Expanding frontiers in research designs, methods, and measurement in support of evidence-based practice in early childhood special education

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss advances in research designs and methods useful for generating plausible causal evidence in early childhood special education. In addition, we describe contemporary perspectives about measurement and present example applications in early childhood special education. We begin the chapter by reviewing briefly the strengths, limitations, and implementation challenges associated with the conduct of randomized controlled trials or randomized field trials in early childhood special education research. This includes discussion of various design validity threats and issues related to causal inference. We then consider quasi-experimental and correlational research designs and discuss circumstances under which these designs might be appropriately and usefully applied to generate plausible causal evidence in early childhood special education research. Finally, we review current conceptualizations about reliability and validity and illustrate how generalizability theory and item response theory represent measurement advances for application in early childhood special education. Throughout the chapter, we illustrate the use of these designs and methodologies in early childhood education or early childhood special education through hypothetical examples or by presenting examples of published studies that have implemented these designs.