The Use of Evidence Based Interventions in the Classroom for Students with Disabilities

Abstract

Currently, the majority of students with disabilities are educated in a general education classroom, which led to a paradigm shift and pedagogies used to meet the needs of all students. The research problem was that general education teachers use of highly effective evidence-based interventions that improve academic achievement for students with disabilities was unknown, and it was not known why some teachers did not use these practices more frequently. The purpose of the study was to discover how frequently general education teachers implemented highly effective evidence-based interventions to improve academic achievement for students with disabilities, and why some teachers did not use these interventions. Bandura’s Social Learning Theory and Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Learning Theory were the framework for the study. A qualitative research approach using 30 videotaped lessons from the Measures of Effective Teaching Longitudinal study and 18 teacher interviews were used to answer the research questions. Videotaped lessons were scored for the use of highly effective evidence-based interventions that improve academic achievement for students with disabilities. Structured teacher interviews included the use of highly effective evidence-based practices, how frequently these practices were used weekly, and barriers that prevented them from using these best practices. Analysis of the frequency of use for highly effective evidence-based practices indicated that 90% of the teachers in the videos used explicit instruction, 27% used graphic organizers, and 10% used peer tutoring. Nonetheless, analysis of teacher interviews indicated explicit instruction and peer-tutoring were used by 100% of the teachers, 94% used reading comprehension strategies, 83% used inquiry based learning, 78% used graphic organizers, and mnemonics were used by 72% of the teachers. Barriers to implementing evidence-based practices were lack of time, money, resources, and efficacy to choose evidence-based practices for students with disabilities. Schools need to provide shared planning time, make better use of resources, and provide teacher training to build teachers’ efficacy to implement these best practices. Further research is recommended on the use of evidence-based practices in general education classrooms for students with disabilities using a larger sampling of general education teachers to increase the reliability and validity of the findings.