Understanding Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education Professional Access to and Utilization of Evidence-Based Practices

ABSTRACT

Federal legislation and regulations addressing educational practices have provided clear mandates that educators when designing educational intervention use systematic decision-making processes to identify instructional strategies and methods that are evidence based. This study employed a survey to examine how familiar early interventionist/early childhood educators, who serve young children aged birth to eight, seek information on evidenced -based practices (EBP) prior to implementing a practice. This study also explored methods that educators use and prefer to access information about EBPs. A total of 223 educators completed the survey that included four identified subgroups (teachers, related service providers, administrators, and faculty/researchers/trainers). We found that most respondents, across the groups, reported being familiar or somewhat familiar with research evidence for their practices and chose discussion with colleagues as the most frequently used strategy to learn and make decisions about a new practice. Implications for future research and professional development are discussed.

Acknowledgments

The initial work resulting in the development of this manuscript was supported in part from a subcontract to the University of Kansas from the University of Connecticut under Cooperative Agreement #H325B120004 from the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the universities or the agency, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).