Topics in Special Education Research SPED 596 CRN: 82488

1. Topics in Special Education Research SPED 596 CRN: 82488 Sheldon Loman, PhD. Summer 2012 Contact: sheldon.loman@pdx.edu

3. This Evening’s Agenda • Course Syllabus & Assignments • Student Information Sheet • Break • Brief Lecture • Activity • Dismissal

4. Course Structure • This class will be taught using an adapted interteaching method (Boyce & Hineline, 2002; Saville et al., 2005). • Interteaching methods are based on common research-based practices in college teaching, including reciprocal peer tutoring, problem based learning, and cooperative learning (Saville, Zinn, Neef, Van Norman, & Ferrari, 2006). Review: Based on feedback Quiz: Short quiz after review Self-evaluation & Feedback: Evaluate quality of interactions & topics requiring further clarification Discussion: Use discussion guide with partner(s)

5. Walk-through Course Structure

6. “Mock Review” Review: Based on feedback Quiz: Short quiz after review

7. Research Defined • Research is a systematic process for asking (and answering) questions. • The research question(s) being asked determine the research methodology and specific research design used • In our field, research guides • (a) our understanding of basic mechanisms of behavior, and • (b) our identification of effective (or “more effective”) clinical interventions. • Evidence-based practice • Research is one way to “fix beliefs”

8. Why do research? • Four Functions of Educational Research: • 1. Description • 2. Prediction • 3. Improvement • 4. Explanation • ….of an educational phenomenon

9. Description • Heavily dependent upon instrumentation for measurement & observation • Increase our knowledge about what happens in schools • E.g., “Amazing Grace” OR “Shame of a Nation” by Jonathan Kozol

10. Prediction • Ability to predict a phenomenon that will occur at time Y from information available at an earlier time X. • E.g., student’s achievement in school can be predicted accurately by an aptitude test administered a year or two earlier. OR • Identification of students who are likely to be unsuccessful as their education progresses in order to prevent drop-out.

11. Improvement • Concerns the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve practice. • E.g., drug therapies in medicine, reading/writing/math interventions to improve students’ academic achievement

12. Explanation • Considered the “most important” in the long term (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2007) • If able to explain a phenomenon this means you can: describe it, predict its consequences, & know how to intervene to change those consequences • Explanations are usually framed as theories • E.g., self-determination theory, feminist theory

13. Mock Quiz • Complete the student information sheet/ quiz (not graded!)

14. Correct Quiz • Self-grade quiz

15. Research Defined • Research is a systematic process for asking (and answering) questions. • The research question(s) being asked determine the research methodology and specific research design used • In our field, research guides • (a) our understanding of basic mechanisms of behavior, and • (b) our identification of effective (or “more effective”) clinical interventions. • Research is one way to “fix beliefs”

16. Why do research? • Four Functions of Research: • 1. Description • 2. Prediction • 3. Improvement • 4. Explanation • ….of an educational phenomenon

17. Description • Heavily dependent upon instrumentation for measurement & observation • Increase our knowledge about what happens in schools • E.g., “Amazing Grace” OR “Shame of a Nation” by Jonathan Kozol

18. Prediction • Ability to predict a phenomenon that will occur at time Y from information available at an earlier time X. • E.g., student’s achievement in school can be predicted accurately by an aptitude test administered a year or two earlier. OR • Identification of students who are likely to be unsuccessful as their education progresses in order to prevent drop-out.

19. Improvement • Concerns the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve practice. • E.g., drug therapies in medicine, reading/writing/math interventions to improve students’ academic achievement

20. Explanation • Considered the “most important” in the long term (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2007) • If able to explain a phenomenon this means you can: describe it, predict its consequences, & know how to intervene to change those consequences • Explanations are usually framed as theories • E.g., self-determination theory, feminist theory

21. New Vocabulary Words…In Chapter 1

22. What data/info do quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods researcher’s collect?: • Quantitative: Numerical data • Qualitative: Words, pictures & artifacts • Mixed: Both types of data

23. Define subject or participant or stakeholder: • Individual you are studying • -Person from who you collect data • Participant- more common due to the role that individuals play in research process • Stakeholder- used more frequently when evaluating a program

24. Define Independent variable (IV) or predictor variable: • Independent variable= Intervention/treatment manipulated for different groups or at different times (e.g., literacy training). • Predictor variable= • Inherent characteristics that are different between groups (e.g., studying gender differences)

25. Dependent variable (DV) & criterion variable: • Variable that the researcher is interested in measuring to determine how it is different for groups with different experiences (dependent) or characteristics (criterion) . • Dependent variable: Measured/outcome variable

26. Experimental & control groups • Experimental group- receives intervention • Control group- business as usual, no intervention

27. Population & Sample • Population: Group to whom you want to apply your results (e.g., teachers in a school district; n=800) • Sample: group that you have chosen from your population from which to collect data (e.g., n=80 teachers from a school district selected to interview/survey)

28. Population

29. Sample

30. Generalizability & Transferability • Generalizability: researcher’s ability to generalize results from sample to the population from which it was drawn. • Transferability: In qualitative research, results enable readers to make judgments to link to their own situations.

