Canada does not have a national system wide assessment of the socioeconomic impacts of academic research. We do not have a Research Excellence Framework such as in the United Kingdom. Yet Canadian researchers, funders and institutions are interested in research impact, particularly the methods and processes for generating impacts to complement…

In this theoretical paper, we advocate for educational researchers to embrace co-design as a means of fostering sustainable solutions in educational settings. While co-design has been increasingly recognized for its collaborative potential, we suggest that its effectiveness can be further enhanced by drawing from three complementary perspectives:…

Background: Active Support is a staff practice that aims to increase engagement of people with intellectual disabilities. This study seeks to: (1) identify the outcomes of staff using Active Support and how these are measured; (2) identify how the views of people with intellectual disabilities have been included in Active Support research. Method:…

Extended reality (XR) such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) has been heralded as a particularly promising technology for autistic people. However, prior studies have centered around curing or ameliorating deficits and impairments and are typically conducted by non-disabled and non-autistic researchers. Using co-design and a…

Regression discontinuity (RD) designs have gained significant popularity as a quasi-experimental device for evaluating education programs and policies. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of RD designs, focusing on the continuity-based framework, the most widely adopted RD framework. We first review the fundamental aspects of RD…

Single-case comparative studies could help identify efficient instructional procedures for individuals with disabilities. However, previous literature reported inconsistent efficiency results if multiple comparisons were conducted, indicating that within-participant replication was uncommon. In this review, we examined single-case comparative…

Reading is a complex, uniquely human invention for communication through print. It is a critical ability for making progress in education. Students with reading difficulties, the most common learning disability, struggle with reading fluency and accuracy. Skilled reading is enabled by the coordination of a network of brain regions interconnected…

Methods to estimate the causal effects of interventions are increasingly used in clinical medicine, public policy and social science. Using observational data, researchers can obtain causal treatment effect estimates without the ethical risks and time constraints that typically burden randomized experiments. The three studies in this dissertation…

Physical activity (PA) promotion is an ideal intervention target for public health because it has the potential to help individuals feel better, sleep better, and perform daily tasks more easily, in addition to providing disease prevention benefits. There is strong evidence that individual-level theory-based behavioral interventions are effective…

Educational robotics is presented as a resource increasingly present in the early childhood education stage, allowing the development of STEM competences in a practical and motivating way. Due to the evolution of its use in the classroom, the aim of this paper was to analyse and evaluate research on robotics applied to early childhood education.…

Schools can play an important role in addressing growing concerns about adolescent mental health. Mental health of high school students has predominantly been the focus in literature with less emphasis on younger adolescents. This review identified articles published in the last decade that described evaluations of middle school-based mental…

Numerous reviews have synthesized the empirical research on the effectiveness of teacher education, highlighting teacher education effectiveness research (TEER) as an emerging research paradigm. Our systematic search identified 27 reviews related to TEER, wherein teacher education is broadly understood as comprising all stages of teacher…

As digital integration transforms modern society, equipping young learners with computational thinking (CT) skills has become an essential educational goal. However, many education systems face challenges in adapting curricula to include CT, particularly in early childhood education where resources, teacher preparedness, and instructional design…

Research increasingly seeks to answer the question: does special education work? This is different than asking if specific interventions have positive effects and instead aims to identify system-wide impacts. We systematically review published quantitative research on the impact of receiving special education services on student outcomes using…

Systematic reviews of single-case experimental research (SCER) in special education often use the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Standards to assess the methodological rigor of studies within a given literature base. While significant changes were made between the two most recent versions of the WWC standards, no research to date has evaluated the…