Research Methodology in Special Education: A 20-Year Perspective

The aims of this article are twofold. First, the author summarizes scholars’ fruitful labor in advancing special education research over the past 20 years. Second, the author hopes to provide practitioners and other nonresearchers a better understanding of how different research designs inform and develop instructional practices in the field of special education. The main take-away message of this article is that research designs in special education are evolving to be varied, sophisticated, and insightful over the past 20 years. Meanwhile, researchers are also devoting to refine research designs into higher quality, more transparent, and more open.