1. WHAT REALLY WORKS in Special and Inclusive Education
DoSE Meeting
August 18, 2016
Lori Dehart, Behavior Consultant

2. Major Contributors to Learning
Student
Home
School
Teacher
Curricula
Approaches to Teaching
Students – what the child brings to his/her learning: prior knowledge of learning, expectations, degree of openness to experiences, beliefs about value and worth of investment of learning, self-engagement, reputation as a learner
Home – parental expectations and aspirations for child, knowledge of language of schooling
School – climate (safe, caring environment), peer influences
Teachers – quality of teaching (perceived by students), expectations, all students can progress, achievement for all is changeable not fixed, openness, classroom climate-errors welcomed, articulate success criteria and achievements, foster effort, engage all students
Curriculum – best balance of surface and deep understanding, learning strategies to construct meaning, strategies that are planned, deliberate, and having explicit and active programs that teach specific skills and deeper understanding
Teaching Approaches – attend to learning intentions and success criteria, set challenging tasks, provide multiple opportunities for deliberative practice, knowing when teacher/student is successful in attaining these goals, teach appropriate learning strategies, plan and talk about teaching, seek feedback as to the success of teaching on the students

3. Hattie’s Top 10 1. Student Self-Reported Grades 1.44
2. Piagetian programs
3. Response to intervention
4. Teacher credibility Providing formative evaluation
6. Micro-teaching
7. Classroom discussion
8. Comprehensive interventions for learning
disabled students
9. Teacher clarity
10. Feedback
Rank order of influences on achievement
Appendix C – p. 266 VL for Teachers by John Hattie

4. What teachers do matters.
It is critical that the teaching and learning are visible. Teaching must be visible to the student and learning visible to the teacher = more successful outcomes.
Teachers must be activators, change agents, and directors of learning.

5. Progress is Built Upon Evidence
Medical advances
Information and communications technology
Transportation
Farming
Education??
What Really Works in Special and Inclusive Education presents teachers with a range of evidence-based strategies they can immediately put into practice in their classrooms.
David Mitchell, a leading writer in special and inclusive education, continues to break new ground with revised and updated strategies based on evidence from the most recent studies in the field. From the myriad of related research available, only those studies with genuine potential for improving the practices of teachers and schools have been included, with the aim of facilitating high-quality learning and social outcomes for all learners in schools
‘This is the book I wish I had written, synthesizing an enormous literature focused on special needs students. It is robust, it is readable, and it is your right-hand resource. A stunner of a book.’
–Professor John Hattie, University of Melbourne, author of Visible Learning
Education – lagging behind scientific advances of other items – behind what is potentially available to them in research and what constitutes teaching

6. Chapter 1
Introduction

7. Evidence-based Teaching Strategies
Clearly specified teaching methods that have been shown in controlled research to be effective in bringing about desired outcomes in a delineated population of learners.
The central idea in this book is that, to enhance student performance, educators could, and should, be drawing upon the best available evidence as they plan, implement, and evaluate their teaching.

8. Teacher Effectiveness
The value you add to your learners’ store of information, concepts, skills and values;
The degree of independence your learners are able to exercise in managing their own learning now and in the future; and
The extent to which you develop a sense of well-being in learners
Mitchell states that ultimately, the effectiveness of your teaching is judged by:

9. Influences On Learners’ Development
Individual Students: account for about 50% of their own achievement, and possibly more for those with special needs
Teachers: account for about 30% of achievement (this is why it is important to use well-founded teaching strategies)
Schools: account for about 5-10% of achievement (principals)
Peers: account for 5-10% of achievement
Homes: account for 5-10% of achievement (expectations & encouragement)
As an educator you play a vital role in helping learners to develop these attributes. For example, one writer recently estimated the following influences on learners’ development:
Read the slide

10. How Do We Know What Works?
Intervention Fidelity
Behavioral Outcomes
Learner Characteristics
Control of Variables
Freedom from contamination
Acceptable side effects
Theory-based
Follow-up
Research versus natural conditions
Peer review
Replication
Cost effectiveness
Practical significance
accessibility
Ideally, evidence that a particular strategy works should be based on carefully designed research studies that meet the following criteria:
Read the slide

