Proceed With Caution: Using Web-Based Resources for Instructing Students With and at Risk for EBD

Abstract

A new student, Aiden Rayburn, who is eligible for special education services with an emotional disorder, has joined Ms. Nelson's third-grade classroom. Ms. Nelson received information from his previous school that Aiden has a hard time sitting in his seat and frequently engages in behaviors like slamming his fists on the table when he is frustrated. Ms. Nelson wants to make sure that she is adequately prepared to meet his needs, so she begins to search for ideas on ways to help him stay on task and manage his outbursts. She sits down at her computer and accesses the Teachers Pay Teachers website, which many of her colleagues told her they use when they need ideas for teaching. Ms. Nelson types "behavior management strategies" in the search bar. She instantly receives hundreds of pins with ideas for classroom management, many of which look potentially relevant for Aiden. As she begins to click on different links, Ms. Nelson becomes overwhelmed. There are so many choices. "How do I tell which are the most effective?" she asks herself. Eventually, Ms. Nelson chooses a resource called "Smile/Frown Behavior Strips" because it comes with materials and clear guidelines for implementation. She introduces the strategy with Aiden, but is disappointed to discover that it does not seem to be working. Moreover, she believes that implementation is contributing to a straining of the relationship between Ms. Nelson, Aiden, and Aiden's parents. The more she employs the downloaded technique, the more challenging Aiden's behaviors become. General and special education teachers need to understand the unique needs of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) and use effective instructional practices and strategies to meet those needs. The story of Ms. Nelson provides a cautionary tale of teachers using websites such as Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) to get ideas and strategies for addressing challenging behaviors in their classrooms, including those of students with and at risk for EBD. Educators commonly use social media to virtually access instructional resources and recommendations. In 2015, for example, Cummings reported that approximately 1.3 million educational resources were pinned on Pinterest every day. Yet resources and recommendations on these websites are not vetted and may contain misleading information, facilitating teachers' selection and implementation of ineffective strategies that fail to improve student behavior and other outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the pros and cons of Pinterest and TpT and consider why they are popular with teachers, explore specific resources on Pinterest and TpT, and provide recommendations for educators on how to appropriately use Internet resources, including Pinterest and TpT, to inform instruction.

A Theoretical Framework for Studying Teachers’ Curriculum Supplementation

“…Generally, researchers and teams of experts who comment on the quality and effectiveness of online supplemental materials find them lacking. Researchers have warned that resources downloaded from the internet are no substitute for good pedagogy, especially for students with special needs (Beahm et al, 2019; Miller, 2015). A content analysis of Pinterest posts related to operations with negative integers found that 31% of pins contained conceptual errors and just 15% of pins provided any real-world context for the math exercises (Hertel & Wessman-Enzinger, 2017).…”

Estimating the Impact of Design Standards on the Rigor of a Subset of Single-Case Research

“…For practitioners who receive training in single-case research methodology, such as board certified behavior analysts, the situation is still problematic, as these practitioners must continually wade through more research every year to identify a rigorous study without the expectation that recent publications will be more rigorous. Difficulty associated with locating rigorous research to support instructional decision making in applied educational settings may contribute to the frequent use of alternative sources, such as web-based resources, for decision-making for students in special education (e.g., Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers; Beahm et al, 2019;Cleaver & Wood, 2018). Given that there is a small likelihood that these web-based resources include research-supported practices (Beahm et al, 2019), future studies should investigate how practitioners differentiate high-and low-quality studies when selecting research to support instructional decision-making given the findings in this article.…”

“…Difficulty associated with locating rigorous research to support instructional decision making in applied educational settings may contribute to the frequent use of alternative sources, such as web-based resources, for decision-making for students in special education (e.g., Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers; Beahm et al, 2019;Cleaver & Wood, 2018). Given that there is a small likelihood that these web-based resources include research-supported practices (Beahm et al, 2019), future studies should investigate how practitioners differentiate high-and low-quality studies when selecting research to support instructional decision-making given the findings in this article. Graphs display the estimated trend lines indicating the probability of a study containing a design meeting What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) standards for rigor when studies contain (i.e., comparison group) and do not contain (i.e., treatment group) a multiple-probe design; top graph trend lines are calculated using average coefficient estimates from Model 3; bottom graph trend lines are calculated using the upper-bound 95% confidence interval estimate for ZXT variable and all other variables held constant from Model 3.…”

The Impact of Fidget Toys on Story Detail Acquisition and Visual Attention for Elementary Students With Autism

“…Despite mixed evidence supporting their utility, the provision of sensory materials in the environment continues to be a popular intervention selected by occupational therapists, teachers, and families to improve attention and engagement for students with autism (Beahm et al, 2019; Piller & Pfeiffer, 2016; Schecter et al, 2017). Common sensory materials’ interventions include handheld materials such as fidget toys (e.g., fidget spinners; Aspiranti & Hulac, 2022; Ledford et al, 2023) and alternative seating such as therapy balls (Bagatell et al, 2010) or therapy cushions (Umeda & Deitz, 2011).…”