Existing reviews address important questions about subsets of practitioner training studies in special education but leave important questions about the broader literature unanswered. In this comprehensive review, we identified 118 peer-reviewed single-case-design studies in which researchers tested the efficacy of practitioner training on implementation of educational practices to students with disabilities. We found publication of studies has proliferated in recent years, and most studies involved a multiple-baseline or multiple-probe design, researchers as training agents, in-service special education teachers or paraprofessionals as trainees, and students with learning disabilities or autism spectrum disorder as recipients of intervention. Through visual analysis, we detected 521 effects out of 626 opportunities across studies. The mean d-Hedges-Pustejovky-Shadish effect size was d = 2.48. Behavioral-skills training was associated with the most consistent improvement of implementation fidelity. We found statistically significant associations between implementation fidelity and modeling, written instructions for implementation, and verbal performance feedback.

Although peer-mediated interventions are an evidence-based approach for improving social and learning outcomes for students with intellectual disability (ID), their impact on participating peers has received limited attention. Knowing whether and how peers are affected could influence the extent to which these interventions are more widely adopted in schools. The purpose of this review was to (a) summarize extant research on the behaviors of peers without disabilities and their perception of interacting with students with ID, (b) identify common behaviors measured for peers, and (c) evaluate the effects of peer-mediated interventions on peers. Toward that effort, we reviewed 53 studies. Results indicate that interventions have successfully increased peers’ interactions with their classmates with ID and suggest some positive outcome for peers; however, consistent methodological gaps limit further analysis. We offer recommendations for strengthening future research involving peers within interventions for students with ID.

No abstract

Observation and performance feedback to support traditional training methods are central tools for preservice practitioner preparation and in-service practitioner professional development. Research highlights how some specific characteristics of feedback (e.g., the latency between behavior and feedback) can impact the effectiveness. One method of enhancing the effects of feedback may be immediate feedback delivered through bug-in-ear technology. This review identified 17 intervention studies that examined the use of immediate feedback via bug-in-ear with preservice and in-service practitioners. We evaluated these studies using What Works Clearinghouse quality standards and determined that immediate feedback with bug-in-ear technology has a strong evidence base for increasing frequency and accuracy of teaching behaviors of practitioners in a variety of classroom settings. This review discusses findings on that evidence base as well as findings on feasibility and acceptability of this intervention. We also discuss limitations of current research and potential directions for future research on this method.

Although an important part of adult life, individuals with significant disabilities experience low rates of gainful employment. The purpose of this review was to summarize and analyze the literature on teaching vocational skills to individuals with significant disabilities. Sixty-two articles (with 75 experiments) included in this review were published between 1969 and 2014, and indicated that most participants were successfully taught to engage in a variety of vocational skills in a range of settings. Unfortunately, this review also determined that the research on teaching vocational skills to individuals with significant disabilities is steadily decreasing, with only 15 new studies published since 2000. Potential directions for future research will be proposed.