High-Quality Systematic Literature Reviews in Special Education: Promoting Coherence, Contextualization, Generativity, and Transparency

Abstract

High-quality systematic literature reviews provide a systematic process for identifying, synthesizing, and critiquing multiple studies and, in turn, inform theory, research, practice, and policy. With a focus on special education systematic reviews, we propose four core principles (i.e., coherence, contextualization, generativity, and transparency) to guide scholars in conducting meta-analyses, systematic narrative reviews, and qualitative meta-syntheses. Specifically, we articulate how scholars can promote each of these principles at each stage of the review process to enhance the rigor, relevance, and credibility of their systematic review: (a) framing the problem and research questions; (b) planning procedures to identify, analyze, and synthesize studies; and (c) presenting and interpreting results. Last, we discuss future directions in light of issues of equity and approaches to bridge synthesis findings and practice and policy.

Empirically Derived Single-Case-Design Effect Size Distributions of Engagement and Challenging Behavior in Early Childhood Research

“…For challenging behavior, SMD effect sizes were larger for published studies, but only LRRi effect sizes had a similar pattern in which published sources were associated with an average effect size of approximately double that from unpublished sources. Regardless, this outcome provides empirical support for previous suggestions that attempts to aggregate effect sizes should include sources from gray literature, such as dissertations and theses Cumming et al, 2022;Pigott & Polanin, 2020).…”

Special Education Teachers’ Preservice Experiences With Mixed-Reality Simulation: A Systematic Review

“…Third and finally, although we clearly defined our constructs and methodical procedures, we did not pre-register this study and recognize that as a limitation. We anticipate future researchers will be able to address these limitations by replicating the search using open-science principles (Cumming et al, 2023). Despite these limitations, we believe the present study offers several implications for MRS implementation and future research.…”

A systematic literature review on bi+ college students using an ecological lens.

“…Scholars writing systematic literature reviews often disregard the role that individual researchers play in shaping the synthesis and analysis of the scholarship of interest, even though who one is will shape the research process (Cumming et al, 2023). For this reason, we seek to make it clear who we are as a team and how that informed this systematic literature review.…”