a cultural practice. My basic assumption is that the students' writing is work. It is this work we have in mind when we relate writing to learning and when we assess students' skills on the basis of their written texts. Access to the Internet changes the premises for this work because writing can be replaced by ‘pseudo‐writing’. ‘Pseudo‐writing’ is a work reducing writing practice, which neither excludes nor coincides with what we traditionally associate with plagiarism in schools. The main point in this article is that when students have access to the Internet during essay writing, the result is unavoidably a product of both writing and pseudo‐writing. Internet access thus leads to greater uncertainty about the role writing plays in student learning and makes it more difficult to take written assignments into account in assessing students' school results and effort.     

Improving student outcomes in high‐enrollment statistics classes with the structured writing approach

The article describes an assignment that makes writing‐to‐learn feasible in high‐enrollment statistics classes. It combines the principles of structured writing with Bloom's taxonomy. The assignment helped improve related exam scores and was easy to implement and grade for instructors.     

Evaluating the readiness of special education doctoral students to apply the standards of evidence‐based practice to single‐case research

How well doctoral students in special education are prepared to evaluate research as evidence‐based practice (EBP) is likely to impact their careers, as well as the teachers they will train. In developing a method for evaluating the readiness of small cohort groups of doctoral students to apply a research‐based model of EBP, an instrument and procedure were refined in a pilot evaluation and implemented within a multiple baseline design across participants. Participants’ independent and instrument‐guided performance in rating published research was compared to the ratings of two experts in single‐case research design, yielding proportions of agreement across evaluation conditions. Results indicated group readiness to independently conduct the EBP evaluation and individual differences in readiness indicating the need for remediation.     

A cross‐national review of evidence‐based psychosocial treatments for children and adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders in the United Kingdom,Ireland, and United States

The most thoroughly researched topic in relation to autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) is the evaluation of interventions. Educational psychology in the United Kingdom and Ireland is the most closely allied profession to school psychology in the United States. In considering what is published by and for the profession, it is important to include all of those journals that are directly relevant to the profession including educational psychology journals. This review reports on the type, focus, and quality of school‐based ASD intervention research reported in school and educational psychology journals between 2005 and 2015. Twelve evaluation studies are reported, which evaluated 10 discrete interventions and two commercial packages. These interventions targeted academic, social, communication, and behavioral outcomes. Implications for the practice of school psychologists are discussed including the application of research to the idiographic nature of the work of school psychologists.     

Princesses are bigger than elephants: Effect size as a category error in evidence‐based education

Much of the evidential basis for recent policy decisions is grounded in effect size: the standardised mean difference in outcome scores between a study's intervention and comparison groups. This is interpreted as measuring educational influence, importance or effectiveness of the intervention. This article shows this is a category error at two levels. At the individual study level, the intervention plays only a partial role in effect size, so treating effect size as a measure of the intervention is a mistake. At the meta‐analytic level, the assumptions needed for a valid comparison of the relative effectiveness of interventions on the basis of relative effect size are absurd. While effect size continues to have a role in research design, as a measure of the clarity of a study, policy makers should recognise the lack of a valid role for it in practical decision‐making.     

Criterion‐related validity of two curriculum‐based measures of mathematical skill in relation to reading comprehension in secondary students

This study analyzed the relationship between benchmark scores from two curriculum‐based measurement probes in mathematics (M‐CBM) and student performance on a state‐mandated high‐stakes test. Participants were 298 students enrolled in grades 7 and 8 in a rural southeastern school. Specifically, we calculated the criterion‐related and predictive validity of benchmark scores from CBM probes measuring math computation and math reasoning skills. Results of this study suggest that math reasoning probes have strong concurrent and predictive validity. The study also provides evidence that calculation skills, while important, do not have strong predictive strength at the secondary level when a state math assessment is the criterion. When reading comprehension skill is taken into account, math reasoning scores explained the greatest amount of variance in the criterion measure. Computation scores explained less than 5% of the variance in the high‐stakes test, suggesting that it may have limitations as a universal screening measure for secondary students.     

Research Training Needs of Scientist‐Practitioners: Implications for Counselor Education

Counselors (N = 911) reported the research skills needed for practice and subsequent research training needs. Findings indicate that counselors have a high need for research skills at work, but training needs differ significantly by counselor type. Recommendations include increasing emphasis on single‐case design, survey design, and widely available data analysis tools.     

Places,spaces and local customs: honouring the private worlds of out‐of‐school text creation

This paper examines the nature of the out‐of‐school writing practices of three primary‐aged children aged 9–10. In particular, it explores the writing these children chose to undertake at home including ‘for school’ writing, completed at home. The study's findings reveal the ways in which these three, developing young writers engage and interact with writing and how this differs to writing for school, completed at home. To better understand the implications of national surveys that reveal a causal relationship between writing for enjoyment and positive writing attainment this research sought to expose the range and versatility of the children's home and volitional writing practices. The children in this case study were not selected because they were writers but merely that they engaged with writing away from school. The study employs an ecological paradigm (Bronfenbrenner, 1979 ) to explore the participation and interaction of the children with their writing practices within the complex environment of home. The paper makes the case for teachers to be more curious about the private worlds of out‐of‐school text creation to better appreciate the provenance of home writing events and artefacts.     

Effectiveness of the Coping Power Program in middle‐school children with disruptive behaviours and hyperactivity difficulties

The purpose of this article is to discuss the effectiveness of the Coping Power Program (CPP); an evidence‐based treatment delivered in a group format to at‐risk middle‐school children. Initially, two groups were randomised and formed: an intervention group of 24 CPP sessions and a control group. All students were enrolled in public schools from two rural counties in the United States. Out of the 119 total participants 63 (37 male) were in the intervention and 56 (35 male) were in the control group. From the larger intervention group, a subset of students was identified as ‘significantly improved’. Using the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children‐2 (BASC‐2), a pre‐ and post‐intervention measure showed that students with clinically significant hyperactivity and behavioural difficulties scores were the most sensitive to the group intervention.     

Parents' experiences of applied behaviour analysis (ABA)‐based interventions for children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder

Applied behaviour analysis (ABA)‐based programmes are endorsed as the gold standard for treatment of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) in most of North America. This is not the case in most of Europe, where instead a non‐specified ‘eclectic’ approach is adopted. We explored the social validity of ABA‐based interventions with 15 European families who had experience with home‐based, mainly self‐managed, ABA‐based programmes for their own child/ren with ASD. The results of the study highlighted the overwhelmingly positive impact that ABA‐based interventions had on their children in areas such as social skills, challenging behaviour, communication, gross and fine motor skills, concentration, interaction, independence, overall quality of life and, most importantly, a feeling of hope for the future. Implications for European policy on ASD are discussed.     

Single‐subject designs in special education: advantages and limitations

Single‐subject designs provide the special education field with an alternative to group designs. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the topic of single‐subject designs by providing an overview of the relevant literature and a discussion of the major issues and applications of these designs in the field of special education. This paper is divided into four main sections: (1) characteristics of single‐subject designs; (2) types of single‐subject designs; (3) advantages of single‐subject designs; and (4) issues and concerns regarding single‐subject designs. It was concluded that a minimum of three measurements in each phase is typically required until there is a clear pattern. Flexibility and cost‐effectiveness are among the main advantages of these designs. External validity and generalisability are the main concerns. However, meta‐analytic studies can enhance the generalisability of single‐subject designs findings within similar context. Conclusions and recommendations to improve these designs are discussed.