A systematic review of self‐regulation strategies to improve academic outcomes of students with EBD

Abstract

Self‐regulatory interventions have demonstrated numerous benefits for helping improve the academic performance of students. The purpose of this review was to report on the effectiveness and focus of academic self‐regulation interventions for children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural disorders. Thirty‐six studies published in 35 papers and involving 189 participants met inclusionary criteria. Overall, self‐regulation interventions showed moderate/medium effect size gains [percentage of nonoverlapping data (PND) 75%; standard mean difference (SMD) 2.27; Tau‐U 0.81] across academic subject areas. When assessing the effectiveness of self‐regulation interventions for addressing specific academic content areas, the largest ES gains were observed in reading (PND 93%; SMD 2.13; Tau‐U 0.94), although medium/moderate ES gains were observed in math (PND 71%; SMD 2.08; Tau‐U 0.70) and writing (PND 83%; SMD 2.57; Tau‐U 0.91). Self‐regulated strategy development, self‐monitoring interventions and strategy instruction were the predominant types of self‐regulation techniques implemented by researchers. There was evidence to support a claim of the generalisation and maintenance of findings. Implications, limitations and areas for future research are discussed.

Promoting Academic and Nonacademic Behaviors in Students With EBD Using the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction: A Mathematics Example

“…In the area of math interventions for students with EBD, Popham and colleagues (2018) found moderately positive effects for self-mediated interventions. Positive effects were also reported by Ralston, Benner, Tsai, Riccomini, and Nelson (2014), who also reported that multielement strategy interventions were more effective than single-element counterparts.…”

“…Common types of self-mediated interventions include goal setting, self-evaluation, self-instruction, self-monitoring, and strategy instruction. Recent systematic reviews of the research literature have identified self-mediated interventions as effective in improving the in-school academic performance of students with EBD (Farley, Torres, Wailehua, & Cook, 2012; Popham, Counts, Ryan, & Katsiyannis, 2018). These interventions were equally effective across elementary, middle, and high school students with EBD.…”

“…These interventions were equally effective across elementary, middle, and high school students with EBD. Reading interventions had the largest average intervention effects, with math and writing interventions showing moderate effects (Popham et al, 2018).…”

Effective Reading Instructional Practices for Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

“…Authors in this special series have done an exceptional job of connecting it to the practices that they describe. Following are four examples of research summaries that practitioner readers can locate to gain deeper knowledge of the breadth and depth of reading research targeting students with or at risk for EBD: (a) McKenna et al (2017) visually analyze outcomes of single case study reading interventions for students with and at risk for EBD across all grades; (b) Roberts and colleagues (2019) analyze outcomes of reading interventions for students with co-occurring reading and behavioral difficulties; (c) Dunn et al (2017) analyze the quality of peer-mediated interventions for students with EBD; and (d) Popham et al (2018) report on the quality and outcomes of self-regulation interventions for students with EBD. A critical main outcome coming from a review of each of these summary’s findings is that the effects of reading intervention were positive, meaning reading improvement is very much possible for students receiving interventions that are implemented as designed.…”

Academic and Behavioral Interventions With an Emphasis on Secondary School Settings

“…Unfortunately, and providing added rationale for publication of reading-focused intervention articles, observational research continues to suggest that students with EBD fail to receive effective, efficient, and research-based reading instruction (McKenna & Ciullo, 2016). On a positive note, the Burke et al (2015) and Garwood (2018) reviews, along with others (McKenna, Kim, Shin, & Pfannenstiel, 2017;Popham, Counts, Ryan, & Katsiyannis, 2018) suggest that implementation of research-based interventions can have a positive impact on measurable and meaningful outcomes for students with EBD. Reading interventions demonstrating positive reading (and writing) outcomes included direct instruction reading programs and those individually incorporating repeated reading, graphic organizers/cognitive mapping, self-regulation strategies, or listening while previewing.…”