Building Evidence in Early Childhood Special Education: A Systematic Review of Replication Intervention Studies

Abstract

Valid and evidence-informed practices are critical to help young children with disabilities and their families with highly effective interventions and instruction to reach their potentials. Replication research is critical for appraising research and identifying evidence-based practices. The purpose of this study was to replicate the methods used by Cook and colleagues and conduct a systematic review of the quantity, type, and findings of replication research in early childhood special education (ECSE). An intervention study was considered a replication if (a) the stated purpose of the study was to replicate, expand, further investigate, or use a previously conducted study as its basis and (b) the findings of the study were compared with the results of previous studies. Two hundred ninety-seven published articles in three journals relevant to ECSE from 2012 to 2016 were reviewed to identify intervention studies. From the 78 identified intervention studies, we found 44 studies (56%) that met the criteria for replication. Author overlap occurred for 20 studies out of the 44 replication studies (46%). Our investigation revealed that ECSE journals published a significantly larger number of replication studies (56%) than those reported by Cook and colleagues (31%); however, the scarce number of direct replication was concerning. We recommend intentional and proactive steps be taken to promote and value replication research in ECSE.

A Systematic Review of Replicative Self-Determination Intervention Studies

“…We identified 80 intervention studies on topics related to self-determination, of which 31 studies (39%) were identified as replications. This rate is slightly higher than that reported by Cook and colleagues (31%) in noncategorical special education research, but lower than the rate of replication reported by Banerjee, Movahedazarhouligh, Millen, and Luckner (2018) in early childhood special education intervention research (56%). Four studies were coded as direct replications and the remaining 27 studies were coded as conceptual replications.…”

The Effects of Email Performance-Based Feedback Delivered to Teaching Teams: A Systematic Replication

“…Replication is a particularly critical aspect of intervention research, as criteria for evidence-based practices typically require multiple studies (What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 2017). Furthermore, replications extend knowledge beyond just reproducing findings to establish evidence-based practices or uncover idiosyncratic, nuanced, or false findings (Banerjee, Movahedazarhouligh, Millen, & Luckner, 2018; Lemons et al, 2016; Makel et al, 2016). Systematic replications also identify new phenomena, which ensure comprehensive and balanced information is available to guide future research and practice (B.…”

Summary and future directions: Where we have been, where we are, where we are going.

“…Despite the growing use of big data, much of the published research related to IDD relies on relatively small samples of convenience that may not be representative of the population, thereby producing results that may be difficult to replicate. Replicability failures in psychology and other life sciences are of considerable concern and have drawn recent attention to how to set standards for when replication occurs and how to legitimately claim that replication has occurred (Banerjee et al, 2018;Hedges & Schauer, 2019).…”