Running head: SPECIAL EDUCATION 1

Including Evidence-Based (EBP) Strategies and Supports in Individualized Education

Programme (IEP) Development

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Including Evidence-Based (EBP) Strategies and Supports in Individualized Education

Programme (IEP) Development

Introduction

Many scholars and educational advocates often speculate that education is the key to

the advancement of society; something that is entirely true. In the contemporary era of

educational reforms, new methodologies of pedagogy are coming up, and although some are

not relevant, most of them are in line with the educational goals of a large group of learners.

In this age where even learners who have special educational needs are taken into

consideration in most educational curricula, teachers and other educational stakeholders often

face many challenges as to how best to formulate comprehensive educational programmes. It

is for this reason then that the concept of Individualized Education Programme came into

existence. IEP, as is often termed, is a construct of pedagogy where each learner with a

special educational need has a tailor-made programme designed to meet their individual

needs. Thus, therefore, IEP strategies need to have backing to be relevant to current practice.

In this regard, any IEP for a special needs learner need to be premised on Evidence-Based

Practices (EBP), a subject that this paper aims to discuss in-depth.

EBP in the field of Special Education

The evidence is a group of pertinent information or facts obtained through various

means of assessment. In the field of education, evidence may come from a variety of sources

which include teacher assessments, tests, peer assessments and practical performance among

other indicators. In this regard, the evidence gathered through these forms of assessment aids

and educator to analyze how well the student is attaining the set educational outcomes. The

evidence garnered in the field of special education helps inform educators on the best

practices in pedagogy (Mitchell, 2018). Therefore, EBP in special education is a collection of

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the best practices that most educators have tried and proven that they work in enabling

learners to attain educational outcomes.

As easy as it seems, determining the best EBP especially in the field of special

education is often tasking. As the name suggests, EBP is not only the practices that an

educator uses every day, but they are also the practical strategies that have not only shown

success but are repeatable across a range of students with almost similar educational needs.

The criteria for determining what passes as EBP is therefore not secure. However, certain

factors come close to analyzing what moves for as good strategies. To this end, EBP

strategies should be in relevance to research material that scholars are working on, and they

must also be practical in the field. The reason for this is that special education is a flimsy

subject and hence, it needs an intense study to understand the best practices that are certain to

work. Therefore, EBP is a construct of real time evaluation of a special needs student where

the educator assesses the effectiveness of these strategies. The educator makes these

decisions based on how well the educator is attaining the set of educational outcomes

(Lambert-Lee et al., 2015).

EBP is of paramount importance in the field of education for a variety of reasons. For

one, special needs learners have diverse educational goals, and thus, it is essential to tailor the

pedagogy to suit their level of educational attainment and expectations. Secondly, educational

outcomes for special needs learners are not in tandem with the regular learners, and this often

makes the former feel left out in classroom sessions. Hence, EBP suggests that the educator

employ the best appropriate strategies to develop an IEP for these learners so that they can

attain educational outcomes expected of them. Finally, EBP is the source of new pedagogical

methods that are likely to have higher relevance to the current age of revolution in virtually

all sectors that pertain to education (Dunst, 2016). To this end, EBP strategies will ensure that
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the educator incorporates all the necessary supportive measures to ensure the unique needs

learner attains their educational outcomes.

There are many resources for locating EBP strategies, especially in this age of

information and technology. Research findings and scholarly journals are on an ever-

increasing demand, and output and these sources of information are vital to locating the

relevant strategies. One such resource is a peer-reviewed journal article on the subject matter

(Schles & Robertson, 2017). The research article highlights the appropriate evaluation tools

to determine the plan that classify as EBP. With this regard, it asserts that EBP is a gathering

of education based practices and current research in the same field where both back each

other on the relevance of these practices. The article went ahead to state that the best way to

come up with EBP strategies is to observe a large group of special needs learners to assess for

the relevance of these techniques which can then be repeated for a larger sample.

In the future, I plan to incorporate EBP by keeping abreast with the current literature

on pedagogical strategies for special needs education. Additionally, I will conduct subjective

assessments on my students to discover the best strategies to ensure that they meet their

educational outcomes.

Conclusion

Pedagogical techniques, especially in the field of special education, are still a far cry

from perfection. With the adoption of EBP strategies in the area; however, educational

outcomes for special needs students will be useful. Educators need to embrace this new trend

of incorporating EBP strategies in designing IEP for their students. The move will ensure that

both the educator and the learner amicably achieve the set objectives. The reason for this is

that the educator will only push the learner as far as he/she can go and work methodologically

towards advancing the learner’s educational outcomes.

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References

Dunst, C. J. (2016). Role of Research Syntheses for Identifying Evidence-Based Early

Childhood Intervention Practices. Handbook of Early Childhood Special Education,

541-563. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-28492-7_28

Lambert-Lee, K. A., Jones, R., O'Sullivan, J., Hastings, R. P., Douglas-Cobane, E., Thomas

J., E., … Griffith, G. (2015). Translating evidence-based practice into a

comprehensive educational model within an autism-specific special school. British

Journal of Special Education, 42(1), 69-86. doi:10.1111/1467-8578.12090

Mitchell, D. (2018). Evidence-Based Practices in Special Schooling. Oxford Research

Encyclopedia of Education. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1201

Schles, R. A., & Robertson, R. E. (2017). The Role of Performance Feedback and

Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices for Preservice Special Education

Teachers and Student Outcomes: A Review of the Literature. Teacher Education and

Special Education: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for

Exceptional Children, 42(1), 36-48. doi:10.1177/0888406417736571