EBP Paper

EEX 6051 – Evidence-Based Practices Assignment

This assignment is designed to help you become familiar with journals and current research in the field of special education with a focus on a critical analysis of an educational strategy. It is also designed to help you further develop your skills of analyzing and synthesizing research, concise writing, and APA formatting.

Assignment Steps

1. Select a research-based instructional strategy designed to serve students with exceptionalities and conduct a review of the professional, peer-reviewed literature using the UWF library databases. You must select a specific strategy and not a comprehensive program or broad group of strategies.

a. Your text is a great resource for selecting a strategy. Note that you must get your instructor’s approval regarding which strategy you will investigate.

Non-Example/Example

· Inappropriate topic (too broad) – “Effective communication techniques”

· More appropriate topic (more specific, but still needs to be refined) – “Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). (NOTE: PECS is off limits; please choose other strategies.)

· When I searched “PECS” in the library database for peer-reviewed articles, I had 100 results (too many). I added “speech” to narrow the focus and locate articles that researched PECS to improve speech (results were 24 articles). While this is better, I still narrowed by adding “autism” (results were 22 articles). After reviewing the returns, I noticed that there were 4 articles that were meta-analyses (reviews of multiple studies). I decided to narrow my topic to ”the use of PECS to increase speech for individuals with autism”. I could focus on the 4 meta-analyses and include other appropriate research articles, as needed, to support my thesis and main discussion points in the synthesis matrix (which is explained below).

2. Develop a thesis and 2-3 main ideas based on the peer-reviewed articles related to your strategy. You may use meta-analyses and comprehensive literature reviews to support your thesis. However, research articles must be used to support your main ideas. Specifically, the research articles must be a report of an experimental research design.

a. A thesis is more than just a presentation of the professional literature about the topic. It is a one-sentence statement that is an argument or claim about the research findings on the strategy based on a thorough level of analysis of the professional literature. Before finalizing your thesis, be sure that there is enough research in the professional literature to support it.

b. Your main ideas are two to three ideas, or conclusions, represented across the studies you have reviewed. It is also appropriate to focus one of your main ideas on critical gaps, or points of disagreement, in the research. Each main idea must be supported by four studies.

3. Complete the synthesis matrix using the format presented below. This synthesis matrix includes:

a. Information describing the findings in each research article that support your main ideas (thus supporting your thesis). This is content you will put in the tables. You are to write this information in your own words so that you can avoid plagiarizing the authors’ works.

b. Summary paragraphs written in your own words describing the support for each main idea. In your summary paragraphs, which will be placed beneath the tables, you should avoid summarizing each article separately. Your goal is to identify common themes/conclusions across articles related to your main ideas and, if appropriate, to identify any points of disagreement across articles.

Submission guidelines:

· Your assignment must be formatted in the Synthesis Matrix Template (provided at the end of this document)

· Your strategy description and summary paragraphs must be written in APA 7th edition format (formatting, in-text citations, and a references page).

· Use peer-reviewed articles from the library databases to support your thesis and main ideas.

· NO direct quotes allowed. Summarize in your own words.

· Submit your assignment to the appropriate assignment links in the course.

Synthesis Matrix Template

Student Name:

Strategy Name and Description:

· Indicate the specific strategy for which you are conducting this research review and describing the strategy (e.g., specific steps, process, etc.) in paragraph format. Be sure to use in-text citations within this paragraph(s) to credit ideas to the authors of the works you used.

Thesis:

· Write your thesis here. This is a specific claim or argument related to research findings on the strategy, and it should be written as a one-sentence statement. It can be based on a peer-reviewed meta-analysis or comprehensive literature review.

Main Idea #1 (required) Write your main idea here as a complete sentence. Remember, this can either be a common conclusion across articles or a point of disagreement across articles.
Source A	Source B	Source C	Source D
You must have 4 research studies to support your main idea. You are to address each study in a separate column in this table (i.e., one study in the column titled, “Source A,” one in Source B, etc.). Specifically, describe the findings in each research article that supports your main idea (thus supporting your thesis).Note the participants, strategy, and findings.	Include same type of information as Source A	Include same type of information as Source A	Include same type of information as Source A

Summary Paragraph(s) for Main Idea #1:

You are to write a summary paragraph that begins with your main idea and includes the research findings from the professional literature that supports the identified main idea. Be sure you are synthesizing the information you have found (discussing common ideas across articles instead of discussing each article individually).

Main Idea #2 (required) Write your main idea here as a complete sentence. Remember, this can either be a common conclusion across articles or a point of disagreement across articles.
Source A	Source B	Source C	Source D
You must have 4 research studies to support your main idea. You are to address each study in a separate column in this table (i.e., one study in the column titled, “Source A,” one in Source B, etc.). Specifically, describe the findings in each research article that supports your main idea (thus supporting your thesis).Note the participants, strategy, and findings.	Include same type of information as Source A	Include same type of information as Source A	Include same type of information as Source A

Summary Paragraph(s) for Main Idea #2:

Follow instructions from above (Summary for Main Idea #1)

Main Idea #3 (optional) Write your main idea here as a complete sentence. Remember, this can either be a common conclusion across articles or a point of disagreement across articles.
Source A	Source B	Source C	Source D
You must have 4 research studies to support your main idea. You are to address each study in a separate column in this table (i.e., one study in the column titled, “Source A,” one in Source B, etc.). Specifically, describe the findings in each research article that supports your main idea (thus supporting your thesis).Note the participants, strategy, and findings.	Include same type of information as Source A	Include same type of information as Source A	Include same type of information as Source A

Summary Paragraph(s) for Main Idea #3:

Follow instructions from above (Summary for Main Idea #1)

References

These should be on a separate page and written using APA 7th edition formatting.