Special Needs Research 101

There's an ever-increasing emphasis on using research to make decisions regarding children with disabilities in all their aspects--best practices for educating them, raising them, training their teachers, and setting systems in place that run smoothly and accomplish results. But, unlike roses, research is not necessarily research is not always research, just because it claims to be research. There's high-quality, well-designed, noteworthy research, and then...there's research that may have serious flaws in its design, conclusions, or generalizability to other students or settings. How do you tell the difference?

• Research 101 (you're here!)
  (What makes for good research?)
• Research 102: Adding Up the Evidence
  (How do you combine the findings of multiple research studies?)
• Making Sense of Statistics in Research
  (Don't let stats throw you.)
• Weighing Info for Its Worth
  (Is this research well done?)
• Special Education Research: Where to Start?
  (How to begin finding and applying research.)
• What Works: Can We Say?
  (Where can I find information on evidence-based practices?)
• Research-Based Resources on Specific Disabilities
  (A starting place for research-based information on disabilities.)

The Research Process, Start to Finish

• Types of Research and Their Roles in Improvement of Practice.
  from the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD).
  http://www.ncld.org/content/view/609/480/
• Phases of Research: Steps in Gathering and Evaluating Evidence.
  from the Cyberlab for Psychological Research.
  http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/phases.html
• Research Methods: From Question to Conclusion.
  From Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
  www.learner.org/discoveringpsychology/methods/index.html

What's in a Research Paper?

• The Research Paper.
  From Trinity University.
  http://www.trinity.edu/departments/soc_anthro/research_papers.htm
• Understanding Those Medical & Research Articles
  www.craighospital.org/SCI/METS/articles.asp
• Understanding a Typical Journal Article.
  From Cyberlab for Psychological Research.
  http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/journalarticles.html

Is This a Good Research Paper?

• Looking for Good Ideas: A Guide for Interpreting Research Reports.
  From Schwab Learning.
  www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=757&g=2
• Ingredients of Good Research.
  From Schwab Learning.
  www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=314&g=2
• Assessing the Methodological Quality of Published Papers.
  http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/315/7103/305
• Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from Other Periodicals.
  From the Cornell University Library.
  www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill20.html

How Do the Pros Define Quality?

• Quality Standards.
  From the RAND Corporation.
  www.rand.org/standards/index.html

Writing Research Reports

• The Research Paper.
  From Trinity University.
  http://www.trinity.edu/departments/soc_anthro/research_papers.htm
• APA Format.
  From Cyberlab for Psychological Research.
  http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/apa.html
• Communicating educational research data to general, nonresearcher audiences.
  From the journal Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 6(7).
  http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=6&n=7
• Effective Reporting (Resources in Institutional Research, Number 12).
  From the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), ED 443 315.
  http://searcheric.org/ericdc/ED443315.htm

How Teachers Can Use Research

• What Does Research Mean to You? Making Educational Technology Research Relevant to Educators.
  From the International Society for Technology in Education.
  http://caret.iste.org/caretadmin/resources_documents/30%5F8%2Epdf
• Using Research and Reason in Education: How Teachers Can Use Scientifically Based Research to Make Curricular & Instructional Decisions.
  From the National Partnership for Reading.
  www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/pdf/Stanovich_Color.pdf

These Research Connections are intended to help you do just that. These resources lay down the basics--what makes for good research, what good researchers consider when they do their work, and what we, as consumers and decision makers, need to keep in mind when we review research and base decisions upon it. You can use this page in combination with the other offerings in our ever-growing collection of pages designed to make sense of research. At the moment, we offer these basic introductions: