From Research to Reality: A practical application of Diffusion of Innovation Theory in Australia autism education

A School of Education Seminar presented on Wednesday 24 February 2021 by Dr Tay Garrad

There is continuing evidence that teachers are employing a sporadic approach to the selection of efficacious practices or identified evidence-based practice (EBP) in the education of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Numerous factors have been posited for this disparity focussing on the perceived fit of the EBP with the needs of the student with ASD and the capacity of the teaching context.  However, no single study has worked to understand the relative importance of each of these factors in the EBP decision-making processes of teachers and their impact on practice implementation and maintenance.  Given the complexity of decision-making in socially constructed spaces such as classroom, the Diffusion of Innovation theory (Rogers, 1962; 2003) was employed to gain a greater insight into the decision-making process of teachers in their adoption and cessation of EBP. This resulted in the development of a new survey tool, the Evidence-Based Intervention Adoption Survey (EBPIAS) that supports the analysis of the entire decision-making process to inform the structure of professional development to promote the uptake of EBP when working with students with ASD.