The Value of Qualitative Methods in Social Validity Research

Abstract

The concept of social validity emerged in the 1970s with seminal articles by Wolf (1978), Kazdin (1977), andVan Houten (1979). They urged scholars in the field of behavioral sciences to ensure interventions were important to clients' lives and could be sustained in community settings. Since the 1970s, the importance of social validity has been accepted widely and is now considered an imperative aspect of intervention research in special education (Horner et al., 2005). This is in part because experts posit a relationship between social validity and intervention fidelity (Heckaman, Conroy, Fox, & Chait, 2000;McDuffie & Scruggs, 2008). When the social validity of an intervention is low, teachers are less likely to implement it as it was intended, if at all. The importance of social validity has also entered conversations about the longstanding research-to-practice gap. When teachers do not consider interventions to be feasible, acceptable, or relevant to their work, they may be less likely to adopt and sustain them over time (Greenwood & Abbott, 2001). The Use of Qualitative Methods in Social Validity ResearchTypically, social validity is examined using questionnaires, rating scales, or direct observations by trained raters (Finn 524002R SEXXX10.

Early Childhood Practitioner Judgments of the Social Validity of Performance Checklists and Parent Practice Guides

“…Therein lies the importance of early childhood intervention practices being judged as socially valid, and the need to evaluate practitioners' beliefs about the importance and acceptability of the practices. Despite the call for systematically including social validity measures in research and field-test studies (e.g., Carter, 2009;Leko, 2014;Turan & Meadan, 2011), this has not become routine practice despite its contributions to understanding the adoption and use of different kinds of intervention practices. Field-test studies like the one described in this paper serve as a model for informing improvements in early childhood intervention practices.…”

Running: A way to increase body awareness in secondary school physical education

“…Forskarlag med blandad kompetens av forskning och ämneskunskap ökar tillförlitligheten vid studier av innehållets behandling, då de är förtrogna med innehållet, den beforskade verksamheten, såväl som hur forskning bedrivs. Samarbetet mellan och med lärare skapar praktikgemenskap som stärker den sociala validiteten av forskningsresultatet (Leko & Trainor, 2014;Wolf, 1978).…”

Teacher researchers creating communities of research practice by the use of a professional development approach

“…Their results highlight benefits for ecological validity, in terms of the confidence with which the conclusions of an empirical investigation can be generalized to naturally occurring situations in which the phenomenon under investigation occurs (Cicourel 2005). One argument for collaboration with teachers or teacher researchers is that such communities also strengthen the social validity of the research results (Leko 2014;Wolf 1978).…”