In Bayesian random-effects meta-analysis, the use of weakly informative prior distributions is of particular benefit in cases where only a few studies are included, a situation often encountered in health technology assessment (HTA). Suggestions for empirical prior distributions are available in the literature but it is unknown whether these are…

Component network meta-analysis (CNMA) compares treatments comprising multiple components and estimates the effects of individual components. For network meta-analysis, a standard network plot with nodes for treatments and edges for direct comparisons between treatments is drawn to visualize the evidence structure and the connections between…

Network meta-analysis (NMA) compares the efficacy and harm between several treatments by combining direct and indirect evidence. The validity of NMA requires that all available evidence form a coherent network. Failure to meet such requirement is known as inconsistency. The most popular approach to inconsistency detection is to compare the direct…

Background/Context: Methodological background: Meta-analysis typically depends on the assumption that true effects follow the normal distribution. While assuming normality of effect "estimates" is often supported by a central limit theorem, normality for the distribution of interventions' "true" effects is a computational…

In systematic reviews, meta-analyses are routinely applied to summarize the results of the relevant studies for a specific research question. If one can assume that in all studies the same true effect is estimated, the application of a meta-analysis with common effect (commonly referred to as fixed-effect meta-analysis) is adequate. If…

Network meta-analysis (NMA) uses both direct and indirect evidence to compare the efficacy and harm between several treatments. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a statistical method that investigates relations among observed and latent variables. Previous studies have shown that the contrast-based Lu-Ades model for NMA can be implemented in…

This paper proposes a new method to evaluate informative hypotheses for meta-analysis of Cronbach's coefficient alpha using a Bayesian approach. The coefficient alpha is one of the most widely used reliability indices. In meta-analyses of reliability, researchers typically form specific informative hypotheses beforehand, such as "alpha of…

Prior reviews of evidence for the impact of formative assessment on student achievement suggest widely different estimates of formative assessment's effectiveness, ranging from 0.40 and 0.70 standard deviations in one review. The purpose of this study is to describe variability in the effectiveness of formative assessment for promoting student…

The purpose of this review was to evaluate the methodological strength and overall effectiveness of the research underlying the FRIENDS program for preventing anxiety in students at low and elevated risk for developing anxiety disorders. Meta-analytic findings provided mixed results, with low-risk students exposed to the program having…

Meta-assessment, or the assessment of assessment, can provide meaningful information about the trustworthiness of an academic program's assessment results (Bresciani, Gardner, & Hickmott, 2009; Palomba & Banta, 1999; Suskie, 2009). Many institutions conduct meta-assessments for their academic programs (Fulcher, Swain, & Orem, 2012),…

This review presents a novel framework for evaluating evidence based on a set of parallel criteria that can be applied to both group and single-subject experimental design (SSED) studies. The authors illustrate use of this evaluation system in a systematic review of 67 articles investigating social skills interventions for preschoolers with autism…

Confidence intervals (CIs) and effect sizes are essential to encourage meta-analytic thinking and to accumulate research findings. CIs provide a range of plausible values for population parameters with a degree of confidence that the parameter is in that particular interval. CIs also give information about how precise the estimates are. Comparison…

The best available evidence is one of the three critical features of evidence-based practice. Best available evidence is often considered to be synonymous with extremely high standards for research methodology. However, this notion may limit the scope and impact of evidence based practice to those educational decisions on which high quality…

The use of educational technology in K-12 classrooms has been gaining tremendous momentum across the country since the 1990s. Many school districts have been investing heavily in various types of technology, such as computers, mobile devices, internet access, and interactive whiteboards. Almost all public schools have access to the internet and…

The present review examines research on the effects of technology use on reading achievement in K-12 classrooms. Unlike previous reviews, this review applies consistent inclusion standards to focus on studies that met high methodological standards. In addition, methodological and substantive features of the studies are investigated to examine the…