11. What Works Best?
Instead of asking “what works?,” ask “what works best?”
Effect size of 4.0 set s a level where the effects of innovation enhance achievement in such a way that we can notice real-world differences, and this should be a benchmark of such real-world change. Not a magic number or cut-off point, but a guideline to begin discussions about what we can aim for if we want to see students change - A standard from which to judge effects.
Most assessments can be used to calculate effect size. 1 year=.4, 2 yrs=.8
An influence needs at least 2 months to see change that can be measured by effect size.
(This info is key when doing interventions.)
Yellow – Developmental Effects
Red – Reverse Effects

12. 27 Strategies
Ranking
**** Convincing or strong evidence of effectiveness (effect size 0.7 or greater)
*** Good, or preponderant, evidence of effectiveness (effect size of )
In this book you will find 27 strategies, 5 of them being embedded in wider strategies. Lets look at them in the table of contents you will find these listed.
Mitchell has assigned a grading system outlined on the slide. With the exception of 2 strategies he decided not to rate.
The distribution of rankings:
4 stars: 16 strategies
3 ½ stars: 6 strategies
3 stars: 5 strategies
**** Shows that learners with special educational needs undoubtedly benefit from the strategy. Such effect sizes show, for example, that the scores of a learner at the 50th percentile would increase to at least the 76th percentile
*** Shows that learners with special educational needs probably benefit from the strategy. These effect sizes indicate that the strategy results in improvements in scores from, for example, the 50th percentile to a band of the 62nd-75th percentile

13. Yes --sometimes AND No– GOOD Teaching!!
Do we really have to do something different for students with special needs?
Yes --sometimes
AND
No– GOOD Teaching!!
Yes, for some learners especially those with very high needs (ex. Visual impairments, deaf, speech & language deficits, intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities)
No, for the most part, learners with special needs simply require GOOD Teaching!!!

14. Chapter 2
Learning and Teaching Model

15. A Learning and Teaching Model
Model sets the scene for the teaching strategies
The model outlines the relationship between the requirements of various tasks and a learner’s performance. Factors that influence the relationship:
Biological structures & functions
Motivational states
Cognitive strategies
Memory
*ALL factors require an evidence-based, responsive environment, which can be created by the educator.

16. Wide range of individual differences among learners in their:
Biological structures
Primary memories
Goals for learning
Confidence in themselves as learners
Trust in their environments
Executive systems
Capacity to hold material in their short-term working memories
Knowledge held in their long-term memories
Strategies for accessing their long-term memories
Strategies for placing material in their long-term memories
Contexts in which they are embedded
One size Still DOES NoT Fit All
One size does not fit all!
Read more about each individual difference in Chapter 2

17. strategies

18. Outline For Training Each Strategy
The Strategy
Underlying Idea
The Practice (including your role)
Evidence
Addressing Risks
Conclusion
Further reading
Website resources
This is the information provided for each strategy.

19. Survey Monkey Choose 3 Strategies you would like to learn about
firsthttps:// com/r/XNR5HSZ

20. Self-Rating Scale
Please complete the self-evaluation

21. Resources

22. Best Evidence Encyclopedia
The Best Evidence Encyclopedia is a website created by the Johns Hopkins University School of Education’s Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education. It is intended to give educators and researchers fair and useful information about the strength of the evidence supporting a variety of programmes available for students in grades K–12. It provides summaries of scientific reviews produced by many authors and organizations, as well as links to the full texts of each review.

23. The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy
This US Coalition advocates many types of research to identify the most promising social interventions. However, a central theme of its advocacy is that evidence of effectiveness generally cannot be considered definitive without ultimate confirmation in well-conducted randomized controlled trials.

24. What Works Clearinghouse
This US clearinghouse reviews the research on the different programmes, products, practicesand policies in education. By focusing on the results from high-quality research, it tries to answer the question “What works in education?” Its goal is to provide educators with the information they need to make evidence-based decisions.

25. Fidelity of implementation: Selecting and implementing evidence-based practices and programmes.
This module discusses the importance of selecting evidence-based practices and programmes. It also examines actions that school personnel can take to increase the likelihood that the practice or programme is implemented as it was designed.