Understanding Research Related to Children with Disabilities

Research Reviews

• The literature review.
  "Lit reviews" abound in educational research. Most journal articles reporting research begin here, summing up our knowledge to date on the topic. So how do lit reviews differ from other types of summaries of research?
  www.utoronto.ca/writing/litrev.html
• Lit reviews 2: What they are, why you do 'em, how you do 'em, and tips and tricks.
  http://www.library.cqu.edu.au/tutorials/litreviewpages/index.htm
• A Webtutorial on preparing scholarly reviews of the literature.
  www.gwu.edu/~litrev/
• Basing decisions on the research: Does the new "way" work? Is it worth it?
  Before changing teaching strategies, you want to have enough evidence that the new method will be an improvement.
  http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/319/7211/652?
  ijkey=6dc65fa7ca8312d95390a3957b23b3eb07f37cc9&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
• Research reviews and the problem of interpretive bias.
  Even the results of one or two well-done studies aren't enough to make you confident that it's time for a change. Instead, you need to have a body of evidence to support that change. Usually, review articles are a good source of information. These are narrative articles describing an area of research on a particular question. However, authors may have an interpretation bias: Watch out for it.
  http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/326/7404/1453?
  ijkey=c8b957d72ed82ab3af241547b7a3c7a1c9cdd93f&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
• Systematic reviews: Trying to avoid the bias by looking at the whole picture.
  Systematic reviews attempt to avoid bias by covering all studies relevant to a given question, putting those results together, reporting strengths and weaknesses of those studies, and putting together a comprehensive summary.
  
  • How is a systematic review of research created?
    www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/painres/download/whatis/Syst-review.pdf
  • More on systematic reviews.
    http://ssrc.tums.ac.ir/SystematicReview/Assets/Pai_NMJI_2004_Systematic_reviews_illustra.pdf
    
  • How to read papers that summarize other papers.
    http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/315/7109/672

Meta-Analyses: The Next Step Up

A meta-analysis goes further than a systematic review. It's a quantitative method that not only culls the results of many studies but also presents an estimate of the effect size. If you want to know more, these resources will help answer the question,"What is a meta-analysis?"

• Introduction to meta-analysis from research-based medicine.
  www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/painres/download/whatis/Meta-An.pdf
• Putting separate results together.
  www.lyonsmorris.com/MetaA/index.htm
• Steps involved in conducting a meta-analysis.
  www.lyonsmorris.com/MetaA/appendix1.htm
• Meta-analysis as a technique: Pros and cons.
  http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/archive/7119/7119ed.htm
• The principles and procedures of meta-analysis.
  http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/archive/7121/7121ed.htm
• Search the NICHCY Research-to-Practice database to find structured abstracts that explain special education meta-analyses in accessible terms.
  http://research.nichcy.org/search.asp

What is Effect Size?

• Yeah, what is it?
  http://cem.dur.ac.uk/ebeuk/research/effectsize/ESguide.htm
• Why do we need to know anything about the effect size, especially if we find that the differences between groups are statistically significant?
  http://www.cemcentre.org/renderpage.asp?linkID=30325015
• Want to calculate an effect size yourself? Try out this effect size calculator.
  http://www.cemcentre.org/renderpage.asp?linkID=30325017

Applications to Education

Okay, so how do you take research findings and apply them to educational questions or concerns?

• An overview.
  www.edres.org/meta/
• Meta-analysis in educational research.
  http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=2&n=8
• Will it work for these students?
  
  • The case for validity generalization.
    http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=2&n=13
  • The generalizability of research results.
    http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/external.htm
  • More on generalizing results.
    http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/siegle/research/Samples/externalvalidity.html
• Did the study measure the right thing?
  
  • Operational definitions of concepts.
    http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~pe/hp602web/HP602VA14.htm
  • More on defining concepts.
    www.sfu.ca/~richards/Zen/Pages/Chap3.htm

This Research 102 page takes a look at some basic research processes for adding up the evidence from individual studies and drawing bigger conclusions---about patterns and trends in what works and what doesn't. 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: