Evidence Based Practice: Promoting Evidence-Based Interventions in School Psychology

+ Evidence Based Practice: Promoting Evidence-Based Interventions in School Psychology

Training School Psychologists to be Experts in Evidence Based Practices for Tertiary Students with Serious Emotional Disturbance/Behavior Disorders

US Office of Education 84.325K

H325K080308

Presented by:

Clara Mills

+ The Task Force on Evidence-Based Interventions in School Psychology(Task Force)

The Task Force was formed to identify, review, and code studies of psychological and educational interventions for behavioral, emotional, and academic problems and disorders for school-aged children and their families.

+Definition of Evidence-Based Practice Definition of EBP by Hoagwood and Johnson (2003):

The term "evidence-based practice" (EBP) refers to a body of scientific knowledge, defined usually by reference to research methods or designs, about a range of service practices (e.g., referral, assessment, case management, therapies, or support services) .... The knowledge base is usually generated through application of particular inclusions criteria (e.g., type of design, types of outcome assessments) and it generally describes the impact of particular service practices on child, adolescent, or family outcomes.

+ The Goal of this Article is too…

present an overview of issues related to EBP and the role that the school psychology profession can play in developing and disseminating EBP interventions. The goal is to promote the use of EBI in psychology and education and specifically school psychology.

+Historical Problems and Current Challenges Integrating EBI’s into practice: Historically there has been a

hiatus between research and practice: the scientist-practitioner model used in graduate programs (counseling, clinical, school) uses EBP framework but proposed applications have not been successful in practice.

The use of manual-based treatments or procedures may run counter to the philosophical or theoretical beliefs of trainers and practitioners (see Kratochwill & Stoiber, 2002).

Problems surrounding adoption of EBI’s thought of as sole responsibility of practitioners when it should be the shared responsibility of practitioners, researchers, and trainers.

+Historical Problems and Current Challenges

There are too many different groups trying to review programs, each using their own criteria for coding studies. This creates challenges for consumers.

Some psychologists may pay more attention to clinical judgment rather than by research.

Many psychologists do not have the training to implement EBI’s.

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Need for shared responsibility (between practitioners, trainers, and researchers)

Need for Evidence Based Practice guidelines to support implementation (Use manuals that allow for flexibility and local adaptation)

Need for enhanced practice guidelines to ensure efficacy. (this could ensure effective use of the intervention)

Need for professional development (for graduate students and practitioners)

Need for a scientist-practitioner training model

Assumptions About Integrating EBI’s in Practice

+ Strategies to Guide the use of EBI’s in Practice Develop a practice-research network in school psychology. Promote an expanded methodology for evidence-based

practices that takes into account EBIs in practice contexts Establish guidelines that school psychology practitioners

can use in implementing and evaluating EBIs in practice Create professional development opportunities for

practitioners, researchers, and trainers Forge a partnership with other professional groups involved

in the EBl agenda.

+Defining a Practice-Research Network

Hayes et al. (1999) define a practice-research network as a group of practitioners engaged in the evaluation of clinical replication outcome research.

This helps practitioners be part of a research team and help EBI’s work better in real world settings.

+Developing a Practice-Research Network To implement this for school psychology, the Task Force

has invited school psychology practitioners to join them in testing EBI’s in practice settings.

The Task Force will also evaluate EBI’s in practice through competency based training on EBI’s and the development of an evaluation framework.

The Task Force will also assess the attitudes toward the adoption of Evidence-Based Practice and code interventions on qualitative practice criteria.

+ Promoting research on the Efficacy and Effectiveness of EBI’s Efficacy is the standard for evaluating interventions in

controlled research. Effectiveness is the standard for evaluating

interventions in a practice context. Both types of studies are needed by the school

psychology profession.

+ Chorpita (2003) grouped research designed to advance EBP into four groups:

Efficacy studies (evaluating interventions in controlled research settings)

Transportablity studies (examine the degree to which intervention effects generalize to practice settings and if implementing it in a practice setting is feasible)

Dissemination studies (use intervention agents that are part of the system of service—in our case, the school)

System evaluation studies (used to establish independence from the “investigator effect”- the sustainability of an intervention is investigated)

+ Evaluation of EBI’s by Practitioners

+ Evaluation of EBI’s by Practitioners

+ Establishing Guidelines

Focus on understanding basic principles of change Focus on understanding indications and

contraindications of EBIs (know how to interpret the research)

Focus on understanding the variability in intervention implementation (practitioners need guidance to reduce variability)

Focus on teaching the basic principles of careful EBI selections

Focus on the evaluation of EBI’s in practice

+ Creating Professional Development Opportunities APA and NASP emphasize professional development in

their code of ethics. Development opportunities in the area of EBI’s should

be available to practitioners, researchers, and trainers. A recent study by (Shernoff et al., 2003) shows that

only 31% of recent graduates of school psychology programs were familiar with EBI’s.

School psychology graduate education programs must give students training on EBI’s in coursework and in practical experience.

+ Collaborating with Other Professionals Collaboration among professional groups would help

the EBI movement. All groups should have a chance to communicate and

voice their opinions. Groups must also compare the criteria they use to

designate an intervention as an EBI and see if their systems are coming up with similar results.

+ Future Directions

The sustainability of the EBI movement will depend on collaboration between individuals.

These individuals must have a vested interest in its agenda.

School psychology can be a leader in this effort.