Evidence based instruction and intervention

Evidence based instruction and intervention

Introduction

In order to make decisions about how to deliver instruction, evidence-based instruction is the integration of professional wisdom with best available empirical evidence (Whitehurst, 2002). Basically, evidence-based instruction is the methodology, program and/or practice having records of success. Valid and reliable evidence points out that intervention does tend to work. Nevertheless, the practical application of evidence-based instruction is by means of the integration of the expertise of the practitioner with best available research evidence. Whether intervention or the specific instruction is producing the desired results is eventually determined by the practitioner (Frederickson, 2002).

Although the one best model of instruction or program has not been identified by research which would work for all students, consistent results have been achieved through examinations of the best practices. Effective teachers are clearly making a difference by incorporating practices which are purely research-based in their teaching. Student response to instructions goes to show the quality of instruction they are receiving, a fact well-known to effective teachers and researchers alike. The quality of instruction depends on three variables; the student's level of success, the time on task and the content covered (Archer and Isaacson, 1989).

Discussion

The students tend to spend a major part of their instructional time engaged actively and engrossed in learning, as a result of proper management of instruction by the effective teachers. Therefore, students progress smoothly through the curriculum and achieve a high level of success.

It is imperative for education that effective instruction is implemented in a proper way. The importance of using evidence-based instruction is focused on in various national mandates in a lot of countries. Thus, it is very important for educators and evaluators to have proper knowledge of what makes up evidence-based.

Mastery Learning (ML), a universal evidence-based reading intervention was implemented by Kellam and colleagues, in a series of studies, in Baltimore City Schools (Kellam, Mayer, Hawkins and Rebok, 1998). An approach to mastery which was purely group based, and a rather flexible corrective process were the key elements of the ML intervention. Kellam and colleagues considered around 1,000 first grade students a control condition, or a universal behavioral intervention condition in order to examine the effects of ML. The implementation of the ML took place in the fall of the school year, and in the spring of the same year an examination of the effects was carried out. Over the course of the first grade, ML had an important direct effect on reading achievement, as illustrated by the Baltimore City Schools study results. On aggressive and depressive symptoms, indirect effects of ML were also reported. Thus evidence-based, universal reading instruction can have a very positive impact on the outcomes of social/emotional behavior and reading achievement, as indicated by the studies carried out by Kellam and colleagues. For first grade students, the researchers found out that not only did the reading outcomes improved due to the universal reading instruction but it lowered the early symptoms of aggression and depression amongst these ...