Single-Case Experimental Designs in Educational Research: A Methodology for Causal Analyses in Teaching and Learning

• Published in: Educational psychology review Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 549 - 569
• Main Authors: Plavnick, Joshua B., Ferreri, Summer J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer 01.12.2013; Springer US; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied Behavior Analysis; Attribution Theory; Behavior Patterns; Child and School Psychology; Child Development; Clearinghouses; Control Groups; Disabled students; Education; Educational Policy; Educational Practices; Educational Psychology; Educational Research; Educational Researchers; Evidence-based medicine; Experiment design; Experimental controls; Experimentation; Identification; Instructional Design; Learning; Learning and Instruction; Methods; Observational research; Outcomes of Education; Reflection on the Field; Research design; RESEARCH INTO FIELD; Research Methodology; Research methods; Research studies; Special education; Student Behavior; Teaching methods; Single-case experimental design; Applied behavior analysis; Evidence-based practice
• ISSN: 1040-726X; 1573-336X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10648-013-9230-6

Current legislation requires educational practices be informed by science. The effort to establish educational practices supported by science has, to date, emphasized experiments with large numbers of participants who are randomly assigned to an intervention or control condition. A potential limitation of such an emphasis at the expense of other research methods is that evidence-based practices in education will derive only from science in the hypothetico-deductive tradition. Such a process omits practices originating from and tested through an inductive approach to understanding phenomena. Single-case experimental designs, developed by experimental and applied behavior analysts, offer an inductive process to identify and alter the lawful relations between the behavior of individual organisms and the environmental variables that are causally related to the occurrence or nonoccurrence of the behavior. Such designs have been essential in the development of effective instructional practices for students with disabilities and have much to offer the broader educational population as well. The purpose of the present paper is to provide an overview of single-case research methodology and the process by which this methodology can contribute to the identification of evidence-based instructional practices.