Do Student Characteristics Affect Teachers' Decisions to Use 1:1 Instruction?
Heather J Nuske, Melanie Pellecchia, Viktor Lushin and 9 others
PMID 30972654WHAT IT FOUND
Teachers reported giving more one-to-one instruction to students with more sensory and self-regulation difficulties, lower verbal skills, and less social approach.
They did not give more to students by age, sex, or race.
Key findings
01Higher sensory symptoms, lower social approach, lower verbal skills, and higher self-regulation difficulties were associated with more frequent reported 1:1 instruction for both DTT and PRT.
02Child age, sex, and race were not associated with reported DTT or PRT receipt.
03About half of the differences in reported receipt of treatment were between children within the same classroom rather than between classrooms.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
Teachers reported their own use of 1:1 instruction, so the reported frequencies may be higher than actual classroom use. The study did not observe classroom instruction, so it cannot confirm how much DTT or PRT each child really received. Cognitive, language, and self-regulation scores were measured by study staff, not by the teachers who reported making the instructional decisions. The study did not examine whether teachers' reported decisions were well informed or considerate of each child's individual needs. The teacher sample was 69 of 80 because 11 classrooms had fewer than 2 consented students.
Declared interests
The paper states that all authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these associations as evidence that teachers should give more DTT or PRT to children with these profiles. The study used teacher self-report and did not observe instruction. It examined associations with reported use, not treatment outcomes. It also did not show whether the reported decisions were well informed.