In 1984, the research committee of the council for learning disabilities (CLD) noted that the available descriptions of individuals with LD in research reports were vague and inconsistent. Recognizing that such descriptions made it difficult to evaluate research findings, the committee recommended that specific guidelines for participant descriptions be followed in reports on research involving individuals with LD. Eight years after this call for greater uniformity, vague participant descriptors remain a matter of great concern. What follows is a report on this issue from the current cld research committee. Updated guidelines for the description of participants are provided for both small-sample and large-group research activities. Also, suggestions for promoting compliance with the minimum standards are forwarded. Rather than being viewed as a fixed, immutable product, the current attempt at identifying the minimum standards for the description of participants should be viewed merely as one step in an ongoing process. Clearly, as our multidisciplinary field continues to learn more about LD, additional information about participants may be deemed necessary. With this in mind, the cld research committee welcomes your comments on the present set of guidelines and invites your suggestions for future iterations of this document.
The acquisition of multiplication facts by 4 elementary students with learning disabilities was compared under two instructional delivery formats-teacher directed and computer assisted. The two interventions were compared in terms of opportunities to respond and success rate. All students mastered more facts in the teacher-directed condition. In addition, teachers provided many more opportunities to respond and showed a higher success rate than did the software program. Implications of teacher-directed and computer-assisted instruction are discussed in terms of efficacy and feasibility.
Randall Parker discussed basic guidelines for designing and implementing research studies. He noted the importance of external validity (the degree to which research findings can be generalized); to achieve external validity, authors must describe the participants, setting, and procedures in enough detail for other researchers to replicate the study.In 1984, the Research Committee for the Council for Learning Disabilities (CLD) published guidelines for authors regarding the minimum information they should report when describing their participants. A study by Hammill and colleagues in 1989 found that, unfortunately, most research articles published in 10 major journals from 1984 through 1987 did not meet the minimum criteria suggested by Smith et al. (Hammill, Bryant, Brown, Dunn, & Marten, 1989)
. Hammill et al. concluded that the majority of research published during that time did not meet the criteria for external validity.In 1992, the CLD Research Committee prepared updated guidelines for participant description. The JLD staff and consulting editors make every effort to ensure the validity of research that appears in the Journal, and we request complete information about the characteristics of participants in research studies (see Editorial Policy, January 1993); therefore we are reprinting these updated guidelines. Readers are encouraged to carefully examine the Committee's suggestions and to follow these and other principles of research validity when planning research studies and submitting manuscripts to this journal.-JLW
This school-based study examined the relationship between 84 preschoolers' performance on two widely used preschool screening instruments, and teacher ratings of reading performance at the close of first grade. At prekindergarten screening 4-and 5-year-olds were evaluated with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised and Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration. Biserial correlations were computed for each test and separate appraisals of decoding and sight-word vocabulary skills. A significant positive relationship was found between PPVT-R scores and sight-word reading (r = .41, p s .01). In retrospect, analysis of variance indicated that the group of first graders with poor sight-word vocabularies performed significantly lower on the PPVT-R (p =s .02) than their classmates.
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