Evidence-Based Practice Review on Teaching Social Studies to Students With Moderate-to-Severe Disabilities

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The purpose of this literature review was to identify the social studies skills and levels of learning taught to students with moderate-to-severe disabilities (SWMSD) using the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) disciplines, to determine the extent to which the studies met the Council for Exceptional Children’s (CEC) quality indicators for methodologically sound research, and to identify the evidence-based classification for each instructional practice. A total of 15 studies met the quality indicators for methodologically sound research. This review revealed that social studies content was taught across all NCSS disciplines, including history, geography, economics, and civics. The levels of learning addressed in social studies instruction were primarily conceptual and factual; few studies included procedural or investigative skills. No individual instructional practice could be classified as an evidence-based practice for teaching social studies to SWMSD, according to CEC criteria. However, six practices were identified as potentially evidence-based practices: the system of least prompts, constant time delay, simultaneous prompting, graphic organizers, video modeling, and the structured inquiry model. Future research, limitations, and recommendations for practice are discussed.