What is Evidence Based Practice?
To be considered evidence-based, a practice or program must be supported by multiple, high-quality, experimental or quasi-experimental (including single-case) studies demonstrating that the practice/program has a meaningful impact on student/client outcomes (Cook & Odom, 2013; Slocum et al. 2014). Standards that are applied to the quantity and quality of research needed for a practice or program to qualify as evidence-based vary. For this reason, the evidence-based status of practices may vary across sources (Cook & Cook, 2011). It is important, therefore, to consider such practices/programs in the context of the standards used to identify them (Cook & Odom, 2013).
Research Summaries
Special Educators do not always have time to read every piece of new research in all areas of Special Education. For this reason, summaries of research provided by others can assist those who want to check on a practice that is being advocated for a service or a family.
MUSEC Briefings
The MUSEC Briefings have provided useful overviews of research into a range of practices. They were written by academics from the Special Education Centre at Macquarie University and their academic associates.
Nomanis Notes
The research summaries included in the Nomanis research notes focus on research in the area of literacy.
InSpEd Research Summaries
We plan to continue the provision of research summaries for a range of interventions on the member page. These might be updates of previous summaries or new research summaries.