31. Course Structure Review: Based on feedback Quiz: Short quiz after review Discussion: Use discussion guide with partner(s)

32. Dyadic Discussion • Each day you will come to class with a completed (typed & printed) discussion guide (based on what you read) • This will guide your discussion with partners • For today, please read the sample study handed to you (also within text) and complete the discussion guide for this one study (10 minutes). • Then get into a group with 4 other people who read different sample studies and discuss similarities & differences between the different studies (15 minutes)

33. Course Structure • Brief Lecture

34. Fixing Beliefs • History (It has always been that way) • Authority (It is true because an important person says it is) • Logic (It seems like it ought to be true) • Experience (We saw it work…or… “it worked for me”) • Experimental Analysis (Systematic analysis using the scientific method with objective exposure to disproof). • Dangers in fixing beliefs: Bruno Bettelheim (1967) • “Refrigerator Mother” theory of autism

35. Activity: • Define a FACT • A) about life in general • B) about an intervention in your field, and the effect of that intervention. • What is the source of your knowledge? • History • Authority • Logic • Experience • Experimental Analysis

36. Why do research? • Four Functions of Research: • 1. Description • 2. Prediction • 3. Improvement • 4. Explanation • ….of an educational phenomenon

37. Overall first step to the research process is identifying your own worldview

38. Major Paradigms in Research • Paradigm: way of looking at the world • 4 major Paradigms (from Mertens, 2010) • 1. Postpositivism • 2. Constructivist • 3. Transformative • 4. Pragmatic

39. Postpositivism • AKA: • Experimental • Quasi-experimental • Correlational • Causal comparative (examined after the fact; ex post facto) • Quantitative • Randomized control trials (RCT)

40. Postpositivism • Dominant paradigm that guided early educational and psychological research • Importance of objectivity & generalizability • Suggest researchers modify their claims of understandings of truth based on probability, rather than certainty

41. Constructivist • AKA: • Naturalistic • Phenomenological (as perceived by the actors) • Hermeneutic (interpretive understanding or meaning) • Symbolic interaction • Ethnographic • Qualitative • Participatory action research

42. Constructivist Paradigm • Reality is socially constructed by people active in the research process • Researchers should attempt to understand the complex world of lived experience from the point of view of those who live it (Schwandt, 2000) • Research is a product of values of researchers and cannot be independent of them.

43. Transformative Disability Theories Action Research • AKA: • Critical theory • Neo-Marxist • Feminist theories • Freirean • Participatory • Emancipatory • Postcolonial/indigenous • Queer Theory

44. Transformative Paradigm • Directly addresses the politics in research by confronting social oppression at whatever level it occurs (Reason, 1994) • Consciously and explicitly position themselves side by side with the less powerful in a joint effort to bring about social transformation.

45. Pragmatic Paradigm AKA: • Mixed Methods • Mixed Models • Participatory • Goal is to search for useful points of connection.

46. In-Class Activity Part 1. • Review the Table on page 11 of textbook OR copy handed out • Work with 2-3 other people and explain which paradigm resonates most with you & why • Be willing to share your biases

47. Features of the Scientific Process • Public process • Operational description of variables • Measurement • Quantifiable • Reliable (consistent) • Valid (accurate) • Replicable (measurement, intervention) • Exposure to disproof (research design) • Objective analysis

48. 1. Identify socially important issue 2. Review current literature 3. Define conceptual model 4. Define specific hypothesis(es) and research question(s) 5. Define dependent variable(s)/measure 6. Identify independent variable(s)/measures 7. Select appropriate research design 8. Obtain consents 9. Collect data 10. Analyze data 11. Communicate results Written presentation Oral presentation Steps in the Research/Scientific Process

49. Elements of a Research Model Socially Important Issue Conceptual Model Inferences/Hypotheses Research Question Dependent Variable(s) Dependent Variable Measures Independent Variable Measures Independent Variable(s) Research Design

50. Socially Important Issue Generalization of Academic Skills Conceptual Model Inferences/Hypotheses Stimulus Control Theory/ General Case Programming (GCP) Bring target responses under control of stimuli that are present in generalization contexts Research Question Is there a functional relation between use of GCP and performance under non-trained conditions? Dependent Variable(s) Dependent Variable Measures Percentage of non-trained trials performed correctly Performance under non-trained conditions. Independent Variable Measures Independent Variable(s) General Case Programming Selection and sequencing of training example that sample relevant stimulus variation: GCP fidelity checklist Research Design Multiple Baseline Across